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Israel - April 2004 Chris Mills, Jacky Harris, Gary Elton,Oscar Campbell |
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Day Five 08/04/2004 - Kibbutz lotan 0730 -1500; Eilat North beach 1600 -1830 The drive from Tel Aviv was uneventful, save 2 MARSH HARRIERS & 2 WHITE CROWNED BLACK WHEATEAR in desert areas just south of Sede Boquer. A petrol station stop complete with a few bushes dripping with Blackcaps and Lesser Whitethroats were the first evidence of the heavy passage we were to witness of these two species. We arrived at Kibbutz Lotan, or nearly! The car came to halt just before the gates as we scanned through 50 BEE-EATER, 100 BLACK KITE, 1 EGYPTIAN VULTURE, 40 STEPPE BUZZARD, 1 STEPPE EAGLE. The bags were eventually unloaded into the rooms, and a limited tour of the chalets and swimming pool before lunch produced some excellent birds! On the ground 2 F +1 M NAMAQUA DOVE, 5 WRYNECK, 20 FLAVA WAGTAILS, (FELDEGG, THUNBERGI, FLAVA, DOMBROWSKI, and many variations were noted during our stay), LITTLE GREEN BEE-EATER, 4 HOOPOE, 12 RED-THROATED PIPIT, 1 ROCK THRUSH, 1 NIGHTINGALE, 1 RUFOUS BUSHCHAT, &1 MASKED SHRIKE.
In the air 1 OSPREY, 100 BLACK STORK, 9 GLOSSY IBIS AND 1 LESSER KESTREL, ensured regular scans of the skies, this combined with with a steady passage of hirundines and swifts, and a single LITTLE SWIFT being a nice surprise find. After lunch we set our mist nets in the organic garden, furled the nets in preparation for the following mornings ringing. Setting the nets was not easy, with the constant distraction of more birds! REDSTART (both nominate & samamiscus),2 BLACKSTART, 6 WHEATEAR, 10 BLACK-EARED WHEATEAR, 3 EASTERN BONELLI'S WARBLER, 5+ MASKED SHRIKE, 2 ORTOLAN BUNTING, 1 CRETZCHMARS BUNTING were the highlights. Johnathan Meyrev the Lotan on site birder was really helpful and we took up his offer late afternoon of heading down to North Beach, Eilat for the last 1.5 hrs of light. Unfortunately, the beach was teaming with 'Passover tourists' and most of the birding was a little distant, but we added a few more new species, 3 WESTERN REEF HERON, 1 WHITE-EYED GULL, 1 BLACK TERN, 3 BALTIC GULL, & INDIAN HOUSE CROW. Other species of note were 5 MARSH HARRIER, 1 OSPREY, 150 SHOVELER, 70 GARGANEY, 7 GLOSSY IBIS, & 3 SQUACCO.
Day Six 09/04/2004 - Kibbutz Lotan 0530 -1200; Shizzafon kibbutz & Sewage farm 1300- 1730 The alarms went off at 0500, and the nets were opened at Lotan organic garden and muck heaps at 0530. Birds of note other than those ringed, were 1 LESSER SPOTTED EAGLE, 30 BLACK KITE, 4 EGYPTIAN VULTURE, 1000+ STEPPE BUZZARD, 5+ STEPPE EAGLE, 3 BOOTED EAGLE, 2 OSPREY, 8 MASKED SHRIKE, 1 BONELLI'S WARBLER, 4 NAMAQUA DOVE, 4 HOOPOE, & 1 QUAIL. After lunch we headed for Shizzafon (Pg86-87/Vol2), we first worked the dried out Wadi south of the sewage farm and then the sewage pools. The scrubby area of the wadi produced, 3 TAWNY PIPIT, 5 NIGHTINGALE, 1 ISABELLINE WHEATEAR, 4 BLACK-EARED WHEATEAR, 2 ROCK THRUSH, 3 MASKED SHRIKE, 1 BLUETHROAT , & NORTHERN WHEATEAR. The pools and fencing 1 WOODCHAT SHRIKE, 2 TEMMINCK'S STINT, 3 WOOD SANDPIPER, GREENSHANK, GREEN SANDPIPER, COMMON SANDPIPER, SNIPE, 2 HOOPOE AND QUAIL. The eastern fields at Shizzafon were looked at briefly and a large flock 120+ SPANISH SPARROW were noted. A big pool in the middle of the kibbutz with vegetated sides provided excellent and prolonged views of 3 LITTLE CRAKE, and a mix of commoner waders etc. Day Seven 10/04/2004 - Kibbutz Lotan 0530 -1200; Yotvata & Sewage pools 1300- 1730 Birding during the ringing and a quick tour around the swimming pool just before lunch produced similar species to yesterday, with the addition of 1 SHROT-TOED EAGLE, 2 QUAIL, 1 COLLARED PRATINCOLE, 3 ALPINE SWIFT, 1 PALLID SWIFT,(prob more), 100 SWIFT, 500+ SAND MARTIN, 4 BLUETHROAT, 1 F CITRINE WAGTAIL, 1 WHINCHAT, 2 WOODCHAT SHRike.
The acacia just beyond the sewage tanks was where we found a single female ARABIAN WARBLER. We then took the track east of the holiday camp towards Jordan, this joins a track that takes you to the northern most fields of the area and adjacent to the Jordanian border. The fields to look for are known as 'circular fields', there is a big steel irrigating arm, that clearly moves through 360° from a big concrete base. This can also be reached by taking the track from the main road just North of Yotvata petrol sation. This area proved excellent for pipits, larks, wagtails and harriers, and was a great way to end the day. Today we saw 4 MARSH HARRIER, 1 R/T HEN HARRIER, 1M MONTAGU'S HARRIER, 2 HOBBY, 2 QUAIL, 100+ SHORT-TOED LARK, 100+ RED-THROATED PIPIT & 40+ FLAVA WAGTAIL
Day Eight 11/04/2004 - Kibbutz Lotan 0530 -1200; Shizzafon kibbutz & Sewage farm 1300- 1730 Whilst ringing it soon became evident there had been a further arrival of birds with 2 NIGHTINGALE, 6 THRUSH NIGHTINGALE, 3 ISABELLINE WHEATEAR, 20+ WRYNECK, 4 REDSTART, 12 BLACK-EARED WHEATEAR, 2 WHINCHAT AND 1 SPOTTED FLYCATCHER being the initial indicators. None of us were prepared for the next few hours, as late morning, first 2 SEMI-COLLARED FLYCATCHERS appeared in the organic garden, then Gary came back to the ringing station having found the 3rd record for Lotan of WHITE-THROATED ROBIN. A thorough search of the Kibbutz chalets, date palms and bird reserve eventually yielded an all time record for Lotan; we saw a minimum of 24 SEMI-COLLARED FLYCATCHERS!
Other additions were 2 ORPHEAN WARBLERS, 1 F COLLARED FLYCATCHER, 6 NAMAQUA DOVES, a single GULL-BILLED TERN heading north, 100+ BEE-EATER, 2 WOODCHAT SHRIKE, 2 DESERT FINCH & 1 BOOTED EAGLE on the ground. Both the bird reserve and the date palms produced reasonable numbers of birds. |
