14 April 14 - It's All Gone A Bit Plastic

Last couple of hours at the Kfar Ruppin kibbutz, before heading back to Tel Aviv. I opted for some photography from the hide so the others dropped me there, before heading off for some general birding around the fish ponds. There was more activity around the pond by the hide this morning, which was good.

Plenty of organisations have contributed to the bird hide

The approach to the bird hide: Generally, approaches to hides aren't this well designed to avoid visitors disturbing the wildlife

Panoramic photo of the pond in front of the bird hide

White Pelican: Parties started rising from the fish ponds as the temperatures warmed up

White Pelican

Night Heron: Adult. At one point, a lot of the roosting Night Herons seemed to get jumpy & were all watching the ground. Presumably a Jackal walking around

Night Heron: Juvenile

Black Kite Farming: Looks like they also grow Black Kites as well as other fruits, arable crops & rear fish

Turtle Dove: Whilst quite nervous, they eventually started appearing for a drink & gave better views than the previous day

Turtle Dove: These are the lucky ones that are migrating via a country which doesn't engage in hunting of birds. Sadly, Malta does & the EU turns a blind eye to Spring hunting of Turtle Doves & Quails in Malta. This allows the totally disgraceful illegal hunting of many other species of birds that goes on as a result of Malta allowing hunting of a rapidly declining European Dove. If you find this as unacceptable as I do, then please support this Spring's campaign, spearheaded by Chris Packham, to stop the Malta Massacre On Migration and also the good work being done by Birdlife Malta

Tree Pipit

Yellow-vented Bulbul: Presumably, a locally ringed bird

Graceful Prinia

Reed Warbler

Collared Flycatcher: Female. She was as shy as yesterday, but I managed to get a few more photos

Collared Flycatcher: Female

Greenfinch: This is the chlorotica subspecies which occurs in Syria, Lebanon, Israel & Jordan & winters in the Sinai & Egypt

Ortolan: One was still hanging around the pond

Jackal: This cracking Jackal appeared briefly near the pool, before getting spooked. But it returned & posed for some photos (just a bit too close for the 400 mm lens)

All too soon, the others reappeared to collect me so we could finish the packing & more importantly, pack away the breakfast. Then it was on the road to Ma'agan Michael which is an area of coastal fishponds about 40 miles North of Tel Aviv. This was a site I had visited on the first trip, but not sure we ever found the best area to bird. Despite better information & not being responsible for the directions this time, I don't think we did as well at working out where to go as in 1994. Still we did find some fish ponds & a few new Waders for the trip list.

Little Egret: Trying to get as dirty as possible in the hope of being misidentified as a dark morph Western Reef Heron

Night Heron: Male

We were soon heading off to Hayarkon Park in central Tel Aviv for the final hour of birding. Reading a couple of birding reports, there are several introduced species in Israel which have self-sustaining populations & are no less tickable on the Western P list, than Pheasant or Ring-necked Parakeets in the UK. Given the site was about 30 minutes drive to the airport, then it was worth a quick look. From my viewpoint, the most interesting species was Vinous-breasted Starling, a species I had looked for in the past in a central Bangkok park, but failed. But we also saw Monk Parakeet: my final Western P tick (albeit another established Introduction).

Cattle Egret: This is the nominate ibis subspecies of  the Western Palearctic, Africa, North & South America

Monk Parakeet: A distant flight show was all I could get in the final few minutes, while the others were looking for the Vinous-breasted Starlings I had found

Jackdaw: This is the soemmerringii subspecies of Eastern Europe & Central Asia which some winter in Iran & Kashmir

Hooded Crow: This is the pallescens subspecies of coastal South Turkey to Israel, Egypt & North Iraq

Common Myna: Another Introduced self-sustaining species which we had seen in flight on the drive South from the airport on the first afternoon

Vinous-breasted Starling: A World tick, but it gets placed in the separate Cat C list (Introduced) with the hope I will eventually see a wild bird in its natural range

Finally, it was time to pack the optics in the bags & head to the airport for the Easy Jet flight home. A great trip with some good birding mates, great birds, good photo opportunities & a new ticks. What more could you want from a trip. So thanks to the team for making it such a good & enjoyable trip.

Mark 'Edge' Edgeller

Nigel Jones: (Photo copyright Simon Ingram)

Simon Ingram: Thanks also for the photos of me (on Mount Gilboa) & Nigel (above) for the blog

Finally, my new friend: Wish I could have brought him home

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'