What a terrific day! I had the morning off, so I headed towards Yotvata early in the morning. While driving up I noticed these photogenic Black Kites perched on a tree just by the road:








We continued to Shezaf NR. We parked our vehicle and almost immediately located an Arabian Warbler in a nearby acacia. It played hard to get for a few minutes but eventually we all got good views of it. I had a funny incident when it flew into a tree and from the other side came out an Eastern Orphean Warbler that almost destroyed my reputation in bird identification... But then the correct bird showed and I could breathe again. 96 noisy Spotted Sandgrouse flying over us added to the excitement.
We drove further north to the southern Judean Desert. For the festival we managed to obtain special permits to enter the NR at night, and after a short walk into an impressive canyon we reached a Hume's Owl territory. Sure enough it started calling instantly and we all enjoyed great views of the male sat on top of a small cliff, calling and posing!
Second target species in the bag, we headed down to Neot Hakikar, and after about 20 seconds of searching found a Nubian Nightjar sat next to us. We enjoyed breathtaking views from down to four meters, and then another bird showed just as well. With an extremely satisfied group we headed back to Eilat, most of the group snoring in the back and myself being entertained by our driver's bizzare stories... Arrived back at the hotel almost twenty hours after I began my day, but with lots of great experiences for one day!
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