Pallid Scops Owl

The perfect foil to the garden Scops Owls from last week was this amazing Pallid Scops Owl - a bird that has been on my 'most wanted' list for a very long time. This individual has been wintering in an acacia wadi in the Eilat mountains. 

Shachar Shalev (finder) was kind enough to help me search the area but we had no luck the first evening. I returned the following day with Limor and we eventually found it buried in a mistletoe. It spent a lot of time being very cryptic (check the image center)

Good habitat for Pallid Scops Owls.

Shachar, Limor and I spent some of the morning at Yotava looking for the ellusive Little Bunting and Buff-bellied Pipit. No luck with that (just masses of Red-throated Pipits)

but we had a rare (for the time of year) Yellow Wagtail and a Richard's Pipit on the southern circular field,

record shot (into the morning sun) but nicely illustrating the loooong legs.

Large passage of Pallid Swifts already.

This one caught the morning sun perfectly!

The first House Martins are also moving through. 

Many Rock Martins swooping around the dunes - difficult to get any half-way decent photos of these birds . . . .

And finally, a Long Legged Buzzard with band,

and an adult White-crowned Wheatear.

 

In a break from usual style - images with as many identifying features as possible - here are some some of the locals with fewer . . . .

Blackstart,

White-crowned Wheatear (1st year bird with just hint of adult white feathers coming through on the forehead,

Isabelline Wheatear clicking its heels,

Desert Wheatear (with a grin?).

As a footnote: Eilat in January is surprisingly productive - aside from the Little Bunting and Buff-bellied Pipit, there's a Brown Booby off the North Beach and a Black-throated Diver around. Well worth a visit!

Scops Owl(s)

First bird of the day this morning. Great garden bird!

Checked the image and noticed Scops Owl #2 hiding in the background!

Back from work in the late afternoon and they were still there.

Still pretty quiet in the fields but some expected birds around now - the Cranes have finally arrived. Hen Harriers, Merlin, Buzzard are mixed in with the Black Kites. A single Lesser Spotted Eagle is around too.

Immaculately plummaged Long-legged Buzzard,

and an equally immaculate Pallid Harrier (shame about the image quality) on the Urim-Re'im road,

along with this small flock of Golden Plovers.

And finally, a Brown-necked Raven on the western kibbutz fields. By no means a rare bird in Israel but the first I've seen around here. Patch tick.

Merlin

This Merlin was sitting by the road side this morning. I usually see them in flight, zipping low across the fields and this is the first one I've had really good views of here. Very pretty falcon indeed.

By chance I also stopped by some pools near Magen. I hardly ever bother checking these pools as there never seems to be anything on them except for Egyptian Geese. I'm  glad I did today though as a single Ruddy Shelduck was sitting on the bank. A new patch and country tick for me. I'll be keeping a closer eye on this site from now on. Correction: apparently this is probably an escape from Magen. Oh well, it goes the same way as the Purple Swamphens from the Besor Reservoir . . . . 

A flock of nine Lapwing was in the fields by the pools,

as well as two male Hen Harriers.

I suspect that last year's military actions here have displaced a lot of the Nir Oz wintering species to other areas. No Starlings, no Eastern Imperial Eagles (but one adult in the fields to the east of Nir Oz), no Cranes, fewer harriers, fewer larks, pipits etc. I hope this change is not permanent.

Finsch's Wheatear

Very surprised to find this Finsch's Wheatear in the carrot fields this morning. This is a really nice patch bird for me and not one I expected to see in this habitat.

White band running down back. Pale flight feathers and even tail band, not extending up the sides as in Black-eared.

  
Looks a bit mottled - 1st year male?

Update: Lanner Falcon, a fantastic adult Eastern Imperial Eagle and Northern Lapwing - now I know winter is here.

Yellow-browed Warbler and an interesting Cetti's

Rather quiet in the pistachia patch this morning - a few Bluethroats, Redstarts, Stonechats, couple of Sardinian Warblers etc. Darren and I were saying we needed quality over quantity if the birds were slow and certainly the birds we ringed were more colourful and a lot more interesting (to me) than Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs. On our final round and as we were putting the nets away we spotted a tiny warbler. The first Yellow-browed Warbler for Sde Boker!

Beautiful little bird. There have been a reasonable number this year - Meidad Goren saw three this morning in Nafcha alone - let's hope they follow the increasing westward trend as seen in the UK.

Bluethroat interlude.

And now for some controversy. Cetti's Warbler - looks like a classic Cettia cetti nominate.

 

Ten tail feathers - the only species with this number I think.

Unusual enough for Sde Boker but this individual from 10 days ago looks very different. Note the lighter, greyer tones and, strikingly, the white eye stripe. Cettia cetti albiventris? 

The 'ventris' looks more 'albi' than on the standard Cetti's and without the white feather tips.

If this is C.c. albiventris this would be a very rare migrant from Kazakhstan so all comments welcome.

Eleonora's Falcon

Out walking the dog in the fields last week when I noticed a falcon taking down a passerine. It flew into a tree hedge before I could get my binoculars onto it. We then played hide and seek for a bit as it flew from tree to tree keeping to the rear edge - views of movement but nothing else. At the end of the tree line it exploded out of cover and flew fast into the kibbutz trees. I picked it up later soaring over the houses (our house!) and managed to get some distant shots. If I'd chosen to forego the walk I would have had superb views of this Eleonora's Falcon from my garden. Distant falcons can be difficult to id and this is the first EF I've had even half-way decent views of but the combination of features visible in the photos made me 95% sure of identity - a couple of emails later to Yoav Perlman and I was a very happy birder.

With many thanks to Yoav Perlman for confirming the id and Rod Standing for his comments.