Almost The Greatest Story Ever Told (1 Viewer)

In the beginning was the word. And the word was "No". It was no to Western Sahara, no to Morocco and very definitely no to Eastern Turkey. So the plan was without form, and void.

Then Israel was suggested. And they saw that it was good. And the final word was "Yes".

John

OK, preliminaries:

Usual team, Steve Babbs, Jeff Higgott, me and Marion. The trip was originally planned as mammals with some birds but by our arrival already looked more like a birding trip with some mammals: no complaints from me at least with plenty of ticks of both kinds available.

All accommodation booked by Jeff and Steve, plus flights from EasyJet (partly because of their friendly attitude to large and heavy camera equipment in cabin baggage) and car from Eldan.

Car was a Dacia Duster, one of the slightly longer models, two-wheel drive but high ground clearance (important when there's likely to be birds not that close to roads). Its performance with four adults, birding kit and luggage for a fortnight including several days when birding and travelling (so with entire outfit in the car) was excellent, and I'd describe it as economical as well. Steve and Jeff shared the driving and navigation and provided an outstanding performance in both departments for which I thank them very much indeed: despite severe provocation from what another hire car website described as "typically abysmal Israeli driving" and for that matter Booking.com locations that were a little less than precise (notifications have been sent, more of that later!)

The trip divided itself into several phases: we overnighted just outside Tel Aviv the first night then drove to Eilat and worked out of there for five nights: then three nights in the Negev at Mid Reshet Ben-Gurion, followed by two nights at Arad near the Dead Sea and finally a long move up to Yesod HaMa'ala in the Hula Valley for another three nights before returning to Lod, near Tel Aviv for the last night before flying home.

1 April: Saturday 1

We had a reasonable flight out if you discount a short discussion at the Luton gate about a full jet and some cabin bags needing to go in the hold: mine included. With a 500mm f4 in it I flatly refused and the support staff sensibly didn't make an issue of it.

We landed after dark, got through immigration where we were given the blue cards that you can use to avoid Israeli VAT on accommodation (and which we imagined we might need to exit the country again....) found our way first to the hire car desk and then the pick-up point where we made an obvious point of photographing the various dings already on the car (there were a few!) and off into the black night with Steve following Jeff's relaying of satnav directions from his phone app. With only a few early missed turnings we arrived intact at our first accommodation to find that guest house in this case meant use of the two bedrooms the lady of the house's offspring used when visiting. Didn't matter. We wanted sleep and got it.

Score so far: nothing, not so much as a single roadkill hedgehog.

Tomorrow the adventure begins....

John

2 April: Sunday 1

Awake, out of bed, quickly out into the garden to see what's going on. House Sparrows, initially, and of course a clattery bunch of Feral Pigeons, far too multi-plumaged to be considered Rock Doves. We quickly learned that whatever the concerns in UK, Israel is the home of the House Sparrow. They are everywhere, in the cities, towns, villages, fields, deserts, mountains, beaches. But they weren't exactly what we had come for....

Palestine Sunbird certainly was, though, and oh joy! a male was feeding among the blooms on the tree above us, darting lightning fast from one to the next then down to another flowering bush and back up, flashing metallic blues and greens in the dappled sunlight of early morning. With no feel whatever for its likely common-ness I had worried about seeing this colourful bird, for obvious aesthetic reasons high on my trip wanted list - pressure off already. Photos next but I'm just absorbing the locale here, camera still in its bag. An IDF Blackhawk helicopter cruised past at some distance and I received a whole-team instruction not to photograph Israeli military equipment at any time during the trip. It was unnecessary, I'd reached that conclusion myself months before.

White-spectacled Bulbuls put themselves forward for consideration next, sitting up briefly and then scooting away into the hedge on the far side of the road. Meanwhile Collared Doves and Laughing Doves were murmuring from telegraph poles, Blackcaps tacking from everywhere and overhead a Black Kite drifted past while Red-rumped Swallows chased down insects and the local Hooded Crows flapped after the kite. We rehabilitated ourselves with tea and set off after thanking our hosts.

The first part of the journey once we had extracted ourselves from suburbia lay through agricultural land (plant quarantine area: do not discard vegetable matter from your car) but we saw a few birds: small groups of White Storks and Black Kites; Steppe Buzzards swirling in thermals; the odd Cattle Egret moving between feeding grounds. In the gaps I noted domestic animals: not just the masses of cats and loose-running dogs around our accommodation but sheep, cows and rather less Western European goats and, in some rather naff scrub near some shacks, camels. Dromedaries, seemingly loose but presumably owned and just grazing to be caught when required. I never did get pictures of them: we saw a few more groups throughout the trip but never predictably, so we were always moving quickly and the wrong lens on the camera....

It was a hot day and bright: heading South we were going straight into the sun and a thickish haze elevated the glare to unpleasant levels even for the back seat hat wearer. At our first stop near the Arava junction I found looking at anything difficult, which was my own fault for not bringing sunglasses (which I dislike wearing). Among other things I find they get in the way of using a camera and at last I had the chance to do exactly that with the Tristram's Starlings (Grackles if you prefer) that came right up to the car to see if we had food to share with them. Crested Larks were present as well, but not being co-operative.

From our viewpoint on the escarpment we could see across East to the settling pans at the Southern tip of the Dead Sea, and the Jordanian mountains beyond, hampered somewhat by the haze but still, what a view. We dropped down to the valley floor and hit a service station for food and drinks, adding Common Myna to the trip list. A Brown-necked Raven was then added to that list along with our first views of Blackstart. The cold fresh drinks were very welcome and we went on refreshed.

It was not long after this that Jeff gave his verdict on Israel's desert and mountain scenery: "It's just a big quarry" he said. "You could film a million episodes of Dr Who here."

Personally I quite liked the blended whites and mustard yellows, pale browns and strange mauve shades of the harshly eroded, jagged landscape, especially after something seemed to snap inside my head and my eyes adjusted surprisingly and for the remainder of the trip to the overall brightness so I could see without too much of a Man with no Name squint. But I could see his point.

John

Partly just for a break from driving we stopped at a shallow wadi with a road bridge and wandered up and down birding the bushes that followed the line of the dry river bed. They were full of Lesser Whitethroats and Blackcaps, there was a Woodchat sitting up that was quickly replaced on its bush by a Southern Grey Shrike, and I had a brief view of a Sardinian Warbler that promptly vanished. Nothing exciting.

On we went down to Yotvata and the first of several choice sewage pools. Choice in more ways than one.... it was afternoon of a very hot day and it stank to high heaven. However, Spur-winged Plover was a tick, and the Masked Shrike hunting from the fence sat up nicely for pictures: the rancid mud was awash with Black-headed Wagtails, the bushes with Lesser Whitethroats and Eastern Bonelli's Warblers. Amongst them we eventually managed to locate a strange song and identify the melodist as Graceful Prinia.

Nearby is the last earthly refuge of the Acacia Gazelle, a recent split from Mountain Gazelle and in desperate trouble with only between 15 and 30 individuals remaining. The Israeli authorities threw a fence round the remainder and the choice is simple: go and see them within the fence - or don't. We went to see them, and found first, that the only access is down a (not too rough) track and second, on arrival, that approach to even the fence line is forbidden, with signage keeping observers some 100 yards back.

On the way in Jeff had spotted two Sand Partridges making their way through low scrub and one hung around long enough for photos out of the car window.

The other problem about sorting out some Acacia Gazelles is that when the fence was built round the remaining animals, it included a number of Dorcas Gazelles within its bounds and with no previous experience of either we were left with the expedient of photographing every gazelle we could see. A heavy chainlink fence didn't help this process, but by moving sideways along the line of the prohibition we ended up part way up a ridge and able to look over the fence, which helped a bit. I'll put the pictures up presently. Currently I think we had Acacia Gazelle on the first visit. We also found a Little Green Bee-eater sitting up which was nice to see and a positive identification.

We returned to the main road and drove South past the reserve. There is a wide gap between the road and the reserve fence, and we spotted some gazelles starting up from shade between the two. These, being outside the fence, had to be Dorcas Gazelles and with the road quiet we pulled off and both studied and photographed them.

After that we had a fairly uneventful drive down to Eilat, were waved through the checkpoint outside town and with some natty navigating found the Motel Aviv, our home for the next five nights. Rooms were basic, comfortable to a degree (my side of the mattress sloped outward leaving me at permanent risk of falling out of bed) and walls were thick. A/c worked very quickly.

Steve has something of an obsession with street food, and we walked out in search of the real Israel as night fell. We had some idea of where we were going as we had shopped for daytime supplies for the next couple of days late afternoon, and quickly decided on a small street restaurant which oddly turned out to be called The Persian, which served us our first felafels and similar fare as well as confirming that Israeli restaurant booze prices are astronomical. For this reason our afternoon shop had included bottled beers and wine for Maz.... we returned to the hotel for a couple of cold ones and an inconclusive discussion on gazelle identification as well as filling out the daily log before turning in.

John

Wadi
Southern Grey Shrike
Spur-winged Plover
Masked Shrike
Sand Partridge

More pix

John

Acacia Gazelle X 2 (I think)
Acacia Gazelle (I think)
Dorcas Gazelle X 2 (definitely)

I was in Eilat around the same time as you and I'm really surprised our paths didn't cross. Having done a more hardcore mammal/birding trip to Israel last year with Mark Hows and John Sadler, this last trip was a much more relaxed affair with Sarah and I only managed 2 mammal lifers.

Acacia Gazelles have a conspicuous nose spot and I find this is by far the easiest way to separate them from Dorcas Gazelles. In my (limited) experience, the Dorcas can appear to have a relatively dark side stripe, especially at distance and without an Acacia nearby for comparison.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your report and seeing your photos.

Mike Richardson said:

I was in Eilat around the same time as you and I'm really surprised our paths didn't cross. Having done a more hardcore mammal/birding trip to Israel last year with Mark Hows and John Sadler, this last trip was a much more relaxed affair with Sarah and I only managed 2 mammal lifers.

Acacia Gazelles have a conspicuous nose spot and I find this is by far the easiest way to separate them from Dorcas Gazelles. In my (limited) experience, the Dorcas can appear to have a relatively dark side stripe, especially at distance and without an Acacia nearby for comparison.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your report and seeing your photos.

Click to expand...

Well I'll be..... if I'd known you were coming I'd have baked a falafel. At least we could have shared beers! I suspect we are going to find out just how closely we missed each other. I can categorically state I didn't see you and not recognise you - I'm sure even out of context I would have.

We also found the side stripe could be very misleading given vastly different light in the open/in shade, angle of viewing etc. I thought however that the nose spot could be present in both species, so my slightly tentative identifications are principally based on structure (antler dimensions and shap, leg length compared to overall height) at present. I'll have a look through our second visit to the reserve and some other Dorcas pix and see what's what. I hope.

Cheers

John

3 April: Monday 1

Foreign tripping is the art of the possible and after a long drive yesterday a fiendishly early start was right out. Notwithstanding this I woke fairly early and had a scan round the hotel area, finding little of interest apart from the first of many Eastern Bonelli's Warblers for the day in a tree overhanging the courtyard and the inevitable bulbuls and House Crows on telegraph wires and posts.

Our first birding destination once mobile was the North Beach, after which we intended to bird our way up to the International Birdwatching and Research Centre Eilat (IRBCE or the Eilat Birdwatching Centre, I do not subscribe to New World spelling.) A small stream runs into the Red Sea (Gulf of Aqaba) there and this attracts waterbirds. Two Western Reef Herons were feeding in the stream mouth and a single Greater Sand Plover roosting on the far side of the spit across the stream from us. Discussion on the identity of the latter was brief - it was a substantial plover with pale legs and a honker of a bill.

A flock of about twenty Slender-billed Gulls was milling about on the sea just off the end of the stream, mostly first-summers but with one or two full adults also present. Of large gulls the cupboard was bare. Loitering a while only added a passing Sandwich Tern, and we set off inland along a baked earth track, stopping occasionally to reconnoitre. More EBWs and Lesser Whitethroats resulted, but we also had nice close views of a couple of Crested Larks as well as a brief Wryneck, a cracking male Namaqua Dove and numbers of Laughing and Collared Doves before reaching the IRBCE.

We also had an encounter with a date palm harvesting platform, a conventional cherry-picker except for a platform that spilt, then clamped around the tree allowing access to the full circumference. It was doing the outside palms of a plantation from our track and we had to sidestep it via a ramp up to another track. As it couldn't reach any distance into the locked up plantation we speculated that it was date rustlers. The plantations seemed to be devoid of birds: we were later assured that they would be "dripping with flycatchers and stuff" but oddly we never managed to confirm this.

Arriving at the centre we parked by the half dozen other cars (really? Pennington would be more crowded and this is the legendary Eilat!) and walked in, to be roundly ignored by the staff of this free resource. As you come through the gate you are under a canopy of tamarisk and other trees. To your left front are salt pans, straight ahead is a track and front right appears to be impenetrable bush. Of course it isn't: there are tracks through, some to ringing stations, one that joins up with the main drag for a birder circuit leading past two hides overlooking a great scrape (one the open water and the other, a small reedbed overhung by trees: very good for close crakes.) At the far end of the circuit is the raptor migration station but this can't offer very good views of birds tracking along the mountains at the West side of the city: good enough with a scope to ID and count but not much more.

We started with the immediate area where a male Ruppell's Warbler was bouncing about in the lower branches of a tree by the water and then went for a wander along the salt pans, where a couple of dozen Greater Flamingoes were swishing their upside-down heads back and forth and numerous shorebirds scuttled along the water margins after invertebrates. There were Black-winged Stilts, Ruffs and delightful chequered Marsh Sandpipers (its a long time since I saw one in Britain, they seem to have dried up a bit) as well as list fodder like Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers, Dunlin and Little Stints.

Steppe Buzzards were passing through overhead, another staple species of our time in Eilat, and then we were treated to a change in the shape of a pale morph Booted Eagle that gave us great views as it circled up above us in the bright blue sky. Reaching the open water scrape hide we settled down and enjoyed flypasts from Squacco and Black-crowned Night Herons, a full-blown flying display from a dozen Purple Herons, then first brief and then point-blank extended views of Little Crakes, a Bluethroat that had been maintaining a territory for several days, a Sedge Warbler that chose to hop about on open sand at the water's edge instead of skulking in bushes. Needless to say cameras were active.

We also picked up a few Hirundines, with Red-rumped Swallows, Swallows and the odd Rock Martin and Sand Martin all passing over but not generally hanging about or being photographable.

We returned to the hotel for a siesta in the hottest part of the day, which was somewhere in the mid-thirties Celsius. I can't quite remember whether it was en route to the hotel or after we left it again, but we nipped round to Dolphin Reef where we had been told an adult White-eyed Gull was hanging out regularly on the barriers that keep the captive Bottlenoses in. We got the gull (and brief views of the dolphins) from a pay car park we didn't hang about at. Distant: but we hoped to do better at North Beach later in the week.

After that we headed North out of town to seek out the Km 19 sewage pools ready for an evening stakeout for Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse. We had a little trouble with the directions, chiefly our own inability to recognise a modern treatment works, and did some birding at a small wadi about a Km too far South having bypassed the actual site. This was a happy accident as it was full of birds (mostly Lesser Whitethroats of course) including Eastern Orphean Warbler that proved too active and elusive from my lens and Eastern Olivaceous Warbler that didn't. A yell alerted the whole team to a male Pallid Harrier that really shot through, must have been on a promise when he got to his territory up North, but I managed to get a few shots off anyway and it was my candidate for Bird of the Day.

When we did find the Km 19 pools, they were great. Yellow Wagtails of various appearances were flocking in to feed and roost by hundreds. Spur-winged Plovers were numerous, and a flock of about a hundred White Storks came up and circled before continuing North a little to our East, beautifully lit by the evening sun behind us and against the backdrop of the Jordanian mountains. Fabulous. A couple of Collared Pratincoles gave us a close series of flybys. Squacco Herons popped in and out of reedbeds, and a Black-crowned Night Heron near our chosen sitting positions with other birders teased from its reeds before emerging properly after sunset. Cattle and Little Egrets completed the day's heron list as the light faded.

When it was nearly dark, three Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse sneaked down onto the bank of the lake and sat there halfway up from the water, taking a view of the situation before scuttling down the gravel to drink at the edge - and being driven back by an aggressive Spur-winged Plover! They sat and considered further while the plover calmed down, and eventually managed to fulfill their needs without getting beaten up any more. I took some shots at ISO 51,200 which are everything you would expect. I'll post one later.

We dined this evening at a street café much closer to home. We'd actually been trying to follow directions to an Italian restaurant but must have misunderstood them: the street café was cheap, clean, quick and happy for us to get beers from the shop up the road and eat at his one table. It was a good meal and we thought we might well be back another night.

John

Greater Sand Plover
Slender-billed Gull
Western Reef Heron
Crested Lark
Namaqua Dove

Great read John, I should have been there for that week, but due to situation with elderly mother, had to postpone.

Already jealous with Namaqua Dove, and male Pallid Harrier (they never seem to stay put). I only saw one Palestine Sunbird in 5 days last year, so anyway, looking forward to the remainder of your report.

Really enjoyable read.

I'm sorry you couldn't make it. There's always next year - Trump, Assad and assorted other nutcases permitting.....

As this was kind of the opening day there was a rush of birds so there is now a rush of pictures: they will thin out as the fortnight proceeds. Hope you enjoy them.

John

White-spectacled Bulbul
Signpost - I must say the second statement is entirely redundant so far as I'm concerned!
Booted Eagle
Eastern Bonelli's Warbler
Black-winged Stilt

More pix, mostly from the hide at the scrape, which was mind-bogglingly good. I could have sat there with my camera for a month....

Marsh Sandpiper
Purple Heron
Common Sandpiper
Little Crake
Bluethroat

And still more.... I don't know whether to crow or apologise for bombing out so many for one day.

Ruppell's Warbler
Eilat (from North Beach)
Lesser Whitethroat
Pallid Harrier
White Storks

Last lot for the day

White Stork
Collared Pratincole
Spur-winged Plover
Km 19 Sewage Pool
Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse

C'mon John, stop 'larking' about, looking forward to the rest of your report -

wolfbirder said:

C'mon John, stop 'larking' about, looking forward to the rest of your report -

Click to expand...

I am genuinely sorry: I am just back from a two week holiday, work is busy, to keep ahead of the story I need to assess, select and photoshop relevant pictures from a total after back-of-the-camera edit of 3600, and on top of that its Marion's birthday this weekend... however, you must be prescient because "larking" about is what we are going to do next!

John

4 April: Tuesday 1

Marion opted for a day off today and with the targets mainly birds of (to non-birders) nondescript appearance, I agreed this was a good one for her to miss.

So the three boys were up and out early, and heading round the ring road to the mountain road that runs North along the Egyptian border. Good old satnav. The mountain road is undramatic: big solid Armco barriers where necessary, good surfaces, sensible curves and effective use of the contours to minimise what mountaineers are pleased to understate as "exposure". So, no fear of heights issues for me.

In any case I was still giving rather more consideration to the security position, with the road paralleling a ten foot plus welded wire mesh fence topped and nestled in rolls of razor wire: with on the Egyptian side small forts every couple of miles, each of steel and concrete facings with two watchtowers, one at each end. The overall effect was very much like the Towers of the Teeth at the Black Gate of Mordor, but repeated ad infinitum. One of these milecastles sat atop a large crag overlooking, albeit from a distance, the track to and indeed the flat gravel of, Se'fim Plain, our first destination. This is a wintering area for quite a variety of larks and we hoped to pick up a few ticks with a bit of work.

Slightly to my surprise the Israeli side appeared devoid of defences, though I did wonder if that simply reflected a different posture or philosophy of defence. Anyway, the Duster made its way down the slopes to the single tree that marks the parking place for birders intending to work the plain, and we debussed to find it was really quite chilly!

Its not news to us or many that deserts get hot during the day but lose that heat quickly at night under clear skies: it wasn't quite frosty but if the air hadn't been all but still, we would definitely have wanted more layers.

All around the plain broken stone lay on not very steep hills with small crags and a few small bushes along obvious lines of currently dry watercourses. The plain itself was very nearly flat with many completely open areas of sand and gravel interspersed with very small bushes - three feet was a tall one - and a few flowers and fresh grasses indicating that there had been rain fairly recently.

We spread out and began to move across the plain looking for any kind of movement. The first obvious bird was a male Hooded Wheatear sitting up, which we photographed before it flew further away towards its mate, which we didn't get to photograph. Tick for me at least: excellent! The next call was for one of our key wants for the trip as a Hoopoe Lark materialised quite close to us. Thankfully this too hung around allowing us to take pictures and watch it at fairly close range until distracted by a pair of Desert Larks not far beyond and to the right of it. This is going well!

In the distance we could see a group of birders who had elected to stay with their car and use it to follow a track that followed the edge of the plain. We recognised them as a group we'd spoken too briefly the day before, and noticed with a certain resentment that at least one had a nice warm down jacket on this cold morning.

A Marsh Harrier came through Northwards, gliding low rather than looking for thermals. We disturbed it from a roost on the ground a little later and it made off still heading North. A Black Kite flapped along actively, also impelled to move Northwards despite the lack of atmospheric help.

With a bit of careful shifting around we managed to get past the Hoopoe Lark without flushing it, and the Desert Larks helpfully foraged straight towards us. As we were clicking away at them the Hoopoe Lark flew past to an area a bit beyond them, fed there briefly and then flew back past us and off into the middle distance with all three of us desperately trying to take flight photos. Steve certainly got some, I got one frame of some use. We completed our session with the Desert Larks and moved on.

I headed for a bent bit of metal lying in an open area. A natural to have a reptile under it. Before I got there something moved between me and it and I felt the usual lurch of reaction before seeing it was a lizard - well, an agama, from the wide blunt ugly head. I called the others over and happily this too sat around to have its portrait taken. Steve subsequently identified it as Desert Agama, so it was in the right place: it was heating up now as the sun got higher. There was nothing under the tin and I'm willing to bet that was the agama's roost or at least basking spot.

A Northern Wheatear hopped, skipped and flew past, adding to the list but otherwise getting a cold shoulder from all three of us. In any case a few seconds later we had another target occupying our attention: the light reddish back and bold face pattern of a Temminck's Horned Lark, our third new lark of the morning and a very smart bird. Unfortunately it was one of those irritating individuals that is quite clear about approach distances and it quite obviously scuttled away from us at the same rate we walked towards it. After a very short experience of this we decided not to push it and took photos from where we were before walking away to leave it in peace.

Soon after this we came upon another black-and-white wheatear, and decent views including super flight views with the sunlight coming through its tail revealed this one was a Mourning Wheatear and another fine tick.

Further roaming around only yielded the addition of a few Trumpeter Finches that shot off before we could get anywhere near them, so we worked back to our car next to the tree, where another kind of lizard that Steve's research could only get down to either Bosk's or Arnold's Fringe-toed Lizard was skittering around the bases of scrubby bushes, and we noted without really paying attention one or two small brown warblers with long tails. Then we mounted up and set off along the track to where the other birders were, to check out whether they had anything we'd missed.

En route to their location we had another Wheatear come up on bushes to the left of the track: it was a "throated" Eastern Black-eared Wheatear and very nice indeed. An "eared" one also appeared but it shot off without stopping and I got no photos.

We joined the others who had a distant Tawny Pipit running about on the open gravel and sandy patches, and then put us onto a Bar-tailed Desert Lark which was at scope distance but none the less welcome for that, we all know you can't have everything on a plate. They also asked if we'd had the Scrub Warblers in the bushes along the wadi - we immediately realised we had, but oops.....

We talked with them about other sites and they mentioned one for Crowned and Spotted Sandgrouse (both on our wanted list) that was right out the back of an Israeli army base - but they insisted they'd had no problems there and not to worry. They did admit they'd been run off by the military when they tried to bird near Uvda airport - note for future visitors perhaps... we decided we would recce the sandgrouse site that evening in order to make sure of getting there promptly for the morning watch the next day.

After all this we made off back along the mountain road towards Eilat in the hope of catching some of the legendary raptor migration: the day was now heating up properly and there ought to be thermals and updraughts along the ridges.

John

Pictures from the Se'fim Plain, Part 1

John

Se'fim Plain X 2

Hooded Wheatear X 2

Part 2

Hoopoe Lark X 3
Desert Lark X 2

Part 3 (it was a good morning, this was)

Marsh Harrier female
Desert Agama
Temminck's Horned Lark
Steve
Desert Mantis (I found this ambling across the desert and hadn't a clue what it was!)

Part 4

Mourning Wheatear
Bock's/Arnold's Fringe-toed Lizard
Eastern Black-eared Wheatear
Bar-tailed Desert Lark
Mourning Wheatear