Saturday, May 24, 2014

Ma'agan Michael

Since I got back from the USA a week ago I've been very busy with almost no time for birding. The main reason for this involves big news for me and my family - in late August we're moving to the UK - I'm starting a PhD program at UEA in October, and we will be based in Norwich. Quite complicated with three young children and a dog... Also shutting our lives down here involves a lot of issues. Personally and professionally I am really looking forward to live in that part of the UK for three years. Hard to say what will happen to the blog - I will try to continue writing and keeping it alive, but I might need to think of creative ideas on which format to use. More on this to come.
Anyway, on Thursday I had some meetings near Ma'agan Michael, so managed a couple of hours of quiet birding early in the morning before the meetings.  In fact it was very quiet, migration is almost over and it felt like the summer has settled in. There were few migrants around - a handful of shorebirds and some marsh terns. Breeding or summer visitors were present in good numbers. The only semi-interesting birds were an unhappy-looking, late Steppe gull, and one White Wagtail.

Steppe Gull and Armenian Gull

As you can see from the next two images, numbers of oversummering Slender-billed Gulls in Israel are increasing dramatically in recent year. no breeding yet:

Whiskered Tern 

White-winged Tern 

Purple Heron

Glossy Ibis

2 comments:

  1. just keep doing what you"re doing, but do it from Norwich- it's a good part of the country for birding and I'm sure you"ll enjoy it.

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  2. Congrats!! What will you study?

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