Back from Spain and it seems that migration down the southern Arava and around Eilat are on high speedalready. I had great time on the Iberian peninsula with many interesting and enigmatic species and un-president numbers of Vultures and great company of people, but as always it is great to be back in my local patch where migration is really defined!
Thursday I went on my monitoring and had great time with many birds. Most interesting were the many Sylvia Warblers that are here in full already. Most wonderful are the Ruppelle’s & Cyprus Warblers whichare all around, singing their heart out and the first Eastern Orpheanand Lesser Whitethroatsare also seen regularly as well as Balkan Warblersand the first Cretzschmar’s Buntings and Sedge Warblers.
Steppe Eagles & Buzzards are moving in low numbers still but I believe that after this weather front which we should go this weekend, things will get open again.
Big groups of Short-toed Larksmixed with few Lesser Short-toedare seen around Yotveta and among them also few Bimaculated Larks but all keeping distance and allow only a bad record shot so far. Yesterday after noon I was joined by Shachar with his supper lens and managed to add also a Temminck’s Larkin this party and also few hundreds of White & (Black-headed) Yellow Wagtailsand a single Citrine as well.
At K20 a single Greater Sand Plover has the joined the many waders (nothing unusual for the season).
Over all it seems that there is also a goodmovementof Vagrant Emperorbut we should still see if this is going to grow into a real wave…
Spanish Imperial Eagle, Black Wheatear, Red-legged Partridge and many more Iberian peninsulaspecialsare great, but there is nothing like getting back to your local patch and enjoy a real migration period.
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.
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