ISRing - the Israeli Ringing Blog
About bird ringing activities in Israel
Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Tuesday, 21 October 2014
September to mid October
I continued with the intensive work in the Beit She'an Valley also
this autumn to collect moult data. This period produced more than 1300 birds
ringed of 64 different species. The interesting or irregular species were 1 Black-winged
Kite (in mist net…), 30 Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, 60 Red-throated Pipits, 2 Richard's
Pipits, 5 Tawny Pipits, 2 Citrine Wagtails, 26 Isabelline Wheatears, 23 Marsh
Warblers (big number), 1 Isabelline Shrike, 6 Lesser Grey Shrikes and 376 Dead
sea Sparrows.
Black-winged Kite |
Isabelline Shrike |
Lesser Grey Shrike |
Richard's Pipit |
Dead-sea Sparrow |
In Tzor'a Valley I worked intensively during 12-14 September. This
session was relative poorer, produced only 240 birds of 21 different species. Two
interesting species were Red-footed Falcon (7) and Roller (2).
Red-footed Falcon - male |
Red-footed Falcon |
Red-footed Falcon |
Red-footed Falcon - female |
Thanks to Ron Efrat, Rafi Paz, Itai Bloch, Ezra Jasper, Arad
Ben-David, Michaela Zinkin, Avner Rinot 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.
Roller's wing |
Sunday, 20 April 2014
SAFRING CAPETOWN!
Finally, after four years of tern ringing, came the first sign from the African wintering quarters, but in a less expected way. On Wednesday (16/4) we started the season with first ringing session. We captured 93 birds: 3 Slender-billed Gulls, 12 Black-headed Gulls, 5 Little Terns and 73 Common Terns. One of the Common Terns was a control from South Africa with the ring SAFRING UNIV CAPETOWN SA CV-51330! The bird was ringed on the East Coast of South Africa, Port Alfred, 7,387 km, in October 2010, by Tony Tree.
Thanks to Inbal for her help that night and to Tony for sharing the ringing data.
Monday, 10 February 2014
Wheatears and shrikes
Last Thursday-Friday (6-7/2) we went south to the Negev Desert for
a Wheatear and Shrike ringing session. My aim, as always, is to study
their moult strategies. We started with mist-netting at Hameishar Plains. This
winter is particularly dry and no germination took place in this habitat; this resulted
in very low bird densities. Nevertheless we ringed 3 birds, Desert Lark, Sardinian
Warbler and beautiful Asian Desert Warbler. After this poor start we worked
with spring-traps for wheatears
and shrikes. During two days' work we ringed 1 Isabelline Wheatear, 13 Mourning
Wheatear, 1 Finsch's Weatear, 1 White-crowned Wheatear and 5 Southern Grey
Shrike - at least one elegans type.
Asian Desert Warbler |
Mourning Wheatear |
White-crowned Wheatear |
Finsch's Wheatear |
Thanks to my partners to this trip, Ron
and Arad, and also thanks to the ringers who helped during those two days:
Yoav, Meidad and Yoram.
Wednesday, 1 January 2014
Siberian Buff-bellied Pipit
In recent weeks I have ringed two Buff-bellied Pipits Anthus
rubescens japonicus in Beit-Shean Valley. This species was discovered for
first time in Israel by Hadoram Shirihai, back in 1981. The first records were considered
to be of an 'unusual Water Pipit', according to the very limited literature
available back then, and the true identity was revealed only in 1984 by
Shirihai and Alstrom. This pipit breeds in central and eastern Siberia and winters
in Japan and E Asia, and also, in small number, in the Middle East. It's smaller
than Water Pipit, between Meadow and Water pipits. Leg colour is reddish-brown and
not black like Water Pipit. Upperparts are uniformly dark greyish olive-brown
and unstreaked. It has bold breast streaking, very close to Meadow pipit,
unlike coutelli Water Pipit that is the common form in the Middle East.
The moult strategy and ageing are very similar to other pipits, the
post-juvenile moult is very limited, including only LC (n=3), and ageing is
done by MC pattern and wear.
Buff-bellied Pipit Anthus rubescens japonicus - juvenile |
Adult |
Adult |
Juvenile |
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