Early spring

Last week, my first visit to my CES site produce a Ukrainian-ringed Chiffchaff.  Apart from this surprise I ringed in Tzor'a and in Modiin Hills the predicted species for this season, mostly Lesser Whitethroats, Blackcaps and Reed Warblers.

Two mornings in JBO in late March produced two Subalpine Warblers - very nice species I haven't ringed for a very long.

Subalpine Warbler - male

Subalpine Warbler - female

Subalpine Warbler - female

KIEV UKRAINE

Ukrainian Chiffchaff

Quail

Penduline Tit - female

Goodbye winter - welcome spring!

Winter is ending, and spring has arrived. Now it's time for me to go ahead with my work on moult. For this I ringed some interesting species, still so much work to do. Below are some interesting results from this period:

In winter I caught two young Isabelline Shrikes. This winter is very good for this species in Israel. Those two with another five skins from Tel-Aviv University Museum produce interesting information about their moult strategy.

Isabelline Shrike

I have been working this spring at Wadi Mishmar, Judean Desert, but I catch fewer Sylvia warblers than I expected. This might be as a result of a very rainy winter, especially in southern Israel and Sinai, that affected plant productivity in regional scale, and scatters the migrants over large area rather than having them concentrated in hotspots like Wadi Mishmar. Still it's a very interesting site and I ringed some desert species like Sand Partridge, Blackstart, Scrub Warbler and Sinai Rosefinch, together with spring migrants like Blue Rock Thrush, Cyprus Warbler and other common Sylvia warblers.

Wadi Mishmar

Cyprus Warbler

Blue Rock Thrush

Sand Partridge - female

Finally, this morning I had a successful visit to Modiin Hills, that produced my first Ruppell's Warbler and Balkan Warbler for this spring together with many Lesser Whitethroats - it's a very beautiful site with lovely natural habitat, and is very good for Sylvia warblers in March.

Modiin Hills

Ruppell's Warbler

Balkan Warbler

Thanks to my helpers this time, Rafi Paz, Ron Efrat, Arad Ben-David, Yotam and Yael Lenard.

Asian Desert Warbler

I joined to Yoav Perlman twice to study moult of Asian Desert Warbler at Hameishar Plains in the Negev Desert. This winter is special for this species in Israel with unusually high numbers. The adults perform a complete post-breeding moult on their breeding grounds and juveniles perform partial in the same time. This moult includes normally all GC and varied number of alula, tertials and rectrices. In our second visit, in mid January, we found some individuals starting their pre-breeding partial moult.

Active prebreeding moult

I tried to photo also tails; this is an example of juv. Type tail; R5 on left side replaced, and the different pattern compared to juvenile type feathers is obvious.

This site is very productive for desert species; one of those interesting species was Temminck's Lark. Like all other lark species, Temminck's Larks, adult and juveniles, perform a complete moult after breeding season.

Temminck's Lark

Moult Study

In recent months main I shifted much of my ringing efforts to study moult. My aims are to study and describe moult strategies of the passerines of my region - Middle East and E Mediterranean. Another aim is to shed some light on some ecological questions related to moult. At first I obtained basic moult data for all birds I ringed. Then, my ringing efforts change to more time spent in desert region of Israel to collect data on some interesting and understudied passerine.

One of my target species is Southern Grey Shrike. The first year birds perform an extensive partial moult, most of unmoult the outer secondaries, inner primaries and PC - see this wing:

The extensive partial post-juvenile moult is a typical strategy of short distance migrants or resident species.

Wheatear ringing

Last month I visited the N Judean Desert region several times, to obtain moult data. I aimed at wheatears and Southern Grey Shrikes.

Here are some images from those ringing sessions.

White-crowned Wheatear - juvenile

White-crowned Wheatear

Mourning Wheatear

Isabelline Wheatear

Thanks to Ron, Rafi, Yael and Yotam for help in ringing and to Rafi also for the images.