Our plan was to search for larks at Km33 in the morning which can be difficult at this time of year when the birds aren't singing. It was desperately quiet until I noticed a pale, grey shrike with a prominent white wing flash, fly across the track in front of our car. Even with naked eye views I felt that there was every chance that the bird could be a Steppe Grey Shrike - a national rarity. Although the bird was extremely elusive and flighty, we did manage to track it down and get reasonable views. Somewhat surprisingly for the season, it appeared to be an adult and was indeed a Steppe Grey Shrike.

On our way back to Lotan, we checked an area of Acacia scrub near Yotvata with some excellent results including the 'hoped for' Arabian Warbler and a totally unexpected bonus in the form of a very late Barred Warbler.

In the afternoon we tried with some success, the area of Km19 once again. Here we had superb views of an Osprey with carrying a fish, 3 Ruddy Shelduck and 3 Pallid Swifts. However, the highlight was our second Steppe Grey Shrike of the day!