This morning I went out birding with Piki, Micha and Stefan in E Lakhish hills. It was my first visit to this wonderful part of the country since my return from the UK. As the days are already very hot now, we started super early when it was actually quite chilly (7⁰C!). As we stepped […]
Tag: Eastern Black-eared Wheatear
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 […]
Wheatears and late winter visitors – Jubail
Birding the Jubail area continued turning up migrants and winter visitors with plenty of Great Cormorants staying in the area later this year than previously. They used to be seen rarely in the area but have now started winter in large numbers. Wheatears have been common with Pied Wheatears the commonest although a few Eastern […]
Seven species of Wheatear – Jebal Hamrah
Whilst birding the Jebal Hamrah area in March I came across seven species of Wheatear in a single day including Black-eared Wheatear, Hooded Wheatear, White-crowned Wheatear, Northern Wheatear, Isabelline Wheatear, Pied Wheatear and Desert Wheatear. The week previously, I also saw an Eastern Mourning Wheatear, making a total of eight species in a week. The […]
Spring Migrants in Kuwait
Earlier this month I visited a protected area north of Kuwait City and Mutla Ridge and was pleasantly surprised by the numbers of Spring migrants in and around the Acacia Trees as well as the indigenous plants with yellow flowers spread out across the desert. There were 5 species of Wheatear, but the most prevalent […]