Bee-eaters make me happy!

Yesterday afternoon we did some raptor trapping resulting in 5 Steppe Buzzards, with one being a really good looking dark morph. When we came back to the station I saw that Christian was holding a very very cool bird: a Bee-eater! Wow! You should've seen my happy face (and Christian's face as well). This was one of the species I really wanted to catch here.  Mr. Yotam couldn't understand our happiness since lots of Bee-eaters are trapped later in the season near bee hives because they eat all the bees from farmers, and you get stung a lot while ringing those. But since I won't be there when this happens I'm really happy now, haha

 Common Bee-eater (Merops apiaster)

Happy me

During the raptor catching we found a ringed Grey Heron in the Souther Date Palms, probably a foreign ringed bird! We weren't able to read the ring however.. 

 Yeah let's eat a Squacco Heron, why not!

Dark morph Steppe Buzzard (Buteo buteo vulpines)

The swallow catch in the evening resulted in a good number of swallows again, always nice.

This morning was quite good with many new birds. We ringed some Yellow Wagtails, all of them were males. Pretty looking birds!

Nice males Yellow Wagtails (Motacilla flava)

Also we ringed a 2cy male Subalpine Warbler, our 5th or 6th for the season. After the ringing Roni suddenly discovered a young male Menetries's Warbler foraging next to the ringing station. We were able to observe it well and we could see the bird swooping it's tail all the time, awesome! 

Subalpine Warbler (Sylvia cantillans albistriata), 2cy male

And now I'm gonna look for the iglo because it's hot hot outside; 37 degrees! (I know, it will get even hotter soon)