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1 -2 November Southern Israel
After the dizzy 'highs' of late October, a calming walk around Lotan was in order and I birded the swimming pool, organic garden, dairy barn and sewage areas until things began to warm up around 09:30hrs. After a slow start I enjoyed great views of 4 Namaqua Doves
feeding near the dairy barn and outstanding views of a young
Black Kite feeding by the compost piles following a report
from Richard Herman. The kite was extra-ordinarily tame allowing
me to approach within five metres. 2nd November
A White-breasted Kingfisher brightened up Ofira Park in Eilat, and two noisy Ring-necked Parakeets chased each other around the tree tops. Overhead a dark-morph Booted Eagle hung on the wind for long periods giving great views. Grounded migrants here were few, a juvenile Masked Shrike being the most notable.
Good birding, James Smith Contact infoDaphna Abell |
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1st
November
Some
migration was evident this morning as a party of 8 adult White
Pelicans flew south which was just our second local record.
Two Marsh and one juvenile Pallid Harrier also went
through, and I was delighted to hear the bright call of a couple
of Temminck's Horned Larks as they passed low overhead giving
excellent flight views. A female Desert Wheatear was also
present as were the first Linnets of the winter season closing
a really enjoyable morning of local birding.
There
was a fantastic male Black Redstart in my yard first thing
in the morning. This species winters at Lotan in good numbers and
this was my first male of the season. It was a cool morning and
I'd agreed to meet three birders, Yoav, Barak and Eran, who were
traveling down for the day from Beer Sheva. Before they arrived
I checked Lotan's date plantation and found 3 Dead Sea Sparrows,
and 6 Arabian Babblers but little in the way of migrants.
On meeting the guys we headed south, first to check the date plantation
at Samar where 4 Indian Silverbills were present but I missed
the Red-breasted Flycatcher found by Yoav. Our next stop
was the now well trodden ground of Eilat's north sewage where we
enjoyed good views of a young Great Spotted Eagle, and 3
Oriental Skylarks as well as a Ferruginous Duck. Unfortunately,
there was no sign of last week's Hume's Short-toed Lark which
appeared to have moved on, though one of the Greater Short-toed
Larks remained. 
So
it was back to the fields of Km19 for the rest of the afternoon
and we decided to split up, or rather the guys dropped me off and
they went off to check the salt pools. If ever there was a prompt
to finding a good bird, it's splitting up your group. Literally,
after just five minutes of birding alone I came across another Oriental
Turtle Dove perched with Collared Doves above the melon
fields. The bird was large and dark, much darker than the previous
two individuals of this autumn, and I quickly phoned the news through
to the guys and a little later they were enjoying good views of
their first Oriental Turtle Dove in Israel. If accepted it
will become just the seventh record for the country.