Eilat Bird Festival and Champions of the Flyway 2023

My head us still buzzing after my return from Eilat. I spent almost a week down there, joining the Eilat Bird festival, this year led by Alen, followed by Champions of the Flyway, led by Jonathan. It was an amazing week, full of fantastic birds and birding, wonderful people from all over the world and from Israel, and conservation, friendship, diversity and collaboration. Traditionally it is one of the highlight weeks of my year, and this year was no different. The birding was really good, with intensive migration both in the River of Birds in the Sky and down on the ground. It was great to spend time with some of the best people in the world, all flocking here to Eilat. My BirdLife Israel team, Eilat Bird Festival guests, Champions of the Flyway teams - what a bunch of extraordinary people. Together we watched bird, promoted conservation and had a few beers.

I headed down to Eilat early on Thursday, March 23rd. I picked up Ugandan super-tracker and bird guide Patricia Kansiime from the airport too early, and dragged her with me to Mt. Amasa. Poor girl, she was totally exhausted after a long trip and I made her climb hills and wadis and chase after some little birds. It was a great session, wasn't it Patricia? Highlights were Cinereous Bunting, Eastern Subalpine Warbler and three Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrushes.

Cinereous Bunting

We took the scenic route down to Eilat through the Negev towards Eilat, encountering clouds of White Storks and Black Kites, pretty extreme migration to start with. I arrived in Eilat and joined the festival group that had been running already for a few days. The first afternoon session I led was to north beach that was fairly quiet but hosted this stunning, cooperative blue morph Western Reef-Heron:

I birded with the festival and independently until Saturday, including a night trip for Nubian Nightjars (sadly the Desert Owls didn't show, again...), Arabian Warbler in the northern Arava, mind-blowing raptor migration up in the mountains, Black Scrub-Robins breeding in Samar - top quality stuff! I had a great time with the festival guests, I hope they enjoyed the birding too and also the conservation context that is a part of birding in Israel with BirdLife Israel.

Then it was on to Champions of the Flyway, meeting, greeting and helping teams prepare for the Big Day, scouting sites - all great fun. With a weather change and shifting winds, Saturday and Sunday were super exciting with tons of active bird migration, birds literally dropping out of the sky and going in all directions. The sky was full of raptors, bee-eaters, Hirundines, pipits, wagtails, larks, buntings and all sorts of other active migrants. On the ground, the bushes and fields were exploding with passerines, trees dripping with Sylvia (now Curruca?) warblers. The best birding Eilat can offer.

Tree Pipits

Collared Flycatcher

Masked Shrike

Steppe Eagles

Go Go Geese

Champions of the Flyways race day and events were an enormous climax of birding and friendship, working with teams, doing media stuff, very busy but lots of fun. I spent the morning with some teams at KM76 that is the most productive site at the moment, it was absolutely exploding with birds, so much stuff on the ground there, I enjoyed it very much. Check our eBird checklist here.

Hen Harrier

Caspian Stonechat

Spanish Sparrows looking all glorious

Appreciate the habitat where this Savi's Warbler is reeling:

Back in Eilat, there were some quality birds on show, including a young Bonelli's Eagle terrorizing pigeons at the cowsheds near KM19, and a pair of Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse showing so wonderfully at the little grove by the entrance to KM20. Exquisite birds those sandgrouse are. Check those feather patterns...

The closing event was incredible, all people gathered together for conservation, solidarity and friendship. Champions of the Flyway winners were The Wrens, who scored 181 species on the big day! The team is comprised of the Zaitlin family from Jerusalem, and included Klil who grew up at the Jerusalem Bird Observatory and then did a year at Eilat Birding Center. Klil is an outstanding birder and a great young man. I look forward to see him develop in the world of birding and conservation. Most importantly, COTF is about raising funds for ACBK and BSPB to protect Red-breasted Geese (still time to donate!), and bringing people together to act for conservation. The atmosphere during the closing events was truly inspiring, amplified by the shit storm Israel is going through currently, demonstrating that conservation and international solidarity and collaboration are the real thing, not this politics bullshit.

Photo by Yuval Dax - thanks Yuval for everything!

This is the place to say special thanks to my team who worked so hard on these events and made them so successful - Alen, Jonathan, Noam, Mark, you are legends. IBRCE team formed the backbone of the event. Yuval, Nadav, Meidad, Yotam and Ofri from BirdLife Israel team participated too - thank you! So many wonderful people to thank - sorry if I forgot anyone.

As an aftermath or after-party to COTF, on Thursday, still high on Adrenalin, I headed up to Kfar Ruppin. I met up with The Birders Show for some filming, talking about our restoration work there, led by Nadav. They flew in to participate in COTF, and continued to focus on our restoration work. I had a great time with the team - Chris, Julian y Santi - you guys rock! While talking and watching birds in peace, news broke of a Yellow-billed Stork nearby. We made a quick dash for it, wonderful bird!

Yellow-billed Stork! Yesterday while filming w @TheBirdersShow in Kfar Ruppin we got alerted of this mega. A few minutes of rally-driving later we enjoyed fab scope views. @ChrisBellCOL is in the background...@_OSME pic.twitter.com/yPw5cEQFcw

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) March 30, 2023

364

Well, I wasn't expecting THAT

It started yesterday, I headed down to Eilat for a leisurely overnighter of scuba diving. My birding expectations were very limited. En route I stopped at Hameishar for a quick look. It was very dry and pretty quiet. I did find one Asian Desert Warbler but it wouldn't play ball. This Long-legged Buzzard did.

This morning I had a bit of time for pre-breakfast birding before scuba diving. I checked Wadi Zefahot in the Eilat Mts. It was quiet there, a small flock of five Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse was very nice (thanks Piki), but they were super shy.

Commoner desert species weren't shy at all.

White-crowned Wheatear

Blackstart

As I was heading to breakfast Noam Weiss calls me: 'Come quick! I have a Dideric Cuckoo!'. Thanks Noam! I had little time to think, I skipped breakfast and drove to the IBRCE, my heart beating very fast. I arrived while it was being ringed by Shachar - so small! Weighing 24 gr only. Then it was taken to a photo session before being released back to where it was trapped. While taking photos of it an oriental Honey-Buzzard flew over. Classic.

Thanks Amir for the photo

This young male represents the second record for Israel. I actually saw the first one, in March 1994, few hundred meters from the spot it was found today. Barak uploaded this photo on FB - I am not sure who is the photographer. I am on the left, aged 18 with my first scope, Kowa TS1. Barak is second from the right. It was found by Mark Lawlor who volunteered at IBRCE that time.

This brings my annual total of bird species seen in Israel to 364. With less than two hours left, I think now I can call it a final figure.

Eilat Festival - Pied Bushchat - boom!

Joined the Eilat Festival today, and it was a super day indeed. Headed south in the morning, and through the C Negev (Sde boker area) there was very good Lesser Spotted Eagle migration going on - I had several hundreds, including some nice thermals:

Lesser Spotted Eagles and Steppe Buzzard

Did a couple more stops along the way but saw very little, including Neot Smadar that was practically dead when I drove through the fields and groves. Arrived at Eilat around lunchtime, and while I was having a bite I got a call from Igal Simantov saying he had just found a Pied Bushchat at Neot Smadar! Where I was just an hour before! And missed it! 

I led the afternoon tour, so we all headed towards the bushchat site and it was on show when we got there. Not as well as it did before - it had flown in and away across the kibbutz fence before we arrived, but it was still showing on a dead tree with some doves. All the guests were very happy with this fantastic mega (well done Igal!). Even though it's lost some of its magic in Israel - 7th record and third in three years (see here for instance), but in a WP context it is still a huge rarity, and some very keen WP listers were happy to see it. I guess a couple hundred birders connected with it during the afternoon. 

Pied Bushchat and Laughing Dove

The bushchat twitch took us longer than I expected, so we had time only for KM19 sewage before dusk. The reservoir was packed with birds, and as always there was very nice movement there before dusk. Highlights included 3 longstaying Ferruginous Ducks, some Garganeys, 2 Black-necked Grebes, several Citrine Wagtails, 2 Ospreys, and this adult Gull-billed Tern that flew past after sunset: 

Our main target for the evening was Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse. A very large group of birders assembled at the ponds at dusk, and it was a good experience to see everyone sat quietly in the right place in order not to disturb the birds coming in to drink - quite a challenge with such a large group but it all worked well. After dusk three sandgrouse came in to drink - typically very late. Great end to an exciting day!

 Artistic impression of male Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse

Eilat Festival update days 3 & 4 - too much information

The last two days have been too busy with too many birds. I was busy guiding so didn't have enough time to really let this abundance sink in but the feeling is just fantastic - huge numbers of migrants all over the place, quality stuff, and lots of learning and teaching simultaneously. 

Yesterday spent a morning at Yotvata with Martin Garner and Nadav. We saw tons of birds - lots of good stuff. Marting is really into describing new stuff and I got into some interesting discussions with him. Still so much to learn and know. Anyway, tons of passerines in the fields and bushes - larks, pipts, wagtails, redstarts, wheatears, warblers, bluethroats etc.  At the sewage ponds this confiding Spotted Crake:

Big numbers of Eastern Black-eared Wheaters - some very warm-toned individuals:

Very strong raptor migration overhead, including this very pale and striking Lesser Spotted Eagle - note short P7, small head and some barring on remiges:

Murmuration of Spanish Sparrows:

In the evening led the 'Rambo Night'. At Neot Hakikar great show of Nubian Nightjars and the Egyptian Nightjar still present. No show of Hume's owl unfortunately. Got back to Eilat at 02:00 and up at 05:00 for birding. Spent the morning at the IBRCE. It was a massive morning with more than 600 birds processed. Lots of Rueppel's and Balkan Warblers, some Scops Owls and one ugly-looking Subalpine Warbler. Such a great morning. MG almost started crying.

In the afternoon led a nice tour. Started off to clinch the ID of a wing-barred phylosc found by Neil Gelnn at SPNI fieldschool. We relocated it quickly and id'd it as Yellow-browed Warbler. Nice one Neil! Then off to Ofira Park. It was just packed with birds. So much stuff, such quality. My poor guests didn't know where to look. Buntings, pipits, wagtails, redstarts, wheatears, wrynecks, quails, warblers etc. I was with my 40D and small lens hence the poor images:

Cretzschmar's Bunting

Several forms of Yellow Wagtail, including this dombrowski-type:

Pied Wheater with Black-headed Wagtail:

Ended the day at KM19. At dusk two Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse came in to drink - super birds. Good night.

Festival update - day 7

Last full day of the festival!
In the early morning I went with Phil to KM19 sewage ponds, after there was no sign of the sandplover. The only birds of note at KM20 were two Citrine Wagtails. We had a good time at the sewage. We found this female Cyprus Wheatear:

We had a flock of about 15 Pale rock Sparrows stop by for a minute before taking off and flying north. One Little Bittern and two Namaqua Doves were nice too.
Later that morning again strong migration low over the city, another Eastern Imperial Eagle among many other eagles.
Before lunch we got the news that the sandplover had been relocated. I drove there with Dick Forsman. On the way in we made a brief stop for this pretty Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse right next to the Arava highway:

At the KM20 the sandplover was showing well to a large crowd, but it took off just as we arrived. So I did not manage to improve my photographic achievements considerabely:

There is much debate over this bird. I must admit that I am less sure it's a lesser - let's wait for the experts to give their opinions.

North Beach was very good in the afternoon with many terns, gulls and ducks. Best bird was a distant White-cheeked Tern. Other good birds were Curlew and Pallas's Gulls.

In the evening a couple of Lich's Sandgrouse flew in to drink at KM19, giving superb views.