James Smith's daily sightings reports

20th November 2001 - Southern Arava

Another very cold, clear and sunny start, although today the northerly wind was nothing more than a breeze. I had already planned to go west, up from the Arava Valley and on to the Negev plateau to one of my favourite local sites - Kibbutz Neot Smadar, known formerly as Shizzafon and still called so by most in the birding community.

I began at 07:00hrs in the western alfalfa fields where I surprised three Dorcas Gazelle first thing. Quite literally the first birds that caught my attention were a couple of Woodlark feeding by the edge of the field, close to the orchard. Although Woodlarks are fairly common winter visitors in the north of Israel, in our region they are very rare with just two records from Lotan, both of them in November. The day had got off to an excellent start.

Shortly after that a couple of workers from the orchard came over for a 'chat' and advised me to take a look at the rest of the orchard groves a little further north. They told me it was very aesthetic and when I arrived I wasn't disappointed. The area was beautifully landscaped, with many shrubs and plants in a terrace type environment, reminding me of my birding days around Jerusalem over ten years ago. Even the birds had a more northern feel with 15 Robin, 12 Song Thrush and another local rarity, a Blackbird! Apart from a fly over Indian Silverbill, I found little else over the next ten minutes and began to walk back to the fields finding a very tame, very late female Red-backed Shrike. A few seconds later I was watching a very active warbler, waving it's cocked tail around in quite a crazy manner. Good views in perfect light, along with the bird's voice, helped me identify this as a first year Menetrie's Warbler, a rare visitor from Turkey and the Caucasus region.

The day was developing into something special - I could sense it. I don't how but I didn't want to think about it too much and just let the birds flow, and they did…..4 Dead Sea Sparrows, including two males, gave fine views and shortly afterwards 2 Syrian Serins giving their classic, low trilling flight call flew over and landed to feed in the alfalfa field. This pretty canary-like finch has a tiny world range, being endemic to a small area of Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Over the last few years the Shizzafon area has become a regular staging ground for them, especially in spring but these appeared to be the first of the autumn.

I was delighted with the first segment of the day and made a quick check of Shizzafon sewage pools finding Hooded, Mourning and White-crowned Black Wheatears and a single Trumpeter Finch. Truthfully though, I could feel the pull of Eilat and headed south after just five minutes there.

Needless to say my penchant for sewage pools led me straight back to Eilat's northern sewage farm at Km.19. Actually, I was really interested in seeing the Isabelline Shrike again. Having looked further into the material I found that there is only one formerly accepted record of 'isabellinus' for Israel, also from Eilat in late autumn. Today the bird didn't show.

With no shrike, I trudged round the sewage pools in the vain hope that the Red-wattled Lapwing might still be around. I couldn't find it, but found some other good species instead including a fine Pied Kingfisher, 5 Penduline Tits, 8 Dead Sea Sparrows and a Citrine Wagtail. I gave up on the lapwing and went back to the car, but just as I packed my scope away I noted a small group of Spur-winged Plovers flying over and with them one magnificent Red-wattled Lapwing. I followed the bird until it landed, as it happens, on a manure pile! Once it had settled, I drove closer and was rewarded with fairly good views but it was clearly nervous and soon took off again with three Spur-winged Plovers. However, it was really good to know that it was still in the area and whose knows, maybe this bird will stay through the winter as well. The only previous Israel record involved a bird that spent the winter of 1991/92 in Eilat.

I last saw the Red-wattled Lapwing at 12:30 hrs and with the whole afternoon ahead I went to the Eilat mountains to look for the first Striated Scops Owl of the winter and found one roosting in an acacia, tucked against a cliff face. I also stumbled across a very late Orphean Warbler in the same wadi. Again I was thrilled with the quality of the birds and headed back down to Eilat to check the salt pans and the north beach. In the event, my incredible lucky streak seemed to be coming at an end though I did see two Curlew flying in off the sea and had prolonged albeit distant views of a Cory's Shearwater careening over the Red Sea. It was also nice to catch up with White-eyed Gulls again, some of which were very close to the shore.

As a last stop I decided to go to Switzerland Park, a bird watching area maintained by the International Birdwatching Centre of Eilat. The car park was empty when I arrived and a number of birds were feeding on the ground, including one, a smoky brown chat with a peachy-buff rump and dark brown tail. It was notable only by its lack of distinctive features, but it was a Pied Stonechat, a first year female, and only the sixth to be seen in Israel. It was so obliging that it fed, quite literally at my feet while I sketched it. I couldn't believe my eyes or my luck for this bird, and in fact the whole day.

To have seen all these species in one season would have been impressive. To have them all in one day was truly extraordinary, even more so when I recall that I did not see a single birdwatcher all day!

Wishing you all a great day of birding,

James Smith.

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Daphna Abell
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lotan-programs@lotan.ardom.co.il
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