21st February - The Lotan Chapters

The early morning was again very cold, but the wind soon dropped when it became quite hazy and the warmth of the day eventually filtered through. Early morning at the swimming pool saw Northern & Isabelline Wheatears feeding together, and a Lesser Whitethroat in the 'bottle-brush' shrubs.

Around mid-morning I decided to head for the mountains on foot and left by the north gate of the Kibbutz. The beauty of our situation at Lotan leads to many wonderful hikes in the surrounding desert and fresh birding opportunities in some unique habitats. I soon found myself in a shallow wadi, blooming with desert vegetation and found a number of interesting warblers including a good male Cyprus Warbler, as well as another Orphean (following yesterdays early record) and a nice male Spectacled Warbler. Pretty good for starters!

I entered the broad wadi of Nahal Quetura and began carefully checking the Acacia trees with owls in mind. About one kilometre inside the wadi I found my first owl of the day, a beautiful migrant Scops Owl resting in a virtually leafless Acacia. About one kilometre deeper into the wadi, I found another Scops Owl but this one was rather more nervous and flew between trees where I decided to leave it. Remarkably, about one kilometre further along the same wadi, I found a third individual Scops Owl roosting just one metre above the ground in a partially foliated Acacia. This species doesn't breed in the Lotan area, and I had clearly 'hit' a wave of migrants passing through this remote desert wadi.

Shortly after finding the third Scops Owl, I noticed a flock of Steppe Eagles rising on a thermal over the nearest ridge. It was just the beginning of a really solid eagle passage and over the next hour I counted 105 Steppe Eagles migrating over the mountains in flocks of up to 35 birds. Although it was a relatively short, intense passage, it was encouraging to see such good numbers and the first time a count at Lotan had exceeded one hundred birds in a day since 1995. A single Steppe Buzzard was the only other raptor involved in the passage.

In the upper part of Nahal Quetura, I had very good views of another male Cyprus Warbler, as well as several Sardinian Warblers, but the best was yet to come. On the way back to Lotan, hiking through a very narrow and arid wadi I disturbed a magnificent Eagle Owl that was sitting behind a boulder in the bed of the wadi. However, it clearly wasn't too upset with me and perched openly on a nearby cliff face and even allowed me to get some photographs! I couldn't really believe my luck and left him, without further disturbance, roosting on the side of the cliff.

This was just our 4th local record of Eagle Owl, the others involved one picked up sick or exhausted in 1993, one heard only in March 1999, and one found dead in the mountains in December 1999. Needless to say, I was pretty satisfied with today's observations!

Good birding to all,

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)