After long idle due to being too occupied in moving into our new house at last, yesterday I went back to the field, joined by Shachar with his powerful Nikon (thus I didn’t really bother photographing…)We had a great day with many birds and goodevidenceof migration throughout.
Starting at K20 we found the ponds loading with waders after being rather empty last week. Altogether we had few hundreds of each Dunlin, Little Stintwhile Greenshanks numbers have risen as well. We then drove towards Evrona and found this nice Steppe Shrikewhich didn’t really allowed closer views.
At Evrona, few Chiffchafs,Sardinian and ScrubWarblersand a female Blue Rock Thrush that played ‘hard to get’but very quietotherwise. A long drive to K76 and there a Wheatear ‘bonanza’ with Desert, Hooded, Mourning, Isabelline and Finch’s (which was not there up to now)all around joined by Trumpeter Finches (which make the Spiny Zilla flowers even better looking) and few Linnets. This was the first outing that neither Asian Desert nor Spectacled Warblerswere seen at the site and I wonder if they moved on already?!
On the way back to Yotveta, Ireceiveda call from the Mrs’s who was coming down from Neot smadar area, describing a huge Eagle with small white ‘windows’ on the wing, white base of tail and broad black terminal band to the tail. Since Shachar never saw Golden Eagle yet (they used to breed around in the past, but very few records mainly during winter now days), we rushed up the mountains but with no luck. Instead we had a nicely coloured Common Whitethroat.
At Yotveta, it was mainly hot, but still had a good view of Lesser Short-toed Lark, Richard’s Pipitand 3 Oriental Skylarksamong the many usual species and also a very high passage of Pallid Swifts, House Martinsand my first for the season Alpine Swift. No signs of
At K19,while numbers of ducks and Cormorants have fallen dramatically,a great collection of raptors – Imperial Eagles(X2), Bonelli’s Eagle, Marsh Harriers and one Barbary Falcon which was successfully controlling the numbers of Collared Doves. Later at North Beach, a very active Gull scene (White-eyed, Black-headed, Armenian, Hugline’s)with nothing out of the ordinary except for a single 2nd cal’Common Gull.
I’m back to unpacking and organising the house, next round will not be too long…
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.