Eilat International

I spent a couple of nights in Eilat, taking part in an international course organised by Noam Weiss, director of our Eilat Birding Center. The course, funded by the Ministry for Regional Cooperation, with the City of Eilat, was themed around the management of community-based bird observatories, with participants from 15 countries - Balkan, Caucasus, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern - what a wonderful mix of great people. Some were old friends, others new. Those were days of international work, international people and international birds.

Last week this happened:

Mega! African Crake found yesterday by a member of the public in Eilat, taken into care. 2nd record for Israel! Photo by @NoamWeiss10 @_OSME pic.twitter.com/cmNTtG9qnX

— Yoav Perlman (@yoavperlman) November 29, 2022

The bird, second for Israel, was taken into care in the Hai Bar Yotvata Reserve, and was rehabilitated by Israel Nature and Parks Authority staff there. I was anxious all week - will it recover? When will it be released? Knowing that the course is approaching, I kept all my fingers crossed. Eventually, my timing was perfect - the decision was made by INPA to release it back to the wild on Monday, the first morning of our course, at the Eilat Birding Center. Noam asked me whether I want to ring the bird. At first I offered the ringing team to go for it, then I thought to myself, why not. What an amazing bird to ring. It felt very fit and ready for release.

I was privileged to release it too. Suddenly, I realised I won't have a photo of the bird. I asked Noam to grab my camera and use it when I release the bird.

New profile picture?

The bird disappeared immediately in thick vegetation, never to be seen again. It was released in a section of the park that is closed off to the public, so nobody could bother it as it readjusted to the wild.

That afternoon I squeezed in half an hour of seawatching, to join the incredible Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel party. Indeed, I saw from shore at least four individuals, whizzing around a fishing boat. Very cool.

Next morning, yesterday, we went early with the course participants to do some desert birding near Amram's Pillars. 

All expected desert species were seen, including four Sinai Rosefinches. They were a bit distant for photography but were seen very well and were very vocal. In this region, the geology and geomorphology are perhaps as impressive as the birds.

Rain that fell there last week (very rare) melted the sand stone and created beautiful patterns.

Then, after I finished what I had to do with the course, I headed north via Nahal Etek, where the Verreaux's Eagle are being seen. I spent a few hours there with Amir, Meidad, Arad, Barak and a few others, scanning and scanning. The scenery there is so serene and beautiful. And there's no phone signal. Bliss. If only the eagles showed up... But they didn't. There was a trickle of Steppe Eagles passing through, a Common Raven and that's all.

Huge appreciation to Noam and the Eilat Birding Center team for the successful operation of the course, with the fantastic support by Alen, Amir and the rest of the team.

The best show in town

 Sorry for neglecting my blog recently. Busy weeks, lockdown, lots of stuff going on. I have been out daily to marvel at the spectacle of migration, up in the sky and on the ground. It has really been great. However, to my eyes, one of the best shows Israel has to offer is the congregation of fresh-looking desert birds, post post-breeding moult, at desert springs. A while ago I went with Amir to Ein Salvadora, a famous little spring north of Ein Gedi. It holds water year-round, in stunning location, with soaring cliffs and the Dead Sea in the backdrop. It's a tiny spring, just a few drops of water trickling out from a crack in a wall, concealed behind a large Salvadora persica bush. That's enough to attract birds and mammals from far afield. It's not an easy site for photography - one needs to keep a fair distance away from the spring in order not to disturb the animals, and the drinking spot is in deep shade, red light reflecting from the surrounding sandstone rocks.

We climbed up the mountain trail before dawn, to position ourselves at an appropriate spot as soon as birds started to arrive. And they did, in big numbers. All quality. All so pretty and fresh. Those arriving in biggest numbers were Trumpeter Finch - fantastic breeding season for them all over the Israeli desert, so many youngsters around. Hundreds came in to drink, arriving in flocks, normally first perched on the rocks above the spring before descending to the water.

Another dominant species was Striolated Bunting - hundreds came in to drink too. Most were young birds, demonstrating the excellent breeding season they had. 

Sinai Rosefinch is another highly-prized specialty of this site. It is scarcer, and shier, than the other species. They spent more time perched up on the walls above the spring, and chose secluded spots for drinking. Again, most were young birds, adults, especially males in lower proportions. Still, out of the 75 birds in total, quite a few were pink jems.

Trumpeter and rosefinch

Desert Lark came in to drink in hundreds too:

Overhead, a Barbary Falcon cruised above the cliffs, a pair of Common Ravens kronked around, and a lone Long-legged Buzzard circled.

Kronk-kronk!

A large herd of Nubian Ibex came down to drink and hung around the spring. The herd included a dominant bull, showing off his swagger, dominating younger males and chasing after females:

Soon it became too hot for animals and humans, we headed back down to our car and back to civilisation. It certainly felt better up by the spring.

Sea and desert

Yesterday I joined the annual birders' special pelagic into the Gulf of Aqaba, organised by IBRCE. I met up with Klil in the middle of the night, and we drove the long way down to Eilat. After a quick visit to North Beach, we assembled at the marina. A Sooty Falcon cut the air low overhead as we boarded the boat - surely an omen of good luck. We set off towards the border-triangle of Israel, Jordan and Egypt, basically as deep as we could go without a passport. We chummed for a couple of hours, but no tubenose came in, though there was rather good tern activity with two Bridled, two Lesser Crested and many White-cheeked Terns. Nice, but no cigar.

White-cheeked Tern

Bridled and White-cheeked Tern

After a couple of frustrating hours, I was starting to fear a repeat of last years' failure (it was so depressing I didn't even blog about it). Finally, Daniel and Shachar spotted a distant all-dark storm-petrel flying across the gulf. Adrenalin! I got onto it quickly, and stayed on it for 5-6 seconds until it disappeared. I tried to take in as many plumage details and flight action. I managed to see it lacked a white rump, and the combination of fairly large size and powerful flight in straight line all helped us to identify it as Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel - boom! I was over the moon with excitement - a full fat global lifer, and one of my most wanted in Israel. Yet I felt for about half of the crew that did not manage to get on the bird. I was hoping for better views, so I was left slightly under-satisfied by the low quality of observation and no photos - something to improve next time maybe.

Throughout our stay at the chum spot we enjoyed brilliant activity of a Risso's Dolphin pod - about 8 animals, maybe more. They were hanging around just behind the international border, so we couldn't approach them much closer. They are such unique animals. The mature adults get extremely pale silvery-grey, and wear their dorsal fin off.

This one is dark with full-size fin

On the way back we hugged the coast, and enjoyed close views of White-eyed Gulls and White-cheeked Terns. White-cheeked Tern has become a regular breeding species in Eilat, and is seen in quite large numbers nowadays. 

White-eyed Gull - adult summer

White-eyed Gull - maybe non-breeding adult?

White-cheeked Tern

Eventually we returned to Eilat, quite exhausted but content - mission accomplished! eBird checklist here. Many thanks to Eitan the skipper who did an excellent job, and to Noam, Shachar and Libby who organised the trip.
Klil and me headed back home in the early afternoon. I was extremely tired driving, so decided to stop for birding (rather than powernap) at Yeleq Cistern. Nice activity of Sinai Rosefinches, also two Striolated Buntings. Most rosefinches were young, while fewer adult males and females came in, indicating a good breeding season for the species. This site is lovely but photography there is challenging. eBird checklist here.

Snai Rosefinch - adult male

Sinai Rosefinch - 1cy

Double rosefinches

This morning / last night I went on a special operation with some friends in the remote Negev. I left home just after midnight (no sleep). We travelled for a couple of hours before leaving the paved road and driving into the Negev desert. It was quite a tough and long 4X4 drive, after which we walked into the dark for another hour, carrying too much gear. Eventually we reached our destination - a beautiful and remote waterhole, that attracts lots of birds.

We quickly set a few nets up and waited for the birds to come in and drink. We covered only a very small section of the fairly large waterhole, so we didn't really disturb the birds coming in to drink. Before dawn we caught one Botta's Serotine. During the first hour it was mainly Trumpeter Finches that came in to drink, and later on Sinai Rosefinches took the lead. We also ringed 10 Rock Martins and two baby Sand Partridges. They perform an outstanding moult. They start flying at an age of one week or so; So they grow their first set of remiges very quickly, and start moulting them in several, very rapid cycles. This bird here hadn't finished moulting P1 & P2 yet, and had already started moulting all over again - check the inner primaries:

Botta's Serotine (Eptesicus bottae)

We ringed four Sinai Rosefinches - only juveniles. Such plain but neat birds.

One of 16 Trumpeter Finches we ringed. Again, most were juveniles but we did catch some brighter males.

Rock Martin

Ringing was not too massive so I had some time to try and photograph. Light conditions at the waterhole were awful, but still I like the results - really nice reflections:

Sinai Rosefinches - mainly juveniles but some males too:

Some trumpeters in here too:

Making lots of noise:

 Drinking was really massive and didn't really slow down until we had to leave at 10:00. I didn't count properly but I estimate something like 200-250 Sinai Roosefinches, and 300 Trumpeter Finches. Superb.

Finally one male rosefinch sat close enough:

 Active post-breeding moult

Scenic gorge

And the gorge from above

After we were done it was the same long way back home; at least it wasn't in the dark.

Many thanks to Yosef, Meidad, Ron, Darren, and Amir for the help and company.