Midbar Birding: Last post......

Midbar Birding: Last post......: It is with great sadness, but also much anticipation that i write this last post. sadness because after 8 years of voluntary ringing i am l...

Last post......

It is with great sadness, but also much anticipation that i write this last post. sadness because after 8 years of voluntary ringing i am leaving my station in Sde Boker, but much anticipation because i am moving to Yerocham ringing station, which has the potential to be among the best ringing places in Israel. Furthermore the reason for the move is to take up a full time job with Hoopoe: the Yerocham Centre for Ecology and Ornithology  (https://www.facebook.com/HoopoeCenter), where i will be the Head ringer. A professional bird ringer, my dream job at this time of my life.

 it was a busy last month here, starting with the Champions of the Flyway; a 24 bird race in order to raise awareness and money to combat the appalling slaughter of birds in Cyprus (over $50,000 was raised), which was great fun and although our total was nowhere near challenging for any honours i thoroughly enjoyed the day, especially birding around Har Katom where i picked up a lifer in the Rock Thrush. at one point i had 3 birds in my binoculars at the same time.

Rock Thrush courtesy of  Itay Herling 

I entertained a German ringer Hans Eilts, who arrived fresh from a week in the north of the country, at the Agmon Station one of the busiest in Israel. Luckily we found enough birds to keep him busy and even managed a couple of ringing ticks for him (Hoopoe and Desert Finch). Talking of ringing ticks i managed one this month when i was given a tired Swift that after feeding, flew off to the north to hopefully make it to its breeding grounds

Finally my good Friend Francis Argyle joined us, principally for a meeting in Yerocham where 398 birds were ringed by around 20 ringers in a very enjoyable morning. While he was here we also managed to break my highest total for a single species in a day when we ringed 112 Spanish Sparrows. I narrowly failed to beat it a few days later with 104 Blackcaps.

So thats it for my Ringing Blog here in Sde Boker, but don't fear i will be back with a new blog from my exploits as a professional ringer in Yerocham!!!!