Amazing Caracal encounter

This morning I was near Nizzana with Meidad and a group of architects. Meidad is planning a few lookouts for MacQueen's Bustards, so we went to decide on the best locations. It was midday, very hot, and even though chances were low we scanned the nearby wadi for a bustard. Suddenly I noticed a small cloud of dust. I focused on that point, and suddenly noticed a Caracal, just as it caught a hare! Right in front of us! I ran to the car to grab my camera. The cat was very distant, about a kilometer away, in terrible heat haze, but still I magaed to get a few shots as it walked away with the prey. We watched it for another 2-3 minutes until it disappeared behind a bush, possibly to consume its meal. What an amazing sighting of such an exciting predator. Meidad and all the others went crazy just like me, it really made our day.

This region must be Israel's Caracal capital. Over the last couple of years I have seen Caracals four times in this region.

Earlier on at Mashabe Sade I had one Red-breasted Flycatcher.

Cyprus and Caracal

This morning I did another atlas box deep in the desert south of Ezuz. It was actually pretty quiet, which was surprising as I walked through some excellent steppe habitat, that last year was packed with breeding birds. Early morning was pretty cold (not Finland-cold, Negev-cold) and then it got too hot and in between I had few birds. Still some breeders of interest - Bar- tailed Lark, CCC, Desert Wheatears, Spectacled Warblers and many Pin-tailed Sandgrouse. Still very few migrants around. One sweet male Cyprus Warbler was nice though:

After I was done with the atlas work for the morning, I met up with Eyal. We had a quick look at the sewage ponds that were very quiet, but while driving out I saw a cat walking through the bushes 10 meters away... long ears... Caracal! Amazing encounter at 11:00! The animal walked quietly without showing much interest in us and disappeared behind a large bush. I drove around and we intercepted it as it walked out - what a fantastic animal! I was in the wrong side of the car for photography, and Eyal is too old ;-) He got only one blurry record shot... Hope Frederik (Belgium) and his family got to see it - they arrived a few minutes after us.

Caracals!

This morning another very good atlas box south of Ezuz, with Avner, Eli and Shachar. Most action was in the mammal section. At first light we saw two Caracals - distant but very beautiful and elegant animals, as they walked across the wadi for a couple of minutes. This was my best ever observation of these majestic cats. They were complimented by a couple of Wolves, a fox, several Dorcas Gazelles and a Cape Hare.
There were some good birds about, with two male MacQueen's Bustards still dancing, a few families of Spectacled Warbler in their second breeding cycle, and four Crowned Sandgrouse. Good numbers of Hill Sparrows were logged - we had at least 15 singing males and a few more mobile birds, including several juveniles.
After the atlas box we did a very short ringing session at Be'erotayim park. A big surprise was this Hill Sparrow - a very worn male. Such a cool bird!

There were big numbers of flycatchers present. Many spotted, one collared, one semi-collared and three pied that we ringed - a 2cy male and two females.

Pied Flycatcher