Monday, December 1, 2014

Sunny (!) birding

Arrived in Israel yesterday and enjoying the sun and the birds very much. Really lovely weather, and great to meet family and friends (though very briefly). I enjoy just driving around and seeing tons of birds everywhere. Cranes, eagles, kites, buzzards, stuff to look at all the time.
Reunion with Bamba was very exciting, and now she is roaming with me. Today I had some meetings in Tel Aviv, but there was heavy traffic in the morning so decided to check the Daurian Shrike found a couple of days ago by Nir Hasson (thanks for the coordinates!) at Palmakhim south of Tel Aviv. The bird showed pretty well. The primary projection looks alarmingly short because it's missing its longest primaries - moulting now. Unfortunately I am here only with my 400 mm lens; with my 500 the images would have been better

Daurian Shrike - 1cy 



Lovely coastal habitat, lots of common winter visitors. The sea was pretty empty.


Tomorrow evening back to UK, but hope to do some birding in the morning, so stay tuned.

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