Tuesday, March 24, 2015

An Introduction to Israel

After a long trans-Atlantic flight from Newark to Tel-Aviv, I have now made Israel a reality. My dad and I stayed the first night in the Beachfront Motel, a hostel-type lodging by the Tel-Aviv beachfront promenade, and therefore spent our first afternoon in Israel exploring the Tel-Aviv beaches and walking down to old city Jaffa. Although it was near elbow-to-elbow pedestrian traffic at times, historic Jaffa was remarkable and well worth the walk down. Hooded Crows and Laughing Doves everywhere, and a few Palestinian Sunbirds and Graceful Prinias around the old city of Jaffa. There is a bar and grill next to our motel called Mike's Place, so of course I had to go check it out. After several Israeli beers (Goldstar is a great and cheap lager, and would highly recommend it- reminds me of Yuengling) and some new Israeli friends I hit the sack. Tomorrow morning we are to meet up with a small group to head down to Eilat for the birding festival.
Tel-Aviv waterfront
 
 Jaffa waterfront

On the way down to Eilat we drove through new Jerusalem, which was fantastic- unfortunately we had no time to stop and do the usual touristy sightseeing. However, we were able to see across the adjacent border fence into the West Bank as we were just outside of town. Continuing east, we stopped at a rest area across the valley from Jericho, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, and started picking up the first new birds of the trip- Arabian Babblers, Little Green Bee-eaters, and Black Storks to name a few. Another quick stop around some farm fields produced numerous White and Yellow (feldegg) Wagtails feeding on large compost piles, Spur-winged Lapwings, Desert Finches, and a few Sand Partridges. We then began heading south along the Dead Sea, where the scenery is positively stunning. Looking across the sea, the mountains of neighboring Jordan are easily visible. The Dead Sea is up to 1/3 solid matter and the most saline body of water in the world, where no life can exist. No insects, no fish, no anything. However, the adjoining mountains provide excellent opportunities to view passing raptors as well as resident Fan-tailed Ravens. We stopped along the ride at a mountaintop lookout where we enjoyed some spectacular scenery as well as White-tailed and Isabelline Wheatears and three raven species. As we were on a tight timetable we didn't have long to spend, so we began to continue on South to Eilat through the Great Rift Valley. Passing through a construction zone, we were treated to a Hyrax sitting out on a rock by the road shoulder- if a marmot and a squirrel had offspring, they would look a bit like this!
 Rock Hyrax

We arrived at Eilat early in the afternoon, and were surrounded by mountains while driving through the valley- the Eilat Mountains to the west, and the imposing Edom Mountains to the east in Jordan. Our birding group is based at the Agamim Hotel in Eilat, an upscale hotel with a palm-lined wrap-around pool in the courtyard! The hotel also has a restaurant and two bars (!)- with fantastic food. Eilat is the "Vegas" of Israel, along the edge of the Red Sea with abundant nightlife, an upscale theme park, many diving opportunities, and hordes of tourists- hence the abundance of fancy hotels here. After settling into the hotel we went to the KM20 salt ponds on the north edge of town for some late afternoon birding. Coming in, a small group of Dorca's Gazelles greeted us along the entrance road. A flock of close to 1000 Greater Flamingos spend the winter here in the salt ponds every year, and there were there today as well! What a sight. They look so funky when flying- with their necks and feet outstretched while flapping constantly with their weak-looking wingbeats. Slender-billed Gulls were abundant here, the adults having all dark bills while those of the immatures appear yellowish, as were Black-winged Stilts- reminiscent of the Black-necked Stilts found in the US. A variety of Eurasian shorebirds were hanging around these pools too- Common Redshanks, Common Greenshanks, Common Ringed Plovers, Little Ringed Plovers, a Grey Plover, Marsh Sandpiper, and flocks of Little Stints. Around 50-60 lifers already!
Greater Flamingos flying w/ Jordan in the background

Dorca's Gazelles

The first full day of birding we began at the Eilat Birding Center- a preserve/research station located just outside of town that is ran through the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and is well-renowned for its diverse birding opportunities. We visited the banding station where we were treated to several different species of old world warblers in the hand for close study- Eurasian Reed-Warbler, Savi's Warbler, Sedge Warbler, and Sardinian Warbler to name a few. This being my first birding trip out of North America, old world warblers are a thing to be reckoned with. Several distinct genera, but those within each genus can look almost identical to the untrained eye. I have a feeling I will still be trying to sort these out from each other by the end of the trip! However, there were other great birds here that weren't as confusing to ID- Eurasian Penduline-tits, two Bluethroats, and a Wryneck! Wryneck was one of the birds I was most looking forward to seeing on this trip- in the woodpecker family, it looks like a cross between a woodpecker and a nuthatch- and strikingly patterned with browns and grays. Good scope views, but only some distant ID-quality photos. They recruit several volunteers, international and local, each year to help out at the banding station here- now that would be fun and a great way to expand my ID skills of a lot of these birds!
Savi's Warbler in-hand

About mid-morning the raptors get up and start to catch thermals so we headed up to the Eilat Mountains to catch some of the migration. The mountains here by Eilat are a crucial passageway for raptors heading north in the spring- the vast majority are Steppe Buzzards, but good numbers of Steppe Eagles, Short-toed Eagles, and Black Kites, among others, are present as well. On a good day in mid to late March, hawk counters here can record over 50,000 Steppe Buzzards passing over in one day. We spent about an hour watching this morning and recorded around 1000 Steppe Buzzards as well as multiple Egyptian Vultures, Steppe and Short-toed Eagles, and Black Kites. White and Black Storks also kettle in the thermals and we saw around a hundred Black Storks passing north here as well.

Common "Steppe" Buzzard migrating
 
Calling this post finished for now- more on Israel coming soon!

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Longspur road trip

Ever since Virginia's first Smith's Longspur appeared in the Shenandoah Valley two weeks ago I have been itching to get up there. A four and a half hour drive from Southern Pines, but it would be a life bird for me- plus, I have never been up to that area and have been wanting to check it out for years. After having to postpone twice because of weather, I finally was able to head up there this weekend along with my dad. Upon arriving at the Shenandoah Valley Airport in Weyers Cave, we almost immediately found the bird with the direction of a handful of birders who were already present. Several inches of snow still on the ground made it stand out nicely. For the 45 minutes we watched it, it usually stuck close to one or two nearby Horned Larks and was feeding on the grassy/muddy shoulder of the road leading to the airport parking lot. It was also seemingly oblivious to the group of birders about 50 feet away. Once when flushed, it gave great looks of its white outer retrices in flight and also did it's "rattle" call a couple times- to my ear, drier-sounding than that of the other longspurs.
 Smith's Longspur

 Shenandoah Airport- with Longspur-chasing birders in the background 

We didn't make it up to nearby Harrisonburg to look for the continuing Trumpeter Swan, but instead spent some time photographing the snow-covered rural farmlands in the area and toured around the UVA campus in Charlottesville. This campus has a robust history involving Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe- three of our early presidents. I was hoping to spend some extended time hiking and exploring Shenandoah National Park, but the 5 inches of snow still on the ground and unplowed park roads resulted in the gates being closed. Oh well , this is an excuse to visit some other time in the near future as well- perhaps when warbler migration is in full force in the spring!

Snow-covered farm  in Weyers Cave, VA

UVA campus chapel

Friday, March 6, 2015

Some winter birding highlights, and a reaffirmation



It's been over three years since my last real activity on the blog. With finishing up my BS degree and giving graduate school a stint, I guess I never really found the motivation to keep up-to-date posts on here even though I traveled fairly extensively and found numerous adventures during that time. However, now that I am out of school and embarking upon my quest for happiness, knowledge, fulfillment, and purpose I feel that I should transform this blog into a regularly-updated, helpful selection of writings that will inspire other birders, conservationists, and travelers alike.  Of course, birding will always stay a primary focus of my writings and musings but I look forward to expanding out to touch on other topics and experiences as well.

    To look back on the last few months, here are a few birding highlights from my winter travels in North Carolina and Tennessee.
Snow Bunting
    I spent a blustery day birding around Chattanooga, TN on December 7, 2014  in hopes of finding some good waterfowl on the surrounding lakes. My morning was going well after finding a super-late Osprey soaring over a local wetland and a handful of Common Goldeneye hanging out in their usual wintering spot in Chickamauga Lake at Booker T. Washington State Park. A dawn vocalizing Virginia Rail and Sora at Standifer Gap Marsh, along with a near sweep of all expected dabbling ducks, provided some good county birds. However, the real surprise of the day came when I stopped at Chickamauga Dam. Windy and blustery, I wasn't having much luck with distant waterfowl on the lake and was about to leave when a local birder, Tommie Rogers, pulled up. We had met briefly before, and engaged in some serious birding yik yak. About 15 minutes later, we caught a glimpse of a small bird fly in front of her parked Prius and land on in the rocky scree slope on the bottom of the dam. Curious, I peered over the edge to get an ID on the little guy. Lo and behold, a Snow Bungint was sitting on top of a rock about 20 feet away! I quickly got my camera out of the backseat and snapped a few documentary photos- surely this was quite an unusual bird for TN in general, particularly this southeastern corner of the state. Tommie and I got to watch it for about 45 seconds before it took off and flew over the lake to the NE, not to come back. She quickly got the word out to some local birders who arrived in ten minutes or less. But despite much searching, and subsequent visits by locals to nearby shorelines, it was never relocated. I soon learned that my photos of the bird would constitute one of very few photographed records from the state, and perhaps only the first or second accepted record from southeastern Tennessee. Cool!! And on the way back to Knoxville, I had to stop and enjoy the spectacle of the Sandhill Cranes at Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge again. I would soon revisit Hiwassee yet again in January with my parents. 5000+ cranes sure is an impressive sight to see!
Sandhill Cranes from January, 2014 (can you spot the Snow Geese?)

    Of course, I would do my usual round of NC Christmas Bird Counts in December. This year, I believe I did 7 (around my running average). Without running into too much detail, a few of many avian highlights were self-found Eared Grebe (Pamlico Co. CBC), Mottled Duck, Razorbills, and 5 Parasitic Jaegers (Southport CBC; Fort Fisher). It's a treat to bird with Ricky Davis and Jeff Pippen every year on the Southport count- Ricky has some of the sharpest eyes I've ever seen, and they are both great company. Matt Daw and I did our regular CBC rounds through Cape Hatteras (where we found 4 of the 5 continuing Snow Buntings, but the Lapland Longspur was nowhere to be found), Bodie-Pea Island, Lake Mattamuskeet, and Alligator River NWR again this year. Birds were plentiful as always, but we had no super-rarities here this year. Rainy and/or windy weather at Lake Mattamuskeet and Alligator River made viewing conditions difficult at times. We did our usually territory of Gull Rock Gamelands for the Mattamuskeet count again this year, and were joined my Kyle Kittleberger and Ed Corey. Despite a very wet day, we absolutely blasted away our previous high count for the territory with 105 species between us (our previous high was about 96 I believe), all before 2pm on a dreary, wet day. 
    It was also good to catch up with an old friend, Casey Setash, and do some birding around Fort Fisher NC for a day while she was on her way home from a productive jaunt to south FL. We found some solid birds, including killer views of all 3 marsh sparrows in the same patch (you don't get that too often!!) and a few lifers for Casey along the way. 
    One last highlight from December/January was a day jaunt up to the NC/VA border. Nothing special bird-wise that day, but it is significant in the sense that I then had submitted at least one Ebird checklist from each of the 100 NC counties. Next up, tackling my goal of achieving 10,000 NC County Ticks! That may take a while longer. For the non-birders reading this, total county ticks simply refers to the sum of the number of bird species one has detected in each county. So, when referring to NC total county ticks, the sum of ones bird lists from each NC county is therefore ones NC total county ticks. Trivial, maybe...actually, definitely. But, keeping track of statistics such as this (actually, Ebird does it automatically for you) can provide motivation to explore and bird areas of the state that one normally wouldn't venture near.