Hiyyon Plain - 28th February/1st March

Two days of glorious spring weather, the best show of desert flowers for years and some breathtaking birding made for a stunning weekend on the Southern Negev plateau. This broad area covers tens of square kilometers and is mostly military training land centered around the Hiyyon Plain.

Despite the quickening pulse of migration evident on the 27th of February, I elected to spend a couple of days surveying these very remote alluvial flats finding exquisite shallow sandy wadis filled with flowering plants, and with the plants came the birds. For the first time since 1994 (another great lark year) I could simultaneously listen to the songs of Hoopoe Lark, Bar-tailed Desert Lark and Temminck's Horned Lark whilst watching a Desert Warbler follow a Desert Wheatear! The place was full of good birds and over the two days I logged 29 Temminck's Horned Larks, 10 Cyprus Warblers, 7 Desert Warblers, 5 Trumpeter Finch, my first Black-eared and Northern Wheatears of the spring, and capped the whole thing off with the chance discovery of no less than 23 Thick-billed Larks. The latter were typically brief and wandering, and couldn't be found later in the day. By way of compensation, 3 Cream-coloured Coursers put on a great show on the last afternoon, again the first of the year.

Mammals were represented by an impressive tally of 135 Dorcas Gazelle, a Wolf, and this remarkable daytime discovery of a Porcupine resting up after a night's foraging. This was only the second time that I'd seen a 'live' Porcupine in Israel, and most often found unfortunate road side casualties.

Do enjoy the gallery of thumbnails below. All the images were taken on the above dates, and in keeping with our promise of presenting up to date visual sightings of the birdlife of the Southern desert.

Good to birding to all,

James Smith & The Birdingisrael Team

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge All digiscoping photography courtesy of James. P. Smith©
Cream-coloured Courser	Cyprus Warbler	Desert in bloom, Zihor
Desert Warbler, Hiyyon Plains	Hoopoe Lark, male	Porcupine, Hiyyon Plains
Temmincks' Horned Lark	Thick-billed Lark, male	Thick-billed Lark, female

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