Life and death on the sand dunes

Yesterday Meidad and I ventured out deep into the desert for fieldwork. We are completing a large-scale project mapping breeding birds for our atlas. We both worked in the Agur Sands NR, which is in fact the very extralimital extension of the Sahara sand belt that stretches across Africa into Sinai and the western Negev.

The habitat includes mobile sand dunes dotted with some bushes, and the valley floors are coated with a layer of Loess soil where there's a bit more plant productivity. Admittedly, sand dunes aren't the richest desert habitat for breeding birds in Israel. However, it is an important habitat for some threatened breeding species (more in these below), especially after good winter rains, as we had this past winter. Sandy habitats are certainly a biodiversity hotspot for psammophile organisms such as rodents and reptiles. Walking across the pure sand dunes in the early morning, it is always impressive to see how much nocturnal activity there was - every afternoon the wind swipes the sand dunes clean. Don't know what happened to my phone camera, however I quite like this monochromatic effect... In this photo there are tracks of Crowned Leafnose Snake (Lytorhynchus diadema), several gerbiles, jerboa and many beetles.

Nidua Fringe-fingered Lizard (Acanthodactylus scutellatus) - must be a pregnant female:

Any guesses what this is?

The most dominant breeding bird was Mediterranean Short-toed Lark. These sandy habitats are very important for this threatened species in Israel, especially when plant productivity is relatively high following good winter rainfall. Indeed, I had them in very good density, and their amazing song filled the sky - they are fantastic mimics. Here this male includes Crested Lark in his song, while another flies by calling:

They were busy breeding, including feeding recently-fledged young:

These are three youngsters:

I was alerted by a local Brown-necked Raven about the presence of a raptor - the raven was harassing a migrant Montagu's Harrier that had just caught prey, most likely a recently-fledged Mediterranean Short-toed Lark - life for one, death for another.

Another montys, a female, cruising over the sand dunes hoping to snatch some breakfast before another day of migration:

This certainly isn't prime habitat for terrestrial migrants, but migration here never stops and migrants can be found sheltering even in unhospitable habitats. Migration was in full swing and very evident both up in the air and on the ground. I flushed a Corn Crake off a random sand dune, my first for the season - good to see one alive and well...

There was really good movement of aerial insectivores - swifts, swallows and bee-eaters.

Pallid Swifts

Barn Swallow

Oh, those beautiful European Bee-eaters. Which version do you prefer - the first with all individuals aligned?

Or the second version with one individuals preening and facing the opposite direction?

Buntings, pipits, chats, warblers - so very good. I also had six Pale Rockfinches flying through. 

Eastern Orphean Warbler

Ortolan Bunting

On the way out I surprised a large Desert Monitor sunning itself on my track - male by the contrating colouration:

eBird checklist here.

Unfortunately, the way out was longer than expected as I got stuck trying to climb a track climbing up an extremely tall sand dune. After a couple of hours of failed attempts to free ourselves from the sand, we received help from a passing convoy of friendly ATV'ers. Thank you Yossi et al!

Persian revisited

I spent an enjoyable morning birding with my good friend from Holland, Gert. Gert needed the Persian Wheatear that returned for a second winter. As I love birding at its chosen site, Har Amasa, it was not hard to convince me to pay the wheatear another visit. It was Euro-cold when we got there, windy and overcast, so it took us a while to get some bird activity. Eventually we found the bird where it was supposed to be. It spotted us from a distance and flew directly at us to check us out - is it being fed mealworms by intrepid photographers? Anyway, it was disappointed that we had no offerings for it, so it kept a medium distance away. With the grim light conditions my photographic results are rather poor, but the important thing is that Gert enjoyed great views of his lifer. Fantastic bird, whatever it is - still waiting for DNA analysis results.

Shame about the no-focus and composition...

There was a brilliant density of Finsch's Wheatears there - we counted 17 in a rather small area. 

Other quality birds included several Spectacled Warblers and a Long-billed Pipit. eBird checklist here.

Because we were cold we decided to head down towards the lowest place on earth, the Dead Sea, to absorb some warmth. First we checked Lot/Heimar Reservoir that did not produce much (checklist here) but provided typically lovely views of stunning Arabian Green Bee-eaters:

A bit further south, Navit Pools were more productive with overall larger numbers of birds (see checklist here), 7 Ferruginous Ducks and one purple chicken that didn't play ball.

African Swamphen

I was impressed by the big numbers of Pallid Swifts this early in the season - we estimated 800 just over the wetland:

Note some important, less trivial ID features: prominent 'zoro mask', pale median coverts with obvious dark greater covert bar, and shallow tail fork.

Then it was time to head back. We checked one last reservoir near Gert's train station, Kfar Harif. It was OK (3 White-headed and 3 Ferruginous Ducks, checklist here). I was intrigued by two summer-plumaged White-winged Terns there. In recent years they have changed their status in Israel. Once a strict migrant, now they winter in fair numbers in various parts of the country. Interestingly, all photos I saw of these wintering birds are in immaculate summer plumage.

Good birding, bad weather

Had some time for birding this morning but the morning was very grey and cold, so I decided to go east to escape to better weather and light conditions. Spent the morning in the Arad Valley, in the NE Negev, at the edge of the Negev desert. In the valley there is some cultivation - open fields and orchards, and the sewage works of the town of Arad. The sewage had some common ducks and these Common Shelducks:

And this very lost Common Crane:

The fields had few birds - not too many skylarks and pipits, perhaps becuase of the cold weather. I did find one Oriental Skylark - flushed it several times and managed to get this flight record shot - note the buff trailing edge and outer tail feathers:

Big numbers of Pallid Swifts (about 1000) were foraging low over the fields - shame about the bad light:

Brown-necked Ravens mix there with the many Hooded Crows:

Nightjars and serins

Yesterday had a great tour at Neot Hakikar with Javier et al. (Spain) and Werner (Switzerland). We began with nice views of displaying male Dead-Sea Sparrows and already hundreds of Pallid Swifts. After dusk we saw four Nubian Nightjars - it was an exceptionally warm evening, with strong insect activity which resulted in very good nightjar activity.

Today tried to catch Syrian Serins gathering to roost in Midreshet Ben Gurion (Sde Boker). About 40 birds came in to the pre-roost on some big trees. The wind was very strong this afternoon so the catch was pretty bad - only two birds got caught, but two birds are much more than nothing. It was very interesting for me to handle these birds in winter. We catch hundreds every summer on Mt. Hermon, so it's cool to see them in their fresh post-moult winter plumage. Thanks to all the guys who helped - Elon, Darren, Eyal, Itzik and Shemesh.