For those of you who have been following my blog for several years, you know that the rate of megas that turned up in Israel and were new to me was rather slow - about 1-2 per year. I was normally quite lucky and didn't miss too many ticks in recent years. My Israeli list was building up nicely, and at the top of the list we were a cluster of three birders - Rami Mizrachi, Barak Granit and me, quite far away ahead of all the rest.
Almost a year ago I left Israel to the UK for several years. I don't work hard on my UK list here, mainly for time and money constraints. I am a bit more keen on my WP list but again my time and money limitations don't allow me heavy twitching. Before I left I was aware of the potential damage to my Israeli list caused by 4 years outside of Israel, but I thought that with a constant rate of 1-2 lost ticks per year I could clear that gap within several years after my return.
But reality slapped me in the face pretty hard. Since I left it seems like mega-heavens have opened up on the Land of Israel, and mega-manna is falling out of the sky on Israel almost weekly. Like all these birds had spent years waiting around the corner, waiting for my departure.
First it was Israel's first Ashy Drongo, that was actually found by Irad Solnik a day after I left Israel when I visited for a few days in early December 2014. It was heavily twitched by everyone...
A few weeks later, in early January 2015 Shachar Alterman found Israel's first twitchable Great Shearwater - it stayed around Jaffa Port for several hours, few minutes away from my Israeli office. In March a slightly dodgy Red-billed Teal was found in hazeva by Eli Haviv and Liraz Cabra, but it could have been an escape:
I am still on the IRDC so I will do my best to reject this record ;-)
Since May the flood just doesn't stop. First a cracking Red-necked Grebe, the 5th for Israel, spent several weeks for everyone to see it off Eilat's north beach:
In June a stunning Bateleur and a magnificent Lappet-faced vulture got everyone in Israel excited for just reasons. I sighed in semi-relief as I had already seen both in Israel, but Barak proceeded one species up the list with the Bateleur...
Then in late June Chen Rozen exploded with the first Senegal Thick-knee for Israel at Ma'agan Michael. Despite being a one-day bird it was quite heavily twitched:
And the day before yesterday news broke of a Pink-backed Pelican in the Harod Valley, initially found two weeks ago by Shmuel London but only 2 days ago identified from a video by Barak Granit. It was relocated yesterday by Amir Ben Dov and Oz Horine, and heavily twitched all day. Still present today... I have an unfinished business with this pelican. I missed one in my early days as a twitcher in 1989 - I was still a young kid and depended on others to take me, which they didn't... Then in 1997 a mobile bird spent the summer in Bet Shean Valley. I tried several times but no luck. In spring 2000 a bird spent a month at IBRCE in Eilat. I was in Australia, and the bird departed few days before my return to Israel. So this pelican now is extremely painful for me.
My friends are divided into two groups. The more sensible types comfort me, either by explaining how non-important all of this listing game is, or by giving me hope that the gap opened up in recent months is possible to close. But other friends are of course mocking me and making me almost regret that I left Israel...
Only those who are deep in the game like myself can understand how serious, alas childish, this is. Of course this is just a game, but a game that involves deep emotions, and it's an activity that I have been doing since I was a kid. In the bottom line a competition is a competition, no matter what it's about. I try to detach myself from this competition, but I just cannot. I still receive RBA messages on my phone here, and my heart skips a beat every time the familiar Imo tone goes off. I am in daily contact with friends and colleagues at home, so I am still very involved in the Israeli birding scene.
What is the solution? I have one idea and one hope. My idea is to approach an airline operating flights between UK and Israel, and offer them to be their presenter and in return receive free tickets for one-day twitches. But until this happens, my hope is that I can find peace here in the UK, by acquiring some Vipassana skills or at least by seeing as many WP rarities as possible.
So if anyone from El Al, British Airways or Easyjet is reading this, and wants to support my race back to the top of the Israeli list, my contact details are on the right hand side here...
Many thanks to my friends who allowed me to use their painful images and videos - Oz Horine, Rami Mizrachi and Amir Balaban.
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