Lotan and the Southern Arava – Late March 2006

What a spring this is shaping up to be. The last week has been one of the best I remember in the past springs. Good birds being found daily, great weather and best of all many foreign birders. It's great to see that so many European (and other) birders are returning to Israel. Lotan center for birdwatching ran several highly successful tours during March and our guests (and leaders) had some memorable moments in the field.

Here is a short summary of the great birds around.

As previously reported, Israel's first Lesser Flamingo (when accepted) was found by The "Birdfinders" group visiting Israel on the 19th. The bird is still around and looking well at home with its greater cousins at the K20 salt pools (27th March).

On the morning of the 21st a Sociable Plover was found by Ken Smith and Roy Ingham on the Lotan football pitch. Sociable Plover is a very rare bird, probably facing extinction and there are few Spring records in Israel.

The bird showed well the following days and attracted many visiting birders. That same morning our tour enjoyed good views of 3 Cinereous Buntings at Yotvata. Several hours later a male Cinereous Bunting was reported from Lotan as well. A Brown Booby was reported from Eilat's North Beach, as well as a party of 6 Oystercatchers.

That evening 2 Little Crakes and a male Little Bittern gave great views at the Neot Smadar Lake.

On the 22nd of March, several Ruppell's Warblers were seen on Lotan and a Male Cinereous Bunting was ringed at Lotan's Organic Garden. Our first Nightingales made an appearance as well. At Neot Smadar that afternoon we enjoyed great view of the 2 Little Crakes and one Spotted Crake.

Early on March 23rd, we had an excellent Morning at the K77 green patch. Besides the more common birds we had great views of 18 Spotted Sandgrouse, Barbary Falcon, Cyprus and Spectacled Warbler. That morning there was evident passerine migration all around us. At least 150 Short-toed Larks were seen, 4 Bimaculated Larks were seen with them.

I spotted a distant party of Larks flying low over the desert. Thinking they were another party of Short-toed Larks I raised my bins and was amazed to see a flock of 25 Temminck's Horned Larks. The birds landed in the distance and fed for several moments before continuing. 5 more Temminck's Larks flew over several minutes later. This is a good spring for this species but 30 birds is an exceptional number.

That afternoon we ran our traditional Nubian Nightjar tour. On the way north to the southern Dead sea we decided to stop at K77 once more and try for the Larks. We were 14 people scanning the desert and quickly Justin, visiting from Norwich, picked up the Larks feeding not far away. All of us had great views of around 20 Temminck's Larks and a single Lesser Short-toed Lark.

At the southern Dead sea we quickly found some of the region's specialties, Dead Sea Sparrow, Clamourous Reed Warbler, Pallid Swift and Smyrna Kingfisher.

We concluded the day with excellent views of a superb Nubian Nightjar, with the help of Yoav Perlman. There were many tired, but very satisfied birders in the vehicles on the drive back to Lotan.  

The morning of the 24th was spent in a relaxed manner around Lotan, I paid a visit to the organic garden and enjoyed good views of the now ringed Cinereous Bunting, and a pair of feeding Namaqua Doves. The Sociable Plover was still present at the football pitch and was joined by newly arrived Tree Pipits and a single Ortolan Bunting.

In the afternoon I relocated the male Cinereous Bunting near the tourism office and showed it to Tomer, Noam and Shai that were visiting Lotan.

On the 25th I was at Eilat in the late afternoon and decided to finish the day at the North beach. Together with the English bunch staying on Lotan, and several Dutch birders, we were scanning the gulf when at 17:25 a distant pale bird was spotted flying high over the sea over the west side of the gulf… The light colour, the pigeon like shallow wingbeats… it took several seconds before I realized what it was, A Tropicbird !!

The bird stayed high, but most of the birders on the beach got on to it quite quickly. The bird flew closer, staying over the west side of the bay, then dropped down, flew against the mountains, glided, and turned over the city of Eilat. It then headed back out to sea and was lost in the glare of the sun. When seen against different backgrounds, the bird showed long white tail streamers, some dark in the head area, and a nearly translucent trailing edge, contrasting with a darkish bar on the wing. Although the bird was distant we all had great scope views and identified the bird as a Red-billed Tropicbird. What a way to end the day. Noam Weiss reported a male Semi-collared Flycatcher from the Samar Date plantation.

On the 26th I met up with the Smiths and the Enghams to bird Eilat. We started at the north beach where we had super views of the Brown Booby hunting over the jetty very close to shore. We then headed up to the Eilat Mtns. Raptor passage was good and amongst the hundreds of Steppe Buzzards we found several Long-legged Buzzards and Steppe Eagles. At a known site we found a female type Sinai Rosefinch and 5 Sand Partridge. Back down to Eilat we headed for the natural pool behind K19. This has proved to be one of the best sites around Eilat lately. We had 5 Citrine Wagtails, 2 Little Crake and a beautiful Baillon's Crake, the rarest of our Crakes, feeding in the open. Amongst the hundreds of Short-toed Larks in the area we found 2 Bimaculated Larks and several dozen Desert Finch. What a place. We wrapped up the morning with the long staying Lesser Flamingo at the K20 pools and 2 Greater Sandplovers.

The morning of the 27th was one of the best we had. I was joined by Gary Elton and several of his ringing party for a morning at K77. I birded the area briefly the day before and since it was the guys last morning I decided to send them off with some good birds.

The green patch is still lush and providing shelter and food for thousands of passerines. The clear night caused many migrants to drop in the area and it was packed with birds. We had 5 Cream-coloured Coursers upon our arrival and the greener areas held large numbers of Yellow Wagtails of various ssp. Northern, Isabelline and Black-eared Wheatears, Greater Short-toed Larks, Redstarts and Lesser Whitethroats. Amongst the more common migrants we found a late Cyprus Warbler and 2 Nightingales. Soaring bird migration was well underway and besides Buzzards and Black Kites we found 7 Lesser Kestrels, Steppe Eagle, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Booted Eagle, 2 Marsh Harrier, 1 male Pallid Harrier, an Osprey and over 70 Black Storks.

A resident Barbary Falcon hunted the area several times during our walk.As we were watching the Cyprus Warbler I located 2 flying Temminck's Horned Larks. They landed not far away and gave good, prolonged views. It was quite a morning, of quite a spring. In the afternoon I found a beautiful male Rock Thrush at Samar and we had 3 Bimaculated Larks and a single Oriental Skylark at Yotvata.

Gary's ringing group spent the past week ringing on Lotan. They concentrated their efforts at a very small area and ringed over 500 birds, of around 30 species. A full report and images of their ringing week will be posted soon.

Good birding and enjoy the images fresh from the field.

Jonathan Meyrav /// Lotan  

Contact info

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