Southern observations - Late December 2005

Digiscoping images courtesy of Jonathan Meyrav

Winter arrived with a bang after several weeks of dry weather throughout Israel. Rain and cold temperatures hit the country and extended as far south as the Southern Negev plateau. In the southern Arava clouds covered the sky and temperatures stayed in the low teens throughout the days.

I spent some time birding various spots in the Negev and the Arava but the cold weather and wind were not easy to tackle in the open desert areas. Here are some of the highlights from the past weekend.

On Friday the 23rd, Rain and temperatures in single digits greeted me around Sdeh boker. Although it was only around mid day I was able to find 11 Syrian Serins near a roost in the area. The birds were skittish and uneasy but gave decent views. At the Bahad 1 sewage there were few birds but a Brambling that was seen briefly was a nice find.

Continuing south, the clouds started to clear a bit over the beautiful Ramon Crater. A brief stop at the Meishar produced only a single Desert Weather and a distant Desert/Bar-tailed Lark. Upon arrival to Lotan the lawns were teeming with Bluethroats and the resident Barbary Falcons and Little Green Bee Eaters make every stroll special.

The following morning large numbers of Great Cormorants could be seen flying back and forth over the Arava valley, 60 passed high overhead heading north over Lotan at 06:30… more groups were seen flying back and forth that morning and undoubtedly, the highlight was watching 110 Great Cormorants, Trying to catch thermals, at 08:00 in the morning over the Ketura date Plantation.

A sub-adult Imperial Eagle also passed over the Ketura Junction flying west.

I headed down to Yotvata. The few birds present were hardly active, in the fields I enjoyed good views of a family group of 3 Common Cranes, and a single Dotterel was seen flying around with 4 Northern Lapwings and a dozen Spur winged Plovers. An Adult male Hen Harrier hunted over the fields.

I then Headed to Ye'elim holiday village and after a bit of searching I finally located the elusive male Black Redstart of the central Asian form phoenicuroides. (First seen in early december by R. Mizrachi and T. Landsberger).

This subspecies is an extremely rare winterer in Israel, with several records from this location. This handsome male was quite wary, but I managed to grab a few images.

After chasing its calls for nearly 30 minutes I finally got my bins on the Yellow-browed Warbler also found earlier this month and although in rather drab plumage it was very active and vocal.

After some more enjoyable birding I headed back to Lotan for a short ceremony to celebrate the opening of our new bird hide in the Lotan bird reserve. This spacious hide is an outstanding achievement for the Kibbutz, having most of the work being done by the people of Lotan. A more elaborate page about the hide, the contributors and the ongoing development of birding related Eco projects will appear shortly here and on the Kibbutz Lotan website.

Stay warm and good birding.
Jonathan Meyrav /// Lotan Center for Birdwatching.

Contact info

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