Back to Eilat, after a long wild weekend up north… I think I have way too many photos…hummm…I think I will have to start from the beginning- Wednesday afternoon I joined Yosef, Yotam, Yohay, Avishay and Gilad at Atlit(Northern Mediterranean coastal plain) for a Terns ringing session. Israel's largest Common and Little Terns nesting Colony is situated inside the salt factory area. As early as the first net round it was obvious we are having a good catch, with around 25 birds caught, but nothing could prepare us for the rest of the night…
We were ringing, and drinking Turkish coffee (a very important part of bird ringing!)…
The second round birds just arrived from the nets, and while I was taking photos of a White winged Black Tern
I heard Yosef shouting "taba'at me Lita!!!"("a ring from Lithuania!!!") . I quickly released the little beauty and raced back to the ringing table. I haven't seen Yosef smiling like that for a long time! He has been monitoring these amazing migratory birds for two seasons now, and a foreign ring was definitely the best he could think of…or maybe not?!
The next bird to be registered in the notebook was(unbelievably!) carrying a German ring! Two, foreign ring n common terns, one night, middle of July- where are they coming from? And where are they going? Spring or autumn migrants? So far we didn't get any answers, but hopefully it will become clearer soon.
I had an amazing night , with cool birds and great company!
The next morning we headed up to the Mt. Hermon annual ringing session. That’s a big one that will probably spread across the two next posts. Here is a little taste for the mean while-
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