July 2004

Eyal Shochat

Seabirds
In Eilat there were 6 Cory's Shearwaters, 2 Arctic Skuas, 3 Bridled Terns and 3 Sandwich terns on 6/7 (Y. Perelman). Between 16-17.7 there were at least 12 Arctic Terns present, breaking the old Israeli record of 3 birds in July 2003. A few birds were seen till the end of the month from the shore (D. Gelbart and others). Other birds present on 16-17.7 were 6 Bridled Terns, 1 White-cheeked Tern, 21 Caspian Terns, 7 Cory's Shearwaters, 1 Arctic Skua and 2 Sooty Falcons (N. Sapir et al.). Similar numbers of Arctic terns were recorded by Y. Perelman on 19-20/7, as well as 3 White-cheeked Terns and 1 Bridled Tern. On 28/7 there were one White-cheeked Tern , one Arctic tern and 3 Bridled Terns ( Y. Kiat et al.).
Two other interesting sea birds were reported from the Mediterranean sea: an adult White-cheeked Tern was seen on Pigeon Island, Ma'agan Michael on 25/7 (T. Landsberger), and an adult Masked Booby, undoubtfully the first ever seen in Israel, was photographed at Rishon LeZion beach on 16/7 (I. Amir).

	Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra)

	Rishon LeZion beach, 16-JUL

Waterfowl and wading birds
On 14,17/7 there was an adult Purple Gallinule (ssp. Madagascariensis), at Yeruham Lake (N. Sapir et al.).
In Ma'agan Michael there were a Whimbrel on 24/7 (A. Chaver), a Curlew on 25/7, and 8 Oystercatchers on 25/7 (T. Landsberger).

Night birds
An European Nightjar was seen in the Hula on 1/7 and again on 12/7 (L. Kislev). The annual Long-eared Owl nest survey ended during July, and E. Dovrat reported about 250 breeding pairs at the Greater Tel Aviv area, a substantial increase compared with recent years.

Passerines
Thrush Nightingale was seen at the Ben-Gurion campus at Beer Sheva during early July (A. Tsairi). At the JBO on 7/7: two Barred Warblers, one Blackcap, and one Bonelli's Warbler. A very early Rose-coloured starling was seen in Eilat on 29/7 (D. Gelbart).