13 April 14 - Watching Me, Watching You

We spent the rest of the day around the Kfar Ruppin kibbutz. There are extensive fish ponds that you are allowed to drive around & which really needs a car: given the size of the kibbutz & the numbers of fish ponds. Also having a car helps as a mobile hide allowing a closer approach to many of the birds. There are also plenty of fields to check out as well. There is a great bird hide overlooking a reasonable sized pond, with bushes & uncultivated areas behind it. The numbers of birds present on the kibbutz is just incredible and more like numbers on a bird reserve, rather than a farm. There can't be many farms in the UK that have those numbers of birds on their land. It's well worth a couple of days staying here with some much good birding on the doorstep.

This was an old watch tower: But it looks like another design on the theme of bird hides

The kibbutz was still a working farm & well as a significant fish farm

Olives were also an important product

Pygmy Cormorant

Black Stork: Dull billed sub adults flying over one of the fish ponds

White Stork: Both White Storks & Black Storks were commonly found on the kibbutz

Night Heron: Immature & adult of the nominate nycticorax subspecies of the Old World. The remaining 3 subspecies all occur in the New World. There was a roost of around 40 birds in the Palms by the bird hide

Osprey: No surprise seeing Ospreys here with all the fish ponds

Chukar: Late afternoon saw us looking for Black Francolin in the fields alongside the road to the kibbutz. We saw this bird as we were driving back a farm track, but were disappointed on stopping to find it was just a Chukar

Black Francolin: After some further searching we found this male. This is the nominate francolinus subspecies which occurs in Cyprus, Turkey, Asia Minor, Israel to Iran & Iraq. I had forgotten how stunning they are since the last ones I saw in India in 1991

Turtle Dove

Smyrna Kingfisher: This is the nominate smyrnensis subspecies, (also known as White-breasted Kingfisher), which occurs from North Israel to the Arabian Peninsula across to NW India

Pied Kingfisher: The nominate rudis subspecies of Africa through Israel to Turkey

 Pied Kingfisher: Who could ever get bored of this feeding action

Collared Flycatcher: This female was around the flat in the kibbutz, but was always shy & elusive 

Collared Flycatcher: Female. A better view of the wing panel

Great Tit: This is the terraesanctae subspecies which occurs in NW Syria, Lebanon, Israel & Jordon

Jay: This is the atricapillus subspecies which occurs in South Syria, Lebanon, Israel & West Jordon

Dead Sea Sparrow: Male

Ortolan: There were several birds around the pond in front of the bird hide

Egyptian Locust

Egyptian Locust: What a fantastic pair of eyes

Simon photographing the Dead Sea Sparrows

After another great days birding we headed into Beit She'an to find some of the restaurants were open this time. Getting back to the kibbutz, the Scops Owls were calling again, so I had another look for them. Initially, I saw a couple of birds in a similar area to the first night. Then after some more looking, I found a very obliging bird which was calling from a low tree & only 4 metres off the ground. He seemed quite happy for me to take some photos & in the end I left him there still calling away. With such a density of Scops Owls on the kibbutz, then it's a great place to see them.

Scops Owl: They do like calling from the Palm trees

Scops Owl: Initially, I only had chance for a quick couple of shots of this bird, before he flew. But then he came back & settled down to calling from what looks to be a favourite perch

Scops Owl

Scops Owl: The bird of the trip for me as this bird was so showy

Scops Owl: Watching Me, Watching You, the latest product from 'Head & Shoulders'

15 Jan 14 - A New Nightjar To Celebrate The 50th Post

Well that didn't take very long to get to the 50th post (with the first only being on the 24th October last year). Hope you've enjoyed the blog so far as much as I have.

As we started out for the afternoon we got caught up in a local traffic jam trying to get onto the road

A local lady showing how easy it was to balance things on her head

After some lunch we were back out for the afternoon, but taking some warmer clothing as we were staying out late to look for Nightjars & nocturnal mammals. We visited a larger, but mainly dried up lake this afternoon. It's always worth keeping an eye on the wires on the way to & from the lakes. This afternoon a few stops were made for a very approachable Black-winged Kite, a Smyrna Kingfisher, a Bay-backed Shrike & more bizarrely, a Green Sandpiper. The advantage of having an open topped jeep was it allowing rapid photography whichever side the bird is on.

Woolly-necked Stork: Sitting tamely in a dry stream bed as the road crossed over it

Black-winged Kite

Green Sandpiper

Smyrna Kingfisher: This is the nominate smyrnensis subspecies which extends to the Western Palearctic & Arabian Peninsula

Bay-backed Shrike: The broad face patch extending onto the forehead & bright mantle are the main separating features of this cracking Shrike

Finally, we reached the Little Rann of Kutch reserve & handed over our permit. Permits are needed to enter the reserve & need to be obtained on a visit by visit basis. Once in the reserve we had a much larger open dry area to explore & very quickly we encountered our first Wild Ass. This excellent looking mammal is one of the highlights of the Little Rann of Kutch reserve & the reserve is its stronghold in India. The first one we saw was standing near to some bushes & ended up walking closer to us to get to the clear ground on the far side of the jeep. Clearly, it was uneasy being hemmed in between the bushes & our jeep. We ended up seeing about 10 before the end of the day.

Wild Ass: This one approached the jeep to get to the clear ground behind us & almost got a bit too close for photography as this uncropped photo demonstrated

Wild Ass: Another individual just chilling

Will Ass: Interesting to see a similar dark marking on the foreleg so perhaps closely related to the first Wild Ass

A lot of this area must seasonally flood given the amount of bare mud

While we saw some birds in the more open areas, the number of species were much lower than in the morning as there was no water & we mainly kept away from the bushes.

Montagu's Harrier: Male. The Harriers roost in the open areas of the Little Rann

Indian Grey Francolin

Pied Bushchat: Male

As it got later into the afternoon, we started to encounter parties of Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse flying in & finally settling on the ground. I never tire of seeing Sandgrouse which are one of my favourite families. I've seen all, but three of them (only Tibetan & a couple of Southern African species still to see).

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse: Great to see parties flying around

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse: In flight, the black primaries with white trailing edge on the upperwing & the dark underwings rule out the other Sandgrouse in range

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse: Here are the dark underwings. The males have the clear pale grey-buff breasts & buffy throats & the females have the spotty breasts

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse: Male

At last light, we arrived at a small local hut where the locals live on the Little Rann & make a living from salt production. Seems a very hard, poor & basic existence & it must be even tougher as the heat increases into the Summer. The others enjoyed some masala tea (where the tea, milk & sugar are all boiled together for ages) which I personally can't stand while we waited for the last bit of light to go.

Birding was from the open jeep: I preferred the back seat as it was easier to jump up & photograph over the other's heads or get in & out quickly

Near to sunset

Close up

The salt production lakes: They pump the saline water in & then allow the heat to evaporate the water to leave the salt

A local salt production hut: There were about 8 in the family who were living here

Finally, the moon was up & it was time for some spotlighting

After driving & spotlighting for a while, the driver found some eyeshine. It was a Sykes's Nightjar which is a Gujarat speciality. These small, pale Nightjars winter in Gujarat, before returning to Pakistan to breed. It was the only regularly occurring Nightjar on the Indian list that I hadn't seen before (somewhere in the world). I quickly jumped off the back of the jeep & walked towards it (keeping out of the headlights & spotlight so it wouldn't see me) to get some extra photos.

Sykes's Nightjar: One of my main reasons for visiting Gujarat

 Sykes's Nightjar: They are fairly common & we saw several more roosting during the day on the 17th, but they flew everytime they saw the camera raised

Indian Stone-curlew: This was the only other species we saw in a couple of hours of spotlighting