they are back(and also me...)

The very slow last few days ended this morning with a late rainfall during the night and strong migration during the day.

First of all an amazing Steppe Buzzard passage started around 9am. During 3-4 hours, few tens of thousands(!!!) passed over the IBRCE. We didn’t really counted, but just to feature the extent of this stream I can say that while closing the nets(30 minutes) I lifted my head a few times and estimated 5000 birds passing… afternoon at the north beach, we noted that the stream is still flowing strong with many more thousands passing non-stop! Definitely my best Buzzard day ever. Also at the beach 9 Arctic Skuas and a Pallas's Gull were of interest.

We were watching some wagtails and pipits at the football field, but could barely get our eyes down to the meadow level

Juan, a Spanish volunteer came back for his second spring here- welcome!

Among the White&Yellow Wagtails and Red throated Pipits we noticed an odd looking wag- looking like a male Alba, but having a conspicuous face pattern- an unusual connection between the black breast and cap. I don’t know this feature from any other white wagtail I have seen before. Can anyone give an explanation for this weird bird?

Thanks Teun for the photos!

 Ringing today was quite variable with our first Wood Warbler for the spring.

A new hand species for the Dutch guys!

A nice 2cy female Ruppell's Warbler.

Reut enjoying Eilat's quality birds!

We finished the day watching at the K20 salt pools. A Broad Billed Sandpiper gave great views!

We also had 3 Greater Sandplover, 15 Collared Pratincoles, 5 Gull Billed Terns, a Pallas's Gull, and a Red necked Phalarope at the IBRCE's salt pond.

The Namaqua Doves are back in the area…

Late afternoon soft back lightning created a very delicate and beautiful scenery of the flamingos and the arava.

Avocets in last light   

A friendly Squacco Heron

To sum it up, a flock of about 300 White storks landed for the night near the pools.

The Iduna warbler was re-trapped a few days ago, and more photos and measurements were taken. I'm still un-sure about this bird and I hope that in a few days I will post a full report…

Isabelline Warbler !?!?

Hi there,

The last few days were quite slow with not many birds at the ringing station and nothing out of the ordinary around.

This morning, yet another slow ringing session with about 40 birds. At around 7:00 I was sitting at the ringing station and was surprised to take a strange looking Iduna warbler out of the bag. First impression was a bird with a very big and wide based bill. I showed the bird to Francis Argyle who was sitting next to me and he had the same immediate impression. More looks at the bird and some measurements made us think we might be holding an Isabelline Warbler Iduna opaca.

As I mentioned, the first impression was created mostly by the unusual bill. Both Francis and I are experienced with the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler Iduna pallida, and actually we ringed two birds of this species just before we handled this bird. The width of the bill at the lower mandible feather line was 4.5 mm, according to Svenson's book, this measurement is well beyond the overlap zone between the two species, of course in the opaca zone. The shape of the bill was also better for opaca with the sides giving a slight convex look.

The face pattern, with a pale lore and short Eyebrow is also good for opaca.

Unfortunately, during the 1.5 hours we kept the bird, no other Iduna was caught so we haven’t a head to head colors comparison, but I had a feeling that this bird is slightly browner grey then the "normal" birds I know from Israel. The wing looks rather uniform with no prominent pale wing panel.

 The other measurements obtained:

Wing length- 65mm

Tail length- 51mm

Body mass- 9.0 gr.

Bill to skull- 16.9mm(in the overlap zone).

Bill width- 4.5mm

Bill depth- 2.8mm

WP- p4

P1>pc=4.5mm

We released the bird after Bram, Teun, Johannes (our volunteers) and 4 of Johannes's friends looked at the bird. All together we were unsure about the bird's identity. None of us have any experience with Isabelline Warbler and I would appreciate any comment and thoughts about this bird.    If we are not big stringers, this might be Israel's 1^st record!

 on Sunday, Roni made his way back to his icy homeland. Roni was a great help for us during the last month and we are all looking for the next spring ;-)

Roni with his "dream bird"