The Magic Puddle

Yesterday I had meetings in Eilat, talking about monitoring there with Noam and the IBRCE team.  Left home super early to do some birding, with rarity finding on my mind. As always, this mental approach didn't really work... Started off at Neot Smadar. At first it was cold and pretty birdless. Only this inquisitive Red Fox scrutinized me from some distance.

When the sun came up, bird activity increased a little, nothing huge. I walked the alfalfa fields hoping to lush a rare pipit. First found only common ones.

Caucasian Water Pipit

Tree Pipit

Then my morning was partially salvaged by a familiar call from a pipit flying towards me - Olive-backed Pipit! It flew over me calling a few times and disappeared in the off-limits kibbutz. Too quick for a photo or sound recording. I was hoping for a bigger pipit, but I had to settle with this one. Better than nothing I guess. Encouraged a bit, I kept on walking both in the fields and at the sewage farm, but came up with little else. eBird checklists are here (fields) and here (sewage).

Next stop was Yotvata. Itai Shanni was there earlier and reported larger numbers of birds on the recently-ploughed northern circular field. It was birdy indeed but most birds were distant in the large field, and most were doves... I noticed better activity at a small puddle, attracting many birds. I parked my car appropriately in relation to distance and angle, and started waiting. Soon the birds came in, and I enjoyed lovely 45 minutes, with many and different birds coming in to drink. Shooting birds on the ground out of the car window is not ideal, but I can't complain...

There was a flock of about 40 Desert Finches on the field. At first they were distant - quite pleased with my new camera (canon 7D km2) focusing on them at a distance:

Then they started trickling towards the water:

Nice numbers of Red-throated Pipits in various plumages came in for a splash too:

2cy+, probably male

1cy

1cy, slightly more advanced

1cy Western Yellow Wagtail

One of many Spanish Sparrows, this is an adult male

Corn Bunting

Northern Wheatear

There were a few skylarks around. At first some Eurasian Skylark came in for a drink:

Up to 10 Oriental Skylarks have been seen there in recent days. Where I was sat I had two or three. They kept their distance when I was there - one did come in to drink briefly but buzzed off as soon as I pointed my camera on it. These photos are all large crops in unattractive setting, yet they illustrate some important ID features, including longer, thinner bill, lighter breast streaking, buffy belly and short primary projection.

Oriental Skylark 

eBird checklist here.

At IBRCE between meetings there were a few nice birds, including Steppe Eagles on migration and a Bittern on the lake. eBird checklist here.

Eurasian Cranes

On my way back home after the meetings I visited Ovda Valley. I failed to relocate the two returning rare wheatears, but enjoyed some beautiful desert serenity.

The Valley of Dreams and Wires

I am staying up north with friends for a couple of days. Early this morning I escaped for a sweet few hours of birding in the Bet She'an Valley. This is one of my favourite parts of the country, not only because I lived there between 1998 and 2001. I challenged myself to pick up as many species as I could, so I rushed from site to site and did not invest in photography at all. Admittedly, I was pretty lucky, especially with some migrant passerines that were present in ones and twos. I walked some alfalfa and scrub near Kfar Ruppin, then scrub and fields near Tirat Zvi, and ended up down at the bottom of the Jordan Valley below Kfar Ruppin at some beautiful reservoirs. As always, Bet Shean Valley is packed with birds, and diversity was very high too. Many species with big numbers. Some highlights were Little Crake, 2 Citrine wagtail, 5 species of shrike (woodchat most common). Among the most prominent were Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, that congregate in the valley at this time of year. I counted about 70. Not easy to get wireless photos pf them - wires are their favourite perch.

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater - adult

1cy

It was heartwarming to still be able to see fair numbers of Turtle Doves. I had over 100, including flocks of tens; far fewer than the tens of thousands I'd see in the same area 15-20 years ago.

Namaqua Dove has become a regular feature of the valley, which is lovely.

There were only small numbers of Honey Buzzards that took off - main passage should start any day now. One of them swooped down, very focused, and came down to drink in an empty fishponds:

That eye...

There were moderate numbers of shorebirds in the dry fishponds, with some variety but nothing too special. Nice to see over 60 Collared Pratincoles:

Demonstrating it's not black-winged or oriental

Temminck's Stint (adult) with two Little Stints - 1cy (top) and adult (bottom)

A few more random photos:

Huge numbers of Barn Swallows, many of them of the local breeding taxon transitiva

Black Stork 1cy

Desert Finchs

Pygmy Cormorant

Short-toed Eagle pre-sunrise

By 09:00 I was defeated by the heat and retreated to aircon coolness. All in all it was a brilliant early morning - 115 species in just over three hours ain't too shabby I think. Full eBird checklist here. Thanks to Avner for his help.

Some images from this morning

Went down to Kikar Sdom early this morning. I showed the site to Amir Balaban - he's filming a program on the saltmarsh and its conservation problems. I had to be quiet while he was filming so clicked only few times, but still some nice birds:

Hooded Wheatear - 1cy male

At this time of year they typically descend from the mountains into the valley. This bird chose an ugly rubbish dump as its territory.

A few Namaqua Doves around. Here's an adult male with a 1cy male during its post-juvenile moult.
Only when I looked at the images when I got back home I noticed a Desert Finch had flown through the frame without myself noticing it.

Nice Little Green Bee-eater action - as always I can never resist photographing them:

Festival update - day 2

Today I led the Dead Sea tour. We made a very early start. Our first stop was at Shezaf reserve. Soon we located an Arabian Warbler, feeding very actively and giving us superb scope views. Other good birds were Scrub Warbler, Desert Finches, and a flyover Spotted Sandgrouse.
From there we drove staright to Metzoke Dragot. There was no raptor migration, possibly due to the cold front in central Israel that must have pushed the stream farther south. But there were some quality birds around - we had a female Bonelli's Eagle sitting on a nest across the mighty Darga gorge, and a male Mountain Bunting performed nicely on the cliff below us, singing and collecting nest material.

The rest of the day wasn't that busy. In Wadi Mishmar I had a male Hooded Wheatear but none of the group managed to get on to it. We didn't manage to see Clamorous Reed Warbler and Dead-Sea Sparrow but heard both south of the Dead Sea. A White-throated Kingfisher at Hemar reservoir was nice.
We ended the dat at the very birdy KM 76. Lots of wheatears, Short-toed Larks and Tawny Pipits there, with the added value of Pallid Harrier and Siberian Stonechat.
Tomorrow I have a morning off so I will try to catch up with some of the goodies around - Menetries's Warbler, Pied Wheatear etc.