Birding Israel

I was a little too hasty in putting the post online, so I am including some other things that I saw.

First of all, we saw two female Caspian Plovers land briefly just over the border in Jordan when we were looking for the Hoopoe Lark at Yotvata. I was surprised that they came like that. They landed just like all the Caspian Plovers land, braking mid-air before setting down. There were no obvious features that would make them male Caspian Plovers, and had all the shading features of the female. I could train my scope on them, but was not able to get a picture for the simple reason that my camera was safely at home!!! I therefore could not photograph the Honey Buzzard migration either.

Today I made a short excursion to Yotvata to see whether the Caspian Plovers would be  in the field we always see them, but no luck. I did go to the Yotvata sewage ponds to see what was going on there. There were at least 25 Cattle Egrets there, 5 Little Egrets, at least five Squacco Herons, a juvenile Night Heron, well over 30 Yellow Wagtails and one Purple Heron. Above the pond, on top of the Acacia tree west of the ponds was a stunning Long-legged Buzzard. Here is the picture…

Long-legged Buzzard at Yotvata sewage

David

We are now in the second week of May, and the temperatures are staying above 30 degrees during the day, with quite a few days reaching almost 40 degrees. Summer is definitely coming, and migration is slowly winding down.

I went out with three French birders for the day. One of them wanted to see the Hoopoe Lark that is around. We did hear it calling, but could not locate it. We were there too late in the day to have a good view of them. We had to have been there at sunrise to have a chance.  As we were there, perched on top of a sand dune, the Honey Buzzards rose up from their night rest somewhere in the Yotvata fields, and flew right by us. We counted well over a hundred of them. Mixed in with them were a few Steppe Buzzards.

Proceeding down to Eilat, we saw the Common Kingfisher and the Pied Kingfisher in the usual place along the canal at North Beach. Very little else was around, and that was partly due to the fact that the area had been cleared some weeks earlier. No real activity on the buoys out to sea.

At Kilometer 20 salt ponds we spotted about 10 Collared Pratincoles, a similar number of White-winged Terns, hundreds of Slender-billed Gulls and Black-headed Gulls.

Collared Pratincole at Km 20 salt ponds

White-winged Tern

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater at Km 76

At the end of the day we went up to km 76. The Spanish Sparrows were not around this time, but we did have three Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, and Rufous Bush Robins singing. We saw a family of Desert Larks with a fledgling by the side of the road, too.

On Lotan, we are experiencing an influx of Flycatchers (no Red-breasted seen, though), together with Masked Shrikes and Red-backed Shrikes. The Golden Orioles have continued further after being here for about two weeks.

David

The past few days we have been overrun by Blackcaps, and there has been the usual influx of European Bee-eaters, but less than in previous years. We have also been getting the annual migration of Levant Sparrowhawks, with thousands arriving. The number of Lesser Whitethroats and Chiffchaffs is declining, with their movement north.

Yesterday, I saw sixteen Steppe Buzzards in the southern circular field at Yotvata at rest. They were pretty much unperturbed when I showed up with my car. Only when I had the audacity to get too close did they fly away and join the migration that was going on overhead.

Steppe Buzzard at Yotvata

On Lotan, I saw two Wrynecks in the pool area, along with a Masked Shrike.

Wryneck at Lotan pool area

I was at Km 76 and saw the following bird. The bill was sparrow-shaped, but the coloration was completely off. The head is rufous, but beside that it was featureless, the tail is of a sparrow. Can anybody venture a guess what this could be. My best guess is a Spanish Sparrow with pigmentation issues, but maybe someone out there has a better idea.

Spanish Sparrow? House Sparrow?

Another picture of the same bird

After coming back from a non-birding guiding tour in the north, it is good to be back in the desert. A group of ringers that has been here before is back again for 10 days, and have put up nets in two major locations around Lotan. The days have been up and down, and today I got the chance to take a look at what they were doing.

They were calling it a slow day, with around fifty birds caught. Some highlights today were a Wryneck, an Olivaceous Warbler and a Willow Warbler that was very small.

Wryneck in the hand, Lotan

Olivaceous Warbler, Lotan

Willow Warbler, Lotan

In the field, I saw one male and two female Caspian Plovers in the onion field just north of the northern circular field at Yotvata. Previously there had been four males and one female, which means that overnight another female joined the crowd. We are now up to 8 birds that have been seen this spring.

Caspian Plover, depleted onion field, Yotvata

Two female Caspian Plovers, Yotvata, one coming overnight.

So we had a weak migration day again here in the environs of Lotan. Just a few Yellow Wagtails were about, and all the species that we would usually expect at this time of the year were not present.

Going down to Yotvata, no luck finding the Black Bush Robin, did hear the Hoopoe Lark off in the distance, but it was apparently too far in Jordanian territory. Did have a cracking pair of Little Green Bee-eaters posing for the camera, and a Masked Shrike.

Little Green Bee-eaters in the dunes near Yotvata

Masked Shrike

Once the Black Bush Robins are around, you get to see them in quite a few areas, this time near the Yotvata sewage works. I was there with three Dutch birders, looking at the Yellow Wagtails that have come in. All of sudden, in the shrubs on the outside of the sewage works was the Black Bush Robin. It presented itself very well, and we could get good photos of it. Also a few other photos.

Black Bush Robin at Yotvata sewage

Squacco Heron and Night Heron

Stone Curlews near the border fence, Yotvata

As said already numerous times, this spring has been far poorer in terms of volume of migration, compared to last year. I have had to work a lot harder to find the birds around here.

Yesterday, a Menetries’ Warbler was seen in the northern section of Qa es-Sa’eddin (Km 76) in the green shrubs near the border fence. The same day, a Turkestan Shrike was seen near the northern circular field at Yotvata.

I went out with five German birders to look for the Pharaoh’s Eagle Owl and the Egyptian Nightjar. After clearing our movements near the border with the military, we went out about 20 minutes after dark. It took all of ten minutes to find the Pharaoh’s Eagle Owl sitting on the sand dunes to the east of the northern circular field. We all had good looks at it in the light of the halogen lamp. I did not have the presence of mind to take my camera out, so no picture. Sorry!!

Our next target was the Egyptian Nightjar. It proved to be a little harder to  find, with reports from previous evenings that it was in  the northern and the southern sections of the Yotvata fields. We looked at two Cape Hares and one Red Fox in the fields, and then went right up to the border. In the light we saw some pale bird flying around, but lost it within seconds. Driving up a few meters further we swept the area with the bright light, and there it was, sitting on the ground. I took a bad picture of it, so enjoy…

Egyptian Nightjar

This morning, I went out to Yotvata to look for the Shrike, but no luck. I did have five White Storks at the northern circular field.  At the Yotvata sewage works there were well over 20 Cattle Egrets, ten Little Egrets, two Squacco Herons, one Yellow Wagtail, at least 20 White Wagtails, one female Woodchat Shrike and one juvenile Night Heron. Here are the some of the pictures…

Juvenile Night Heron

White Storks at freshly mowed field in Yotvata

I went out to Qa es-Sa’eddin (km 76) again today to see what was going on. A large flock of Spanish Sparrows was about flying intricate patterns, Short-toed Larks in the hunderds, a few Tawny Pipits, a few Pale Rock Sparrows, three Marsh Harriers, and (yesterday afternoon) one Pallid Harrier. In addition, several Black-eared Wheatears, Isabelline Wheatears and Northern Wheatears.

Black Kites coming to drink, Lotan

Driving back to Lotan, I started seeing evidence of the overhead migration. Of course there are clear skies, but it was a bit windy, which made soaring on thermals a little difficult. We had several thousand Black Kites, several hundred Black Storks, two Booted Eagles, two Egyptian Vultures, at least a dozen Steppe Eagles, thousands of Steppe Buzzards, five Alpine Swifts, ten Common Swifts,  and a large group of European Bee-eaters. 

Steppe Eagle above Lotan

Two Menetries’s Warblers  were discovered by Barak Granit just west of the Km 20 salt pans, and Frank Moffatt had some Subalpine Warblers in Km 76. These two areas seem to be the hotspots this week. In addition, there were two-three White-tailed Lapwings in the pond between km 19 and 20, one Caspian Plover that was twitched by over a 100 birders (according to Barak Granit),  and one Sooty Gull flying around in Aqaba. Both Barak Granit and James Smith, independently, had seen it, and are both convinced that it is the one. This would be the 5th record for Israel, with the last one seen in 1998.

David

We are having a slow migration day today, with some nice species seen today. On Lotan, there are a large number of Lesser Whitethroats, one Wryneck,  and Rueppell’s Warblers. At Qa es-Sa’eddin (Km 76), two birders, Frank and Brian, saw one Asian Desert Warbler in the northern part of the area, which is greener than the southern.

Wryneck at Lotan swimming pool

I went out to Nachal Yitro to see whether there was more going on there. The forecast was for sandstorms, and it did not disappoint. I went out beforehand, saw several Pied Wagtails, a White-crowned Wheatear, Mourning Wheatear, and one Desert Lark. Driving in, there were quite a few Trumpeter Finches around, several  Spotted Sandgrouse calling, bit I was unable to locate them despite searching  for them for quite a while.

Trumpeter Finch among desert flowers

David