We have been having several days here at Lotan which were extraordinarily quiet in terms of birding. The ringing station was recording between 24 and 45 birds per day, while we had days of over a 100 birds a week before. Usually the bushes around here would be full of sylvia warblers feasting on the pollen and the insects, but this year it is very quiet. As said already in the past few weeks, we have had extraordinarily much rainfall over the winter and early spring, and this must have meant that the birds do not have to come to the green spots, i.e. the kibbutzim in order to find food, there are insects and seeds everywhere, and this is what we are experiencing.

Further north, in Jerusalem and further outside the desert, the ringing stations are reporting good numbers, with little noticeable dips. That means that the birds either do not stop in the desert or have stopped elsewhere and are fully fueled for the continuation of the trip. Hopefully, the migration numbers will pick up again, so that we have something to do. An example is also the almost total absence of wheatears, pipits and larks in our area. What compensates a little bit is the overhead migration that is good to very good.

we have gotten our first Thrush Nightingales (Luscinia luscinia) of the season, and we have been catching the same Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) in the net for the past 6 days. Numbers of Lesser Whitethroats and Blackcaps have been steadily declining. You can see the ringing results of each day on the following website: Trektellen www.trektellen.nl

David