Random Laughing Dove

A laughing dove taken with my iPhone and spotting scope. These were one of the common birds outside my hotel room in Tel Aviv.

Shalom from Israel!

Greetings, in case you haven't heard I'm currently in Israel while poor Non Birding Bill has to live the bachelor life back in Minneapolis.  I'll be posting photos when I can on my Twitter feed and on my Facebook page (you should see what I've been eating).  I'll of course update here, but from what I've heard, it sounds like this trip is the sort where they get you up and dawn and bird the crap out of you until 10pm, so we'll see what happens here.

This weekend was spent mostly in Tel Aviv and we birded around the Negev for some desert species.  Above is a long-legged buzzard that I shot with my iPhone.  I'll note when I can which photos are from my SLR and which were taken with my phone.  This is mostly for me as I'm on a quest to see if I can eventually go out in the field with just my iPhone instead of my camera to document birds.  The long-legged buzzard is in the same genus as red-tailed hawk.  Those are a couple of hooded crows on the fence.

Some of the Negev is cultivated and some is desert.  The brown landscape is full of brown birds (I'm so happy!).  I love travel, it's always been one of my goals with the blog, but I still can't help but look around and think, "How the heck did I end up in the Middle East to go bird watching?"

Here are some of the elegant brown bird running around in the above photo.  These are called cream-colored coursers and they scurry around eating insects, they are so delicate and perfect in their shape, size and movement, they look as if they were designed by the artist Erte.

It's been hard for me to figure out what bird has really knocked my socks off--they are all amazing and I tend to find my favorite bird is whatever bird is right in front of me.  But these Namaqua doves above (taken while balancing a Swarovski spotting scope on the car window with my SLR are made up of pure awesomesauce.  You are looking at thinking, "Yeah, Shaz, I see a bluish gray dove with a black mask and beard, that's a cool looking dove."

But what you can't see is that these guys are about the same size as a house sparrow!  BT3 is commented that they are like a Harris' sparrow of doves.  It's like someone took a little budgie, a little Harris' sparrow and a mourning dove and conjured up this.  Awesome little guys.

Quite a few of the bird species that are in Israel are some of the same that I saw in Kazakhstan a few years ago like the above juvenile red-footed falcon.  It's great to see birds that I was not sure I would ever see again.

This is a photo from my hotel balcony in Tel Aviv this morning.

What I'm most looking forward to in this trip is learn more about the conservation efforts of Israel.  We're on our way to spot with tons and tons of cranes and I hear we are in mobile blinds...as in the blinds move as we are in them.

This was one of the photos they sent along with the information about the Hula Valley Bird Festival.  I noticed the cranes were flushed and that a tractor was pulling the blind bird watchers are using to view cranes.  This is not something that is done at other crane festivals, but the local ornithologists tell me that there is specific method in this madness and we will see why they do it first hand (it's to help the cranes out).

So excited to learn some new bird stuff!

Golden Eagle and Bald Eagle Field Trips

Can you tell the difference between these 2 birds?  If not, you should consider coming to the National Eagle Center's Golden Eagle Field Trips.

Identifying bald and golden eagles in the wild can be a challenge. We are fortunate to be able to see both bald and golden eagles in the Upper Mississippi River region in the winter months.  During the NEC Golden Eagle seminars and field trips, you will learn what to look for to distinguish bald and golden eagles, including juveniles. You’ll also gain valuable raptor field identification skills from experienced birdwatcher and NEC Education Director, Scott Mehus.  Each field trip begins at the National Eagle Center at 1:00pm. After a brief classroom session learning tips for identifying golden eagles, participants will caravan out to a field site to observe golden eagles in the wild.  Call (651) 565-4989 or email nationaleaglecenter@gmail.comfor details.

I've already had a couple of golden eagles show this fall during my travels so they are definitely back along the Minnesota/Wisconsin border.  That's a photo of a juvy golden that I got a couple of weeks ago.  Not that eagle watching ever gets tiring but it is fun to pick the golden eagle needle out of the hundreds of bald eagles in the haystack.

Birds & Beers Coming

I'm going to be out of town but the courageous Curt Rawn (who works at National Camera Exchage) is spearheading the hosting of a Birds and Beers while I'm away. The next Birds and Beers will be at the Sunshine Factory on November 22, 2011 from 6pm - 9pm.

Thanks gang for keeping the fun going while I'm gone.

Common Cranes In Israel

As information is coming in about my itinerary to the Hula Valley in Israel, I'm getting more and more excited.  One of my hosts for the trip is Tim Appleton and he sent over some photos of what we could see...looks like Cranemaggedon to me.  Actually the Common Cranes in the above photo remind of the Sandhill Cranes in Kearney, Nebraska.  The last time I went to Nebraska, our group actually saw a lone Common Crane mixed in with a bunch of Sandhills...wouldn't it be funny to see a wayward Sandhill Crane mixed in with thousands of Common Cranes?

Apparently the Hula Valley is host to millions of migrating birds of several species including the Black Storks above.  Should make for some fantastic photos and interesting stories.

Can You ID This Road Kill?

I found some interest road kill just now on my bird surveys. Let's use it as a contest! The first person to correctly id the bird in the comment section of this post based on these photos wins a giant loon coffee travel mug.

And here is what the other side looks like:

Downy Woodpecker Working The Corn

Most of the fields in my survey area have been cut and plowed (which has really wrecked my bathroom plans).  At one spot a female downy woodpecker has been systematically work the corn stubble.

She must have been getting something out of there, she worked the stubble piece by piece the two days I was there.  She wouldn't stay if she wasn't getting a good food benefit from it.  She would peck open the cracks to make them larger and stick her tongue inside.

Here's a shot where you can get an idea of how long a woodpecker's tongue is (for more on woodpecker tongues click here).  She actually had it wedged in the stalk but only for a few seconds. And then she continued on to the next stalk.

It was interesting to see a bird finding benefit in the stubble.  I also wonder if there was some bug that moved in to the stalk after harvest or if there was some bug in there and the farmer had a low yield to his crop.

Fun On My Ground Surveys

Man the final stages of fall migration have set in. Today on my eagle survey I had a flock of tundra swans fly over me. It was really cool because the were headed towards the Mississippi River and I realized that chances were good that the would be included on my aerial waterfowl surveys next week.

There are still plenty of eastern bluebirds around and I find it amazing that I can see the above bird in the field and take a photo and send it to the blog all via the iPhone.

Random Eagle Breakfast

About 10 eagles crowded around a carcass.  Observed during one of my many bird surveys this fall.  This was digiscoped close to dawn.

Best Green Heron Video Ever

I almost peed my pants watching this video this morning.  It is HIGHlarious!  Stick with it, things get interesting at the 20 second mark and end up amazing at the end.  Herons are awesome and kudos to my buddy Clay Taylor for an excellent capture of this behavior. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoPGGTitNbU[/youtube]

And that's a young heron finessing its technique!  You can still see downy feathers!

Birds are awesome, that is all.