Mid May 2005 Birding Field Report - Israel

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

May 9 nth was a memorable day with a migration watch to remember. But first let me reflect upon the spring 2005 Honey Buzzard migration. This year for some reason Honey Buzzard migration was very hard to keep track off. Even with hundreds of hours of experience with Honeys, in a very familiar area, we were baffled day after day.

I don’t know whether the birds passed elsewhere or this year was just a poor year numberwise, the bottom line is that the days of good Honey Buzzard passage were few and far between... back to May 9 nth which was just one of those days.

I met Max V.A, Marten K. and Keith B. just outside Eilat, at the foothills of the mountains. We worked our way upwards until we found the first kettles of Honey Buzzards. The good northern winds were on our side as the birds worked there way slowly and maintained comfortable height for most of the morning. After only 25 minutes (and 700-800 birds) I picked out a beautiful classic male Crested Honey Buzzard. All of us saw the bird well and the guys were ecstatic. Max called out another CHB about 20 minutes later and I was able to confirm another classic male. Keith from the U.S. was getting a bit worried having missed the two CHB, but his time to shine would come, and in a big way.

At approximately 9:21 Keith directed our attention to a heavy dark bird flying a bit lower than the main Honey Buzzard stream we were concentrating on. My bins did not even reach full focus when I yelled out Verreaux's Eagle !! and indeed it was. A magnificent adult bird passed just above the Yoash ridge straight in front of us, giving awesome views. The Eagle glided, seemingly migrating in a steady west-north-west direction and disappeared over the hillside. It took several moments for the hysteria to settle, but birds kept pouring in and we added 2 more Crested Honey Buzzards to our tally before we decided to descend. What a morning, of course the 8000 or so Honey Buzzards were quite a spectacle as well.

We were incredibly lucky of course, but luck goes hand in hand with persistence. For 3 really good days I spent 17 birdless or nearly birdless days in the mountains this Honey Buzzard season.

Here is a short summary of the birding highlights in the recent days.

From around the 11 nth of May, good numbers of Rosy Starlings could be seen in the vineyards around Eilat with up to 9 birds sharing the taller trees with dozens of Golden Orioles. The last wave of passerines has hit our shores and with this being a late spring and all, there are still plenty of birds around. On the 13 nth and 14 nth several Lesser Grey Shrikes were evident and a nice wave of Red Backed Shrikes swept the valley, dozens were seen during these 2 days. Several Little Bitterns were seen here and there with a nice male at the Lotan bird reserve ( 3 rd record for Lotan) 2 at Neot Smadar and 2 more at Yotvata.

I headed back to the Eilat Mountains on the 15 nth of May. I counted around 7500 Honey Buzzards between 07:40 and 10:00 , with one Crested Honey Buzzard that was photographed. At the ringing station in Eilat it was a very busy morning with hundreds of Blackcaps, over 40 Barred Warblers and dozens of Garden Warblers. On top of these there were no less than 10 Olive-tree Warblers, a great species to study in the hand.

Back on Lotan I was surprised to see two different River Warblers within 15 minutes. Having only ever seeing one on Lotan previously I was quite surprised

Later that afternoon Noam Weiss called me to inform me of a fall of River Warblers around the Yotvata fields. I was there in ten minutes and quite frankly it was a crazy sight. In a rather small section of the circular field we counted around 15 River Warblers. It was amazing, these shy reed dwellers were running up and down the irrigation canals like mice, scurrying away at the last second. I have never seen so many River Warblers in one place, and I never imagined to get such views of this species, or of any Locustella for that matter. It was fascinating to watch how these swamp birds deal with the dry habitat and chase desert Beatles in the open. It was just another one of those things you can expect only on migration.

On the 16 nth I counted 4300 Honey Buzzards in 90 minutes, but they were high when I arrived and I gave up. Down at the date plantations near Eilat I found and photographed a 1 st year Lesser Spotted Eagle with a ring. The Eagle was feeding on Earthworks !! talk about the compromises of migration. I later learned that this was probably the LSE that was ringed in Eilat several days before. 3 Rosy Starlings were in the vineyards.

On the morning of the 17 nth I headed up to Neot Smadar. The orchards were teeming with birds. Thousands of Blackcaps and dozens of Garden Warblers were feasting on the Apricots and smaller numbers of Barred, Olivaceous and Olive-tree Warblers were noted.

The season is wrapping up. I will post several more field reports and then a detailed summary of the great spring of 2005.

Good birding.

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)