The final days of the Rockjumper tour I was leading were spent in the steppes and wetlands around Nursultan (until recently Astana…). Together with our sharp-eyed local guide Andrey, we birded one day west of the city, and another day south. Birding was fantastic, with non-stop action both in quality and in numbers. Insect load […]
Author: Yoav Perlman
I have been birding since the age of 9, and from the age of 15 I started working professionally in birding. I have been working for the Israeli Ornithological Center since 1998. I was a member of the Israeli rarities committee between 2001 - 2007. I have an MSc in Ecology from the Ben Gurion University. I did my research on the ecology of Nubian Nightjars in Israel, and spent hundreds of nights with these fascinating birds. I lead tours in Israel, and especially focus on Nubian Nightjars obviously. I traveled and birded Asia extensively, and also Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and North America. I am married to my lovely wife Adva and father to two sons - Uri and Noam, and one daughter - Libby. Currently I live in Norwich, where I am starting a PhD project at UEA.
The best of Uzbekistan
I am already in Kazakhstan now with my Rockjumper group. There are many good things to say about Uzbekistan, but internet connection is not one of them. Tonight, in Almaty, is my first encounter with at least partial wifi for the last few days. I have many stories to tell ad photos to share […]
Rusty-tailed Flycatcher near Samarkand
This morning our Rockjumper tour went up to the mountains south of Samarkand. We had a fantastic morning around Takhta-Karacha mountain pass, at about 1700 m. We saw so many wonderful birds, including Eastern Rock Nuthatch, Irania, Upcher’s Warbler, Indian Paradise flycatcher, Red-headed and White-capped Buntings, ‘vittata’ Pied Wheatear, Lammergeier, Grey-headed Goldfinch, Hume’s Lesser Short-toed […]
Uzbekistan quick update
I am now in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Arrived in this fabulous country four days ago, leading a tour for Rockjumper. We have had many fantastic birding experiences up till now. Internet connection here is very problematic, so I will be very brief now and will expand when I can. Pander’s Ground Jay doing what it says […]
Upcher’s Warblers
This morning I went out birding with Piki, Micha and Stefan in E Lakhish hills. It was my first visit to this wonderful part of the country since my return from the UK. As the days are already very hot now, we started super early when it was actually quite chilly (7⁰C!). As we stepped […]
Global Big Day
Yesterday I teamed up with Jonathan and Re’a to take part in Global Big Day. Our plan was to record as many species as possible, and also to connect with some specialties that are less likely to get recorded elsewhere. We did not plan our route too carefully, as this was not a competition but […]
Quality timing
A few more days of birding produced some pretty good stuff. Yesterday, while I was heading towards our main offices in Tel Aviv for meetings, Yuval Dax alerted of a Great Snipe he had just ringed. Luckily, it was a short detour for me, so I was on site very quickly to see the bird […]
Day and night
What an excellent day this was. In the morning I checked Baths of Aphrodite, mainly inside the caravan park. It was alive with migrants – not huge numbers on the ground but cool stuff and some cooperative birds. Highlights were Barred Warbler, 6 Collared Flycatchers, 5 Wood Warblers, and good movement of hirundines out towards […]