We left a little later than we did for our last ringing adventure, and as it turned out it was made even later because we had to go back to get our Birds of the Middle East book.  When we turned off the main highway, and started our journey down the sandy dirt road, we saw the remains of a Great Egret.  Huge white feathers were scattered everywhere, and there was a light green scaly leg in the middle of the road.  The victim was clear, but we were not sure who did the killing, though we did see six Greater Spotted Eagles not too far down the road, including several juveniles.  

We arrived at the spot where Jem and Nicole were already ringing several birds from their first trip to the nets.  It was great to be part of ringing again, and we saw several new species of birds, along with some familiar ones.  We even caught several Clamorous Reed Warblers that were already ringed from our previous trip, they must have wanted to say hello.  Two species that were new from last time were the Blue Throat and the Chiffchaff.  I had never seen a Bluethroat before, such a beautiful bird with, as it's name suggests, a striking blue throat on the adult males.  The Chiffchaff is an amazing bird that Jem said migrates up to 11,000 kilometers one way from Europe to Africa.  They stop in Saudi Arabia to fuel up on their long journey.

The weather was cooler than our last trip, and there were many birds in the sky migrating. There were also lots of bird voices calling from the bushes.  It is a great time of year to go birding, and I can't wait until our next ringing adventure!

 Relaxing in the hammock, this is one that was previously banded. And that's him saying goodbye - until next time!