James Smith's daily sightings reports

21st November 2001 - Southern Arava

After yesterday's extraordinary display of Israel rarities it seemed inevitable that today would drift back to the norm. Well it did, but even so I was lucky enough to find another superb Isabelline Shrike, a first year bird and quite different to the adult that I saw in Eilat two days ago. It appeared to be one of the Central Asian forms, the identity of which will need a little background reading to confirm. This particular bird was found at my first stop of the day at Yotvata, in some large melon fields close to the local airstrip. It was good to see excellent numbers of Desert Finch (about 60) there along with a Eurasian Golden Plover and a Lesser Short-toed Lark, both of which especially the plover, are quite scarce in our local area. A couple of 'Siberian Stonechats' were also present.

It was already quite warm by 09:00hrs, quite different conditions to last few days, with a hint of a southern wind. This didn't bode well for later in the day, as southern winds tend to produce sandstorms of varying ferocity in the part of the world. Anyhow, I called in at Ye'elim Holiday Village, a good migrant hotspot, but found very few migrants with just a Blackbird and Redstart being of real note. I also tried other several areas around Yotvata but found very little, though it was fun to watch the local Tristram's Grackles in the date palms, just a reminder of how underrated this attractive species can be.

In the afternoon, I joined Beer Sheva birders Yoav Perlman and Ido Tsurim for a short visit to Shizzafon. The southern wind was just beginning to gain strength when we arrived, perhaps putting pay to any hope of finding songbirds in the trees and bushes. However, we did see a superb Greater Spotted Eagle migrating over the Kibbutz, again this being a very good local record of a species that is much more common in northern Israel. A little later I also found a wonderful adult male Lesser Kestrel at very close range hunting in the alfalfa fields. With the migration of this species virtually over, it did cross my mind that this bird may try and winter at Shizzafon, so I will keep an eye for this bird on future visits.

Another pleasing day in the Southern Arava.

Good birding to all,

James Smith

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