Hameishar

Yesterday I surveyed different sections of Hameishar plains for the Atlas project, together with Rony and Leor. This sensitive military zone is off bounds on weekdays, so the safest day to visit without the risk of being kicked out is Saturday. Leaving home super early, we arrived at the first section, Wadi Trashim, shortly after dawn. Stepping out of the car, I was pleased to experience exactly what I was hoping for - air full of bird song, and bushes topped with perched birds. Brilliant. We started walking and picking up good birds in the exceptionally lush wadi - so subtly beautiful.

The soundscape was made up mainly by lark song - Lesser Short-toed, Crested, Temminck's and Bar-tailed, all busy in breeding activity, and also many Spectacled Warblers, giving their little display flights. Lesser Short-toed Lark is an opportunistic breeder here, only in years when rainfall is high and local productivity creates good breeding conditions, like this year:

Also breeding density of Spectacled Warbler seemed higher than average here:

There were lots of migrants too: a large flock of Greater Short-toed Larks, many common pipits, and goodies including Oriental Skylark, Richard's Pipit, Citrine Wagtail and Siberian Stonechat.

It was really great there (check eBird checklist here) but it was time to move on. We checked other sections in the south of the Plains, and experienced very different conditions compared to the northern section - extremely dry, with hardly any fresh germination, almost nothing, and perennials looking dry and dormant too. However this might change in the next week or two - large amounts of rain fell there in recent days, and may produce rapid germination of annuals and revival of perennials, hopefully followed by large-scale breeding events like last year (check here and here). Back to now and here, this recent rain event created some large puddles. When we drove up to one of the sites, we noticed that one of the puddles attracted massive numbers of Crowned and Spotted Sandgrouse - simply fantastic. They were actually very tame and confident, and some walked very close to our car. The whole vocal and visual commotion, of birds coming and going, was wonderful to experience. 

Birding southwest and southeast sections of Hameishar was rather quiet and dry, and it was getting hot; we still managed to document breeding of Temminck's and Bar-tailed Larks, Desert and Isabelline Wheatears and enjoy some migrants like this cooperative Woodchat Shrike perched on a Spiny Zilla bush:

Many thanks to Rony and Leor for company.

Desert weekend

This weekend I participated (and helped the organisers) in the annual Great Desert Survey, coordinated by IBRCE, INPA and Eilot Regional Council. As last year, the event was a huge success and great fun. About 40 teams covered the remotest parts of the southern desert, collecting valuable data for conservation. Personally, I had a great time. My polygons weren't the busiest, but between them and general birding outside the polygons, I got to see some top birds. It was a difficult weekend for photography - I was too busy and/or with other people, so photo opps were limited.

On Friday morning I worked southeast of Ovda Valley, in a nice sandy wadi. There were lots of wheatears about, but I couldn't find a basalt of my own. I enjoyed this male Hooded Wheatear:

Born in 2019 - check moult limit in coverts:

Typically, wheatears were followed by Asian Desert Warblers. None were obliging, but it's always fun to see theצ running on the sand like rodents:

 

I usually don't pay much attention to Cattle Egrets, but this one that appeared in the middle of nowhere, flew directly towards us and started foraging right beside us was somewhat special:

eBird checklist here.

After we were done, we went to pay respect to a new Basalt Wheatear found nearby by Rony:

In the afternoon I did a few more bits and pieces, hoping that the African Crake would get released, no joy. After dusk I went with Re'a to Yotvata that delivered the goods - Egyptian Nightjar and Pharaoh Eagle Owl, here showing the diagnostic barred underparts:

On Saturday morning, before my polygon, I quickly checked a wadi for Pallid Scops Owl (successfully, thanks Miguel!). My polygon was in another wadi deep in the desert. It was rather quiet - the weather was not enjoyable, neither for birds nor for humans, very cold and windy. We did manage a couple of Temminck's Larks and Desert Wheatears - gotta love 'em:

eBird checklist here.

On the way out stopped for a quick scan at a spot that looked promising for Hoopoe Lark - boom! After a couple minutes of scanning one walked into view, albeit too distant:

Our route out passed by yet another Basalt Wheatears found earlier by Ohad (#7 this season, all within about 10X10 km) - it would have been rude to drive by without stopping to say hello. 

On the way back home we stopped at Hameishar Plains (as many others did) - excellent birding there. Hameishar did not receive rain this winter yet, so there is no annual germination, but last winter's productivity left tons of seeds on the ground, and lark numbers are good as a response. Best were 23 Thick-billed Larks, also many Temminck's, Bar-tails, sandgrouse etc. eBird checklist here.

Thick-billed Larks

Temminck's Lark

Crowned Sandgrouse

Many thanks to Noam, Itai and the rest of the organising team, including Hai Bar staff for hosting the whole event. My team - Golan, Noga and Yossi were great, thank you! 

Eilat Day 2 - migration pulses

Two days, before race day, I went out with some teams to assist with their scouting efforts. In the morning it was Ovda Valley, that at first was rather quiet until we hit the purple patch, which was rather Deep Purple. There was a fantastic mixed flock at one of the flower carpets. It contained many Short-toed Larks, wagtails, Pale Rock Sparrows and wheatears. This buzzing whirlpool of hundreds of birds in the middle of the desert must be a magnet for any passer-by, so it pulled in also singles of Richard's Pipit, Lesser Short-toed Lark, Bimaculated Lark and Citrine Wagtail. The flock was very mobile and I couldn't get any photos of the species above.

Greater Short-toed Larks

A little crop...

Western Yellow Wagtail - feldegg

Western Yellow Wagtail - flava (female), displaying its long hind claw, separating it from Eastern Yellow Wagtail

As is often the case, breeding lark species avoided the crowds and retreated to unknown quieter productive spots. I heard only one distant Temminck's and Bar-tailed singing.

There was fantastic sandgrouse activity in the valley, with groups of Spotted and Crowned Sandgrouse noisily flying around constantly:

Spotted Sandgrouse

Crop...

Crowned Sandgrouse

Crop...

Eventually we encountered a small group on the deck. With some patient positioning they walked up quite close - such beautiful birds:

Most wheatears were Northern, with fewer Isabelline and Eastern Black-eared:

Eastern Black-eared Wheatear

Two mobbing Northern Wheatears helped us find this tiny, beautiful Crowned Leafnose Snake (Lytorhynchus diadema):

This Steppe Eagle was literally eyeballing us at stupendously close range - wings clipped in most images...

Israel is probably the only country along the flyway of this majestic, globally Endangered beast, where it is shot by cameras and not by guns. Travel safe my big friend.

Ovda Valley you are glorious! Repping @flywaychampions and @ZEISSBirding here in the Negev and what a pleasure to be a part of something so special. More to come.... #COTF19 #govultures #flywaychampions pic.twitter.com/xzgf2xZYk4

— Mark James Pearson (@Markthebirder) March 24, 2019

eBird checklist here.

A quick stop at Neot Smadar was fairly quiet. The sewage ponds hosted another two Western Yellow Wagtail 'taxa', tentatively identified here - what a headache!

thunbergi

'dombrowski-integrade'

In the afternoon a big storm was boiling. The weather was unsettled, the wind kept shifting, there was a lot of dust in the air - quite dramatic. There were pulses of birds moving through - quite cool. Jonathan and me checked first KM19 and environs, not finding too much in the way of migration on the ground:

Woodchat Shrike

Western Yellow Wagtail taxa #5 - 'supercilliaris-integrade':

We then positioned ourselves at IBRCE and did what most birders do here nowadays - watched the skies and waited for a Crested Honey Buzzard to pass. None did, but IBRCE was pretty good and there were cool birds moving through. A distant group of 28 Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters was beautifully lit by momentary sunshine, 5 Gull-billed Terns, 6 Purple Herons and quite many other raptors.

Purple Herons battling the wind

Marsh Harrier

In the evening the opening ceremony of COTF, hosted by IBRCE team, was as always inspirational and great fun. Still time to donate money to any team here: http://www.champions-of-the-flyway.com/2019-teams/