During the last few days, things haveslow downa bit with migration. Nevertheless we still get 100-150 birds daily at the IBRCE ringing station and there are many Tawny Pipits and the first Short-toed Larks in many fields.
The Cinerous Buntingwhich wasoriginally found by Harvey and Mary Van Diek is still present in Ophira Park (which is located indown-townEilat) and was photographed yesterday by Fabian Mayer, a Duth volunteer at the IBRCE.
Last night i was joined by the Van Diek’s for a night drive in Yotveta and what a night it was…
As we entered the fields, a (Desert) Red Fox was running in the beam of light and as we raised our bins, we could see many more shining eyes. it took us a while until we understood that the field was spotted with at least 8-9 Eurasian Stone-curlew.Later in the evening we estimated no less than 15-20 different individuals.
Shortly after this encounter, we found the/a wonderful Pallid Scops Owlat the exact same location where we had it on Saturday (unfortunatelywe couldn’t get any good photos of it).
We then proceeded and found 3 Egyptian Nightjarsflying and feeding around. One individual was very tame and allowed some really nice close ups (I can’t wait to see Harvey’s photos of it).
On the Mammal list we added few more Foxes but the most interesting was a very nice Striped Hyena! this is by no mean a common mammal here and we only see them once every 15 outings or so. We couldn’t get close to it to take a decent photo, but still a great thrill was felt by all participants.
A 4th Cyprus Warblerwas ringed this morning at the IBRCE and a constant flow of Steppe Eagles, Steppe Buzzards together withfew Short-toed and BootedEagles isvisibledaily.I just hope that the winds which are blowing very fast will ease and allow more birds to move through…
Itai Shanni
Itai Shanni is the coordinator of the Eilat Birding Blog, which is jointly written by the Israeli Ornithological Centre (IOC) and the International Birding and Research Centre Eilat (IBRCE). Itai is working to promote bird and wildlife conservation throughout this area. As an Israeli A licensed ringer, he also gives support for the IBRCE staff when needed. Itai has also developed a real passion for Odonata watching and spends many hot hours chasing also Dragonflies and Damselflies.
Leave a Reply