Trudging across the vast wilderness of Giv'at Menuha would have been just about the last place I would have looked for a Bluethroat. My search for larks had taken me up a narrow, sandy wadi less than two metres wide with a handful of flowering plants that one might call 'desert vegetation'. There wasn't an Acacia tree or true bush in sight for miles. In the heat of the afternoon I found no larks at all, but the only bird that was present took me completely by surprise. It ran across the sand rather than taking to the air. It was a beautiful male Bluethroat of the North European form L.s. svecica.

This is a bird destined for the damp birch forests of Scandinavia and yet finding it sheltering from the sun under a meager desert plant was a powerful reminder that migration is an exceedingly dangerous phenomenon for so many birds. For the Bluethroat it was a question of lasting out the hot hours of the day before resuming what little feeding was available in the desert. With any luck, it would gain enough strength to set off on the same evening for another long distance night migration.

Although many Bluethroats spend the winter in Israel, the red-spotted form is scarce and it's quite possible that this individual had spent the winter in East Africa. Only the overwhelming need to migrate could bring a Bluethroat to such a comparatively hostile environment.

The migration needn't be the awe-inspiring spectacle of thousands of large soaring birds rising above the desert to have a powerful impact on the observer. This Bluethroat's story is just as inspirational, perhaps even more so because it's much more intimate.

This gallery of thumbnails was taken on site, on the north slopes of Giv'at Menuha on 22nd March 2003. We hope that you enjoy them.

Good birding,

James Smith & The Birdingisrael Team