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Hula Valley Bird Festival - Israel 2006 5-11 November
 

Archive

23.10.06

It is already the end of October and birds keep on coming; Around 10,000 Common Cranes and some 6,000 Great White Pelicans have passed already the Valley. continue...

15.10.06

As autumn progresses, more birds arrive in the Hula. Since our last update the number of Common Cranes in the Valley has risen to 7,000 , and flocks of Pelicans are now moving through, from a few hundred, up to more than a thousand birds are regularly seen. Continue...

5.10.06
It has been a long time since our last update and during this time much has happened. While the bombs were falling the breeding season ended, and Autumn migration started. Now that all is quiet again, we are very happy to be Back and regular updates will start appearing again as they come in from the field. continue...

7.7.06
June-July heat waves are just the teasers for August that is still ahead. Still, in most of the days we keep on ringing and monitoring bird populations in the area. Continue...

 

10.6.06

It is already the beginning of June and the Hula Valley is very hot now. The few birds that have stayed behind or those who stayed for the summer to breed are enjoying from huge amount of available food continue...

 

30.5.06

Ringing in May- Agmon ha'Hula

Every week in the Spring migration has a different taste. In my opinion, the first couple of weeks in May are the icing on the cake, or, in birdwatchers language- the spotting on the Crake.  Continue...

14.5.06

As part of our biological control project we placed around 70 nest boxes for Barn Owls throughout the agricultural fields around the "Agmon". Continue...

 

1.5.06

Spring is passing by slowly and we are already at the beginning of May, it won't be long now that we will be left only with the breeding and resident birds. Continue...

 

16.4.06

Ringing in March\April- Spring Migration, at last!

The long winter- clap netting season- is finally over, as most of the Ducks and Coots have gone, some of them hopefully carrying our rings as far as possible. Though not as diverse as in southern Israel, mist-netting in the spring in the Hula valley is a real treat, and surprises do bump into the net from time to time- Bee eaters, Crakes, Quails, Dead sea Sparrows, Yellow (Black headed) Wagtails and Wrynecks are only few examples. Continue...

 

4.4.06
The spring is here and everything is possible. Many vagrants appear all over the country and the Hula Valley is no different.
2 days ago a visiting group of British birdwatchers, saw a single Demoiselle Crane heading a group of roughly 800 Common Cranes on their way north.
Continue...

 

30.3.06

The last week or so was very productive on all 'fronts'; Together with the many usual birds for the season, our ringing team caught a Romanian Reed Warbler, and added
Sedge and Orphean Warblers to this year list as well as the first Lesser Whitethroats. A visiting photographer managed to get us some great shots of a male Black Francolin calling his heart (always a good species to photograph.)
Other than these...

 

22.3.06

Spring is pushing forward and with it many birds.

the Black Francolins are calling from every corner of the Valley, many Reed and Clamorous Reed Warblers are calling from all reedbeds and thousands of White Storks are passing over (some even stay the night...) continue

 

16.3.06 The last few days have taken most of the Cranes away from the Valley. Groups of hundreds were seen taking off and joining big groups of White Storks on their way north. From the many Greater Spotted and Imperial Eagles, just a few were left, but many Black Kites arrived recently and they are very common over the Wheat fields. 

Our Golan survey team had a few good days with few thousands White Storks and a slaw stream of Steppe Buzzards and even one Imm' Steppe Eagle (an uncommon migrant around here in the Spring). Today a male Rüppell's Warbler was spotted in the northern point and the Cyprus Wheatear is still around not far from the Turbine field.

 

 

12.3.06  while on the Golan Wind Turbine Survey, I took some 30 min' to drive around the site. Since there were not too many soaring birds moving around, I took the advantage and found a great male Cyprus Wheatear.
At first, he didn't cooperate and was keeping way out of reach in (see the first photo). After a while, the bird did get closer and I managed to get the following images. continue...

 

11.3.06 Today after a rough 3 days full of dust, rain and even snow (up in the Hermon), the sky were completely clear and many of the Cranes were back on the move, heading north accompanied by White Storks, Great White Pelicans and also Steppe Buzzards and Black Kites. Up in the Golan, the Survey team at last managed to take off their storm kits and enjoy a very pleasant day with some Storks,  Steppe Buzzards and the local Long-legged Buzzards. just before the storm hit us, on the northern view point an adult Black Vulture was seen flying along with the local Griffon Vultures (coming back from feeding somewhere in the Syrian area of the Golan).

5.3.06 Our Bird Survey in the Golan Heights has started recently and nice records are coming by the day...continue

1.3.06 Cranes started migrating North after a long stay in the Hula Valley and with a record count for wintering Cranes of 20,000. Today, the first groups of few hundreds were seen today around 10:30 a.m.

circling very high above the Israel - Lebanon border flying north.