Birding field report Southern Arava

Yesterday, the 10 th of May, started as a very dusty day with southern wind gusts stirring up sand and by midday, one of the years strongest sandstorms roared over the southern Arava. The dust in the air caused misty conditions all the way up to Tel-Aviv, in central Israel. I noted a few hundred Honey Buzzards early in the day but by 10:00am birding was impossible.

I woke up this morning and the thermometer read 31 degrees at 06:00. The winds of yesterday had died down but a heavy layer of dust was hanging in the still air, completely obscuring the neighboring mountains in Jordan. I set out to the Eilat Mountains with no expectations, knowing that usually a day after a storm, most birds pass elsewhere, after being diverted by the winds. I drove up and down the mountain road looking for birds, I finally located a distant flock of Honey Buzzards, but the birds were already high up, having surely roosted elsewhere. I stayed with the high stream counting 2700 Honey Buzzards in an hour and then the stream abruptly stopped. I could not find more birds anywhere..

I headed down the mountains to the fields and vineyards just north of the city. The first thing I saw was a skinny Wolf drinking from an irrigation pipe. The watermelon fields held some good birds in the form of 2 Red-backed Shrikes, 6 Golden Orioles, 4 Rollers and 2 Namaqua Doves. I also flushed a Corncrake and the vineyard was hopping with warblers, mainly Blackcaps, but also a few Barred and Garden Warblers.

I arrived at the K20 salt pans and even though it was hot (40 degrees) I enjoyed a few hours of superb birding. The recent sandstorms caused many birds to hang around and feed resulting in the biggest concentrations of Waders the whole spring. A colorful addition to the waders was the presence of over 100 White-winged Terns . These elegant Marsh Terns breed in E Europe and through to parts of western Asia, and go through Israel in late spring, sometimes in awesome flocks. There have been records of tens of thousands of these birds coming off the North beach and over the southern Arava.

The waders were very interesting as well, with over 400 Little Stint, 230 Ruff, 60 Curlew Sandpiper, 15 Broad-billed Sandpiper , a few Temmincks Stint, Marsh Sandpipers and scattered groups (40 all together) of summer-plumaged Dunlin. I was happy to find a new summer plumaged female Red-necked Phalarope, to add to the 3 long staying individuals. A flock of 15 Collared Pratincoles gave superb views and I spent a good 40 minutes photographing these birds, achieving awesome results.

Mid May is usually a period of calmer birding as on regular years most birds have already moved on to their breeding grounds. This year is an exception and many migrants are arriving later, and staying longer. The reasons for the strange patterns of migration this year are still a mystery, but we are here to benefit from a late migration season, and to enjoy.


Roller	Sand Martin	Temminck's Stint

Collared Pratincole	Collared Pratincole	Collared Pratincole

White-winged Terns 1 Black Tern (center) with 5 species of Waders	White-winged Tern	White-winged Tern, Broad-billed Sandpiper, and Curlew Sandpiper