Yesterday was my last day in Eilat as part of our three back-to-back international events (Eilat Bird Festival, COTF and IBOC). I spent the final morning at IBRCE, that at last was in proper form after admittedly slow days. The trees were dripping with Lesser Whites, reedbed exploding with Reed Warblers, hirundines, pipits, wagtails, nightingales, […]
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.
Eilat day 4 – race day
What an amazing day it was, made even more mentally challenging with the sad news coming from across the pond of the departure of our dear friend and comrade BT3. I received the news while standing at a watchpoint overlooking the Arava Valley and Eilat Mts., watching a River of Birds pouring through the sky. […]
Eilat day 3 – Holland and Canada
Today I continued with my demanding task to assist teams in their scouting efforts, which actually meant birding in cool spots. Isn’t it appropriate that on pre-race date I visited two sites that could be identified with our Dutch team – Team VCF, and Canadian team – The Canucks. First thing in the morning I […]
Eilat day 1 – photo-bogey busted
Today (actually already yesterday – it’s late!) I headed down towards Eilat with Mark and Amity to join the Eilat Bird Festival /COTF / IBOC events. We made a quick stop at Har Amasa that was simply brilliant. There were birds everywhere, and what quality. I was really looking forward to arrive on site and […]
Spring fun
Yesterday morning I worked in Wadi Bet Arif, very close to Ben Gurion airport. I had a productive morning – lovey spring atmosphere with flowers, beautiful weather, good breeding activity and fine migration. Among the priority breeding species, Long-billed Pipit was most prominent – it’s song was a continuous soundtrack of my walk. One of […]
Jumpshot fails
This morning I drove around northeast of Jerusalem with Shachar, the local INPA ranger, to prepare our upcoming effort this spring to map breeding birds in important Batha (open rocky slopes) habitats there. We didn’t do any point-counting today, just checked access points and point-count routes that we will repeat this spring. It is a […]
MacDancer
Yesterday Team Brazil (my brother Gidon, Ami, Eli and myself) reunited and ventured deep into the Negev Desert in search of some unique birds and mammals. Our first stop (Kelach Sinai NR) was very cold and bird activity was rather minimal during the golden hour. We had one brief female MacQueen’s Bustard that shot off […]
21 hours
Yesterday was extremely long. I left home very early, met up with Piki and together we sailed down towards the Dead Sea. Despite the dire state of the shrinking Dead Sea, Climate Change, Sixth Extinction, Donald Trump etc., I find the view of the sun rising over the Edom Mountains of Jordan, above the Dead […]