Leuke vogels

Lack of inspiration for a blog title made me do the blog title simply in Dutch. Today and yesterday were BIG days with in total 1100 new birds (in just two days!)... Large numbers of Blackcaps, Lesser Whitethroats and also good numbers of Rueppel's Warblers (plusminus 35 ringed the last two days) and many Balkan Warblers passed through the station these days. Also we broke the record of Cyprus Warblers with the 10th of the season being ringed yesterday! Today in the first round we had two Scops Owls and also yesterday in the late morning one was in one of the Heligolands!

 Full nets, mainly Blackcaps and Lesser Whitethroats

Israeli's ringing only!

Yesterday, the 27th, in the afternoon we went to Uvda for the Basalt Wheatear that is still present. It wasn't at its usual spot so first we did some birding in the area. First lifer was a pretty large flock of 60+ Spotted Sandgrouse flying and sitting around on the plateau. Other birds around were a couple of Mourning Wheatears, a female Hooded Wheatear, a male Desert Wheatear and the usual Isabelline Wheatears. Later in the afternoon the we saw the Basalt Wheatear, what a cool bird! It wasn't really close but we had good views of the bird, also in flight.

Overview on the IBRCE park, saltpans and Jordan.

Uvda Valley, the site of the Basalt Wheatear

Today, the 28th, we went for Yotvata in the afternoon. Our target birds were Bimaculated Lark, maybe Caspian Plover and Hoopoe Lark. We did some driving around without many birds. Just some normal migrants, such as Masked Shrikes, Blue Rock Thrush and many pipits, buntings and larks. After some driving around we parked the car and walked to the middle of the Northern Circular Field. Here we quickly found a ringtail Pallid Harrier and there was a single Crane foraging in the field. Eventually we saw a few Bimaculated Larks, large monsters!

Masked Shrike, Yotvata fields

Many birders at Yotvata fields today, including one birding group of BirdingBreaks!

After some good icecream we checked the sewage ponds of Yotvata resulting in a Spotted Crake that has been present here for several days and a male Citrine Wagtail!

Citrine Wagtail, male

Find the Spotted Crake!