Monday 21 October 2013

September to mid October

I continued with the intensive work in the Beit She'an Valley to collect moult data. This period produced more than 1200 birds ringed of 65 different species. The interesting or irregular species in my nets were 1 Little Grebe, 3 Teals, 1 Black Stork (in mist net…), 1 Temminck's Stint, 6 Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, 2 Red-throated Pipit, 1 Tawny Pipit, 12 White Wagtail, 313 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Citrine Wagtail, 19 Isabelline Wheatear, 2 Eastern Stonechat, 67 Cetti's Warbler (big number), and 43 Desert Finch.

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater

Desert Finch

Little Bittern

Tawny Pipit

Isabelline Wheatear


Citrine Wagtail - adult female


Eastern Stonechat - first year male

Little Grebe

Teal

Black Stork


In Tzor'a Valley I worked intensively during 20-24 September. This session produced also nice figures, 1400 birds of 35 different species. Most were Swallows (370) and Willow Warblers (700). Two interesting species were Balkan Warbler and Common Rosefinch.

Yellow Wagtail - adult male

Common Rosefinch


Thanks to Ron Efrat, Ezra Jasper, Arad Ben-David and Kobi Meyrom for their assistance. Also to the British team, Terry Southall, Gary Goddard, Mike Jackson & Christopher Southall, who worked in Beit She'an Valley during this period and joined some nice sessions.

European Bee-eater - second year after partial moult