Every summer we meet on Mt. Hermon to
ring and monitor the special bird community of this special habitat. Our main session
occurs in mid July, but this year I decided to join the June session as well,
organized by Nadav and the Hula Valley team.
This year is poor for ringing on Mt. Hermon
and very good for breeding. The winter was good with lots of snow still remaining
on the higher elevations. Most seedeaters drink from the snow on the top, and fewer
birds came down to drink in the ringing site pools. During Thursday afternoon
and Friday morning we caught only 175 birds including a few recaptures from
previous years. Like every year the most common species were Linnet, Goldfinch
and Syrian Serin, but we also ringed other regular breeding birds: Lesser
Whitethroat, Woodchat Shrike, Rock Bunting and 1 beautiful male Black-headed
Bunting.
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| Syrian Serin |
Other Hermon animals we met during this session
were a big Four-lined Snake (Elaphe quatuorlineat) and Savi's
Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus savii). For both species N Israel is the southernmost
tip of their global distribution. The Four-lined Snake is common only on Mt. Hermon
and was discovered there for the first time only in 1971. The Savi's
Pipistrelle was described for the first time in N Israel in 1988.
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| Savi's Pipistrelle |
I hope our July session will be more productive for ringing.