Southern observations – Mid March 2006

Larks and more

Images copyright of Jonathan Meyrav or as credited.

Spring migration is picking up both in the number of birds and in the quality of species found. These past few days there is finally that great feeling of spring in the air. The mornings are chilly and full of the calls of hirundines and passerines passing overhead. I am happy to bring you a summary of the interesting species that were seen in the past couple of weeks. With March being the month of Larks, a large portion of our time in the field is spent out in the open desert.

On March 7th I visited a site near K33. This used to be a good bit of open desert till several years back when agricultural areas started to close on the reserve. I was thrilled to find a party of 9 Bar-tailed Larks. A little bit further down the road we noticed 3 Cream-coulored Coursers. The birds were calm and gave excellent views in the early morning sun.

Both the Larks and the Coursers have been around since and up to 6 Coursers are seen regularly.

Small numbers of Bimaculated Larks are seen here and there, mainly in the valley. Although quite a rare Lark on passage, and every sighting a good one, last springs influx of Bimaculated Larks in the Arava left high expectations.

The Meishar area has been excellent for Larks and at least 2 Temminck's Horned Larks are seen there regularly since January. Good numbers of Bar-tailed and Greater Short-toed Larks were seen in the area in the past week as well. The Lark that stole the show was a magnificent male Thick-billed Lark that I found early morning on the 11th. I was with visiting birders Ian and Tages Ewing from Singapore, on their 2nd day of our desert tour. We were enjoying great views of a mixed flock of Temminck's, Bar-tailed and Crested Larks when I noticed a large Lark scurrying in the background. The identification was swift and we got the bird in the scope. Although it stayed distant the Thick-billed Lark gave great scope views and we went through the various features of the bird. The Lark was wary and when I tried to approach it to get some images it flew off and disappeared far to the west. Other birders that visited the area could not relocate the bird. Good numbers of Chretzchmar's Buntings were noted on the 10th and 11th and the first Ortolan of the spring was ringed on Lotan on the 14th .

This is turning out to be a very good (and early) spring for Subalpine Wablers, 5birds were reported on the 10th from a site near Eilat. Several single birds were found since, and 4 superb males were trapped at a single site near Be'er-Sheva on the 11th.

On the 13th I ran a workshop on migration with the Eilat field school, we enjoyed decent passage of Steppe Eagles over the Eilat mountains, with them passed a superb juvenile Eastern Imperial Eagle, and several dozen Steppe Buzzards. Down at the K20 salt pans we were happy to find 3 Ruddy Shellducks. On that same day, a visiting group of birders from the UK hit it nicely with a nice Black-bush Robin right as they got of the plane near the Ovda airport restaurant. That evening A Tropicbird species was reported of the North beach of Eilat. What a day…

Stay posted as the spring unfolds.
Jonathan Meyrav.

Contact info

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