Over the last 2 weeks I’ve had many opportunities to check most of the region best birding spots and It is probably not going to be remembered as the best season we had, but nevertheless, like I wrote in my last post, some very nice species can be found in various locations including 4-5 Oriental Skylarks at Yotveta fields, 40-50 of each Thick-billed and Bar-tailed Larks at Ovda Valley, few Temminck’s Larks at various spots as well asAsian Desert and Spectacled Warblers.
The last 2 months we had also infrequent reports of Striolated Buntings around Ovda Valley (all started with the photo here by Shimon Shiff) and I also had one last Sunday.I just hope that this will mark the return of this wonderful species to the region after being lost for so many years.
Winter is still ahead and I still hope that more birds will arrive to enjoy the great winter around Eilat (mind you that there are 3-4 direct flight from Europe to Ovda during winter…)
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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