3rd - 5th November
3rd November
There's no better way to start a day than
having a new bird on your own local patch! This morning I
had great but brief views of a Water Rail running between
the puddles underneath the trees in the date plantation at
Lotan. The rest of the day was spent in the Eilat area, first
visiting Nahal Shakhmon which contained several migrant Blackcaps,
Chiffchaffs and a Lesser Whitethroat
but there was no sign of the 'hoped for' smaller owls. |
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| Desert Wheatear |
|
Late afternoon was spent in the Km19/Km20 area with a good range
of species present including 3 Ruddy Shelduck, 80+
Kentish Plover, 3 Whiskered Tern, Tawny
Pipit, Citrine Wagtail and 20 Dead Sea
Sparrows. The finest bird of the afternoon was a wonderfully
confiding Desert Wheatear.
4th November
It had turned warm once again and what little
wind there was came from the east. Not being one for very
early morning starts, I reached the western fields at Shizzafon
at about 07:45hrs and enjoyed good views of Corn Bunting
and Eurasian Skylark. Outside of about 120 Red-throated
Pipits the fields seemed to be pretty quiet and I headed
off to the orchards finding that an obvious influx of
Chiffchaffs had taken place since my last visit on 30th
October. |
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| Siberian
Stonechat |
|
Most impressive were some beautiful and confiding Siberian
Stonechats, probably of the form 'maura', which allowed a
close approach along an alfalfa covered ditch. There were about
three birds in all.
A little further along the same ditch I heard
the strident "che-wee" call of another Asian visitor
and one glance later, a tiny 'wing-barred' warbler proved
to be a Hume's Warbler, a species that I'd seen
on numerous occasions in Israel, and once in India. Even so,
there are just fourteen fully documented records of this species
in the country.
Apart from seeing a Booted Eagle and 12 Common
Cranes over Lotan, I did very little birding during
the rest of the day. |
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| Hume's Warbler |
|
However, in the evening, after picking up Paul Sterry from the
airport, we enjoyed a superb low passing flock of 5 Long-legged
Buzzards migrating south over Mt. Quetura.
5th November
I spent much of the day scouting potential sites suitable
for photography with Paul Sterry. We had a few surprises including
a Greater Sand Plover, together with
a Ringed Plover in a large arable field at Yotvata
and there was still a Glossy Ibis at the sewage
pools.
From there we went south to check out Eilat's north sewage
pools and found a very tired harrier that gave us quite
a few identification problems. |
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| Isabelline Shrike |
|
After some time we were quite sure that the young harrier was a
Pallid Harrier. Other birds present included good
views of a Great Spotted Eagle, 2 Ferruginous
Ducks and an Oriental Skylark. We also tried
Nahal Shakhmon for owls, but found only Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps
in the acacias.
Eventually we wandered back to Eilat's north sewage where Paul
set up his hide for photography and I set off to check to some of
the scrub and fields. There appeared to be far fewer migrants around
than last week, but towards the end of my loop I found a fine adult
male Isabelline Shrike close to the border and enjoyed
excellent views in the afternoon light. This scarce migrant visitor
from Asia continues the remarkable sequence of birds from that region
over the last three weeks and the very, very 'purple patch' goes
on producing great birds!
Good birding,
James Smith
Contact info
Daphna Abell
Program Coordinator
lotan-programs@lotan.ardom.co.il
Tel: +972 8 6356935;
Toll Free: 1800 2000 75 (when in Israel)