Birding field report – Late April

Credits: All photos courtesy of Jonathan Meyrav; Click on the photos to enlarge [+]

The strange and unpredictable weather acts up and several mild southern storms have produced some big rarities off the north beach of Eilat . Here is a short summary of the birding highlights during the second half of April 2005. I led many short tours throughout this period and most of the birds were seen on our tours.

On 14-15 April, I led a large group of birders from Machon Avshalom in Tel-aviv.

We had a great tour and came up with some good birds like Little Crake and Little Bittern, all 3 Bee-eaters, Richard's Pipit, Namaqua Doves, Indian Silverbills and many common migrants. A first summer male Cyprus Wheatear at Neot Smadar gave good views.

On the morning of 16 April, Uzi Paz reported a first year Lesser Frigatebird off the North Beach !!! The bird was seen well as it came in over the ocean, circled over land and went back out to sea. This should represent Israel 's fifth record, when approved. Amit Geffen and several birders reported a Lesser-crested Tern and around 2500 White-winged Terns on 16 April.

On 18-20 April I led a very successful 3 day tour. Jose Bronfman and Laura from Madagascar and David and Jackie Glick stayed on Lotan and together we enjoyed around 120 species including some very good birds.

A summer plumage Little Bunting that was seen briefly was no doubt the star bird of the tour, but we also had great luck with strong raptor migration over the mountains, most of the specialty species of the region and also some very colourful and scarce migrants. A Rock Thrush was a nice find as were 3 Long-billed Pipits, Semi-collared Flycatcher, Barred Warbler, Pallid Harrier and more. On 19 April Noam Weiss had an interesting encounter with a female Caspian Plover. Noam was searching for Nightjars at 3:00 in the morning around the fields at K20 when the bird landed in his headlights and proceeded to hunt along the beams of light for several minutes.

A very interesting seawatch on the evening of 19 April produced around 6 Pomarine Skuas, at least 2 Arctic Skuas and good numbers of White-winged Terns. Small groups of Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters could be seen and heard between Eilat and Lotan with daily counts of 13 on 17 April at Eilat, 9 over Lotan on 19 and 20 April over the Lotan bird reserve on the morning of 22 April.

On the morning of 20 April, the springs 3 rd Black Bush Robin was found (and ringed) at the IRBCE Birdwatching Park in Eilat.

Honey Buzzards are slowly growing in numbers and 250 were seen over the valley on 21 April. Small flocks of Levant Sparrowhawks can also be seen flying low over the valley early in the mornings. 200 were seen on the 21 April as well. A beautiful and late Citrine Wagtail gave superb views at Yotvata on 22 April.

Tomer Landsberger and Barak Granit spent a very productive weekend in the southern Arava from 22-24 April. Highlights included 2 RED-THROATED DIVERS seen briefly off the North Beach ( which will represent Israel's 4 th record ) up to 4 Caspian Plovers at the compost heaps at K37 and an impressive showing of 3 Lutea Yellow Wagtails at the Yotvata fields, and an additional 2 possible Flavissima Yellow Wagtails ( which have only been recorded once in Israel previously ).

This is definitely shaping up to be a very interesting spring, with over 7 very rare species recorded up to date.

We are entering the last leg of the spring migration, and one of my favorite times of the spring. Honey Buzzards are at our doorstep and the next ten days will bring several hundred thousand raptors over southern Israel . May is also notorious for turning up extremely rare birds and you never know what might pop up behind the next bush…

Enjoy the images from this interesting period, more images, of some big rarities will follow soon.

Stay posted.

Jonathan Meyrav and the Birdingisrael team.

Contact info

Daphna Abell
Program Coordinator
lotan-programs@lotan.ardom.co.il
Tel: +972 8 6356935;
Toll Free: 1800 2000 75 (when in Israel)