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