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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Almost The Greatest Story Ever Told (1 Viewer)

Wow, well jel of all those larks, I spent hours last year trudging across Se'ifim plain, only got Desert Larks and BT Desert Larks, lovely photos too John.
 
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

It is confusing. HBMW mentions a "very, broad, conspicous nose-spot" for Acacia and not Dorcas. But Dorcas clearly can have one. The first photo is of a definite Dorcas - it was not in the reserve. The second is of the gazelle that we presumed to be Acacia. Comments defimitely appreciated.
 

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It is confusing. HBMW mention a "very, broad, conspicous nose-spot" for Acacia and not Dorcas. But Dorcas clearly can have one. The first photo is of a definite Dorcas - it was not in the reserve. The second is of the gazelle that we presumed to be Acacia. Comments defimitely appreciated.

The conspicuous nose spot is also mentioned as an Acacia identification feature in Bovids of the World, along with the darker flank stripe (to differentiate it from the Dorcas). There are at least 6 head on photos of Dorcas Gazelles in the book (both subspecies are illustrated; male, female and young of each) and none show a nose spot like that seen in the Acacia Gazelle.

However, as you say some Dorcas do clearly show a darker patch on the nose, although perhaps not as distinctive.

I think your method of looking at a suite of features to pick out the Acacia Gazelles works best. Any gazelle without an obvious nose spot can be safely assumed to be Dorcas.
 
The conspicuous nose spot is also mentioned as an Acacia identification feature in Bovids of the World, along with the darker flank stripe (to differentiate it from the Dorcas). There are at least 6 head on photos of Dorcas Gazelles in the book (both subspecies are illustrated; male, female and young of each) and none show a nose spot like that seen in the Acacia Gazelle.

However, as you say some Dorcas do clearly show a darker patch on the nose, although perhaps not as distinctive.

I think your method of looking at a suite of features to pick out the Acacia Gazelles works best. Any gazelle without an obvious nose spot can be safely assumed to be Dorcas.

The Dorcas in the photo does have a pretty obvious nose spot, I think I'll splash out on the book. The hoofed mammal volume of HBMW is a bit disappointing.
 
Some cracking shots John - especially the Sand Partridge , Crested Lark and the Spur-winged of Plover with delusions of grandeur.

The crake is gut-wrenchingly gripping!

Cheers
Mike
 
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Some cracking shots John - especially the Sand Partridge , Crested Lark and the Spur-winged of Plover with delusions of grandeur.

The crake is gut-wrenchingly gripping!

Cheers
Mike

Thanks Mike! The hides at Eilat are awesome for crake views, the close-up is actually from the open water hide but the other one gives views for which I was simply over-gunned with a 500 mm (I ended up leaning back against the back wall of the hide at minimum focus range). Maybe Steve will pitch in with one of his from that hide, because we had more than just females there....

John
 
We thought we were in as we drove towards the places where the mountains narrowed to a single ridge and saw a kettle of Steppe Buzzards rising (with an Egyptian Vulture massive among them), only to find they were over a peak on the Egyptian side without a convenient parking place. Some of the mountain road is sensitive, with big concrete markers indicating places where you are not allowed to stop. We obeyed these - we were perhaps lucky someone mentioned their meaning to us, because it isn't obvious: they haven't got "No Stopping" on them or anything helpful like that!

Anyway, there were other flocks of Steppe Buzzards spiralling up and for that matter individuals advancing on a broad front, so we found a place where you evidently are allowed to park and had a look from there: but soon found the birds were everywhere but where we were and moved back to what seemed a better overlook. Needless to say as soon as we got there, a bunch of raptors went through right over where we had just been, including a Steppe Eagle. This wasn't a tick for me but unfortunately the other two latched onto a couple of Steppe Buzzards and by the time we had sorted out the confusion (you can imagine my indignation at the suggestion I can't tell an eagle from a buzzard....) it had gone past and the back end views were very unsatisfactory to Steve and Jeff. By way of a change Jeff spotted a couple of Black Storks moving but they were very distant and quickly disappeared behind a ridge: I got a blip view of the slower one.

There were literally hundreds of Buzzards on the move but you can get bored with them even as a spectacle quite quickly. Black Kites were moving in smaller numbers - twenty or so at a time rather than two hundred or more - and really not much else. We carried on down the road to a site for Striolated Bunting near a helipad we had not noticed on the way up. This was a much better landmark on the way down, and after parking up it wasn't long before we heard a male Striolated Bunting singing. Unfortunately it turned out to be right on top of one of the hilltops (we were right at the end of the mountains now) above us and not only that but it quite soon flipped over the top out of sight. We resolved to try again at a more favourable time of day for passerines. At this point my interest in military history cut in as I noticed rolls of barbed wire all over the hills around us and began to spot bunkers dug into each and every one - not just OPs at the summits but every hill had dug-outs for all-round defence, given away by firing slits a few inches wide. Blimey. So the Israelis do have border defences - they just aren't obvious...... Continuing to follow team instructions I took no pictures.

We did have a close Blackstart that allowed us decent pictures. However it was now really very hot, the heat haze was limiting for bins let alone cameras and we decided it was time to have a break back at the hotel., following which we would go for a swim in the Red Sea (Steve said he couldn't face going back and being asked whether he had done so only to admit he hadn't: we already had an intention to do the Dead Sea experience as well). Back at the ranch Maz agreed the sentiment and after a bit of a siesta we headed out to North Beach, where there were more holidaymakers and fewer birds. Out to sea a party boat was blasting loud rave music and imbibition of alcoholic beverages was going on at pace - all far too cramped, loud and generally yuk for me, and its not because I'm getting old.....

Jeff elected not to swim, so the other three of us made our way towards the water's edge and prepared to enter the water. The beach is not so great: memories of Bognor Regis and painful shingle underfoot rather than golden sand..... because the heat was so fierce, the water felt cold! Not quite the North Sea but definitely colder than we expected. Once you were in your body quickly recognised it was actually not cold at all, but the initial contact was a surprise (no, more of a shock really).

Enough of this tourist stuff. We returned to the beach, dressed, and rejoined Jeff for something of a seawatch. We wanted better views of White-eyed Gulls and anything else we could get hold of. I hadn't realised Jeff is a bit of a gull enthusiast, but as large gulls began to come in from the sea he was in his element picking out Baltic Gulls and barabbensis ssp with evident delight. I did my best to take an interest but I have to be honest, its not my scene really.

As the sun sank in the West we did have several flybys from White-eyed Gulls heading off to roost in the Dolphin Reef area, and one did one's best with them although they were mostly distant. They also inevitably kept passing an Israeli gunboat that motored up and down seemingly all day. There was a Jordanian one in the distance but it looked small, shabby and less heavily armed. Small flocks of ducks and Terns were flying around out to sea, seemingly waiting for dusk before heading inland: they included Shoveler and Common Terns though we had to wait ages for a close enough view to ID them. On the beach Tristram's Grackles made a brief appearance but shot off unphotographed: House Crows came down to see what the tourist had left and gave nice opportunities in the evening light.

We started a conversation with a British couple who were assisting with the ringing programme at IBRCE and had come down to the beach for the gulls. The bloke particularly was a full-on doom and gloom merchant: as we discussed with them our programme for the holiday he was full of helpful comments like "you won't see that then", "no hope", "oh, you're going out with him? If the first owls don't respond he gives up and assumes the others won't either, good luck!" His wife wasn't so bad but she wasn't impressed with one of the ringers at IBRCE who openly admitted the free accommodation and travel opportunity rather than the ringing per se was her reason for being there, she was lazy/incompetent at Acro ID and not much better with the rather easier Sylvia warblers - the couple had corrected some fairly gross errors. For our own conversational shorthand for the rest of the holiday, as we shot down successive predictions, they became The Chuckle Brothers.

As the sun left us for the night, two Lesser Pied Kingfishers began fishing at the mouth of the stream and despite the decreasing light I couldn't resist having a bash at them. The results were better than I thought they might be and they provided a fine ending to the day.

Incidentally I did say we were going to recce the sandgrouse site this evening - evidently we didn't - in fact we had programmed it for the next evening. This error is what happens when you write a report without sufficient reference to your notebook....

John

Eilat Mountains looking across to Jordan (the Egyptian border is only a few hundred yards behind your photographer)

Blackstart X 3

House Crow
 

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Part 2 for the day - North Beach in the evening

John

House Crow

Baltic Gull

White-eyed Gull X 2

Lesser Pied Kingfisher
 

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5 April: Wednesday 1

Another day Maz opted for rest/pottering about, so the boys were on the road earlyish to head back up to Yotvata, a search for Arabian Warbler and another bash at the Gazelles. We started by the sewage pools where again the bushes were full of Lesser Whitethroats and Eastern Bonelli's Warblers, with a smattering of Blackcaps.

A Hoopoe was a nice find, it sat up in a tree for us and was then flushed off by another! The Masked Shrike was still present and we had a couple more as we wandered through the bushes in search of Sylvias. We did find an Arabian Babbler which was a tick but sat up against a hazy white sky and effectively prevented decent pictures. Further afield we found a Squacco roosting in the top of a small acacia. Soon after this we were hailed by a local who had buried his car to and beyond the axles by going off the track into soft sand and wanted a push. We gave it a go but frankly that vehicle wasn't coming out without mechanical help and we left him on his mobile phone trying to get help.

We then went off to drive some fields looking for Desert Finch and Thick-billed Lark, with total absence of success on both counts but excellent views of a male Redstart ad a few passing raptors out of photo range: Marsh Harrier, Black Kite and a harrier sp that got away from us. A bit discouraged we went back to searching bushes and acacias, and thankfully Jeff came up with an Arabian Warbler that was very mobile and elusive but nonetheless present. Hurrah.

Back at the gazelle enclosure we again photographed anything that moved and this time came up with at least one animal that unless the criteria are complete rubbish, had to be an Acacia Gazelle. We also had a couple of Ruppell's Warblers on the approach but they weren't having any truck with our cameras - Sylvias eh!

We had a few sites to try on the way back, some of them well off the main road, and bumbling about on rough tracks where we were again very thankful for the Duster's high ground clearance we had point blank views of a Dorcas Gazelle that was completely casual about our presence and allowed us to take good pictures at close range. By this time the day had heated up to the point of being unworkable and once again we returned to Eilat to sit in the hides at IBRCE.

On the way to them we noted a Marsh Sandpiper with a heavy build-up of salt on one leg: presumably this would fall off later in migration but presumably also it was indicative of how fast such a hampering agglomeration can build up on a migrant. Best to keep moving....

There were lots of Yellow Wagtails of not only feldegg but some other variants/races/morphs on the scrape and some of them visited the near edge where they were at a perfect range for photography. Slightly further away a flock of Ruff were feeding, and on the muddy island in front of us a Temminck's Stint was micking inverts from the water's edge. Once again we had an unphotographable flyby from a Little Bittern (nice to see though) and a Purple Heron landed in the open before stalking over to a reedbed and having a thorough shake of its plumage before going into cover.

Back at the car we found the temperature was now a very uncomfortable 38 Celsius and apart from grabbing a few shots of the Little Green Bee-eaters on wires nearby we retired to the hotel and some slightly cooler air for a while. However, mid- to late afternoon we were back in the car, with Maz this time, to take the mountain road, have another bash at Striolated Bunting and recce the Milhan Well sandgrouse site.

I was glad I'd persuaded Maz to come out because we almost immediately found two magnificent big old male Nubian Ibexes with massive knobbly semi-circular horns. These were in among some of the barbed-wire entanglements which wasn't ideal but we took full advantage of the views they were offering (a good thing, because although we saw quite a few more during the holiday these were the only full adult males we encountered) and were absolutely delighted.

The Striolated Buntings showed a bit better than last time but the improvement was marginal rather than dramatic and the episode ended the same way with them flying right up to the ridgeline and vanishing over it.

On we went, getting a half-reasonable view of a White-crowned Black Wheatear on a hairpin bend, past the Towers of the Teeth and on up to the army camp that marked where, a kilometre further on, we would find the start of the track to the Milhan Well sewage pool. To get there you drive across a tank track that leads to a firing range and must also note where to follow a bend round to the left and not go off to the right, which just takes you up to the back gate of the army camp where, presumably, the tanks come out loaded for bear.... we did just that and retraced our steps fairly rapidly! Luckily from the junction we could scan with bins and see the chainlink and barbed wire fence that surrounds the pool, and driving down to it was no problem in the Duster.

When we got there we could see a gap in the fence where it had been knocked down and trampled flat. There was also quite a lot of dried dung that looked horse-like around, which had us scratching our heads a bit. What does camel dung look like? This was resolved when, scanning around in the vain hope of spotting a jackal trotting out for its night's hunting, or perhaps even a hyena, I spotted half a dozen quite large animals that I didn't recognise. "Animals" is not a call I make very often but I did at this point, which predictably obtained a fairly derisive response of "what sort of animals?"

I studied them carefully and almost said "Donkeys" before realising they had far too distinctive coats and robust build for that, and came up with "Onagers!"

I hadn't been aware that these should even be on our radar, a mark of how casual I had been about this trip - but they weren't on Jeff's so far comprehensive checklist either. Still, there they were out in the desert about halfway to the steep slope at the back of the valley, and I wasn't looking this gift horse in the mouth. We waited rather longer than we had originally intended to see if they would come close (or if any sandgrouse would arrive, even though we had been told these were morning drinkers) but they resolutely kept their distance and the only birds at the pools were a Green Sandpiper and a few Rock Doves/Feral Pigeons. We had by now noted that although there were some nasty looking plastics about, the vast majority of Israel Rock Doves were of consistent appearance though lacking the white rump of Northern European ones.

Off home for our third day dining at the same street café and a reasonably early night ready to scorch back up to Milhan Well in the early morning.

John
 
Photos from the morning

John

Hoopoe

Squacco Heron X 2

Acacia Gazelle X 2
 

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Part 2

Dorcas Gazelle X 2

Black-winged Stilt

Marsh Sandpiper

Yellow Wagtail, feldegg
 

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Part 3

Yellow Wagtail (feldegg)
Yellow Wagtail (flava, I think) X 2
Yellow Wagtail (thunbergi)
Ruff
 

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Part 4

Temminck's Stint

Purple Heron X 2

Little Green Bee-eater X 2
 

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Part 5

Nubian Ibex X 5 (sorry, real highlight for me!)
 

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Part 6

Onager X 3

Milhan Well

Onager
 

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Great stuff John!...brought back memories...30 year old ones! Envy your LPK, one that I never caught up with, did you hear Hoopoe Lark singing? A fantastic singer!, strongly reminiscent of C.Nightingale...if memory serves. :t:
 
Great stuff John!...brought back memories...30 year old ones! Envy your LPK, one that I never caught up with, did you hear Hoopoe Lark singing? A fantastic singer!, strongly reminiscent of C.Nightingale...if memory serves. :t:

I honestly can't remember - I'm terrible at learning new songs or remembering ones I've heard only once or twice. Its certainly a fantastic bird in every other respect!

LPK is routine in sub-Saharan Africa but its another spectacular bird and I loved watching two doing their thing quite close to us.

Incidentally the Onagers are a reintroduction or rather closest substitution project, replacing the extinct Assyrian Wild Ass. Interestingly some recent research suggests wild asses may have been over-split, so the substitution may be closer than originally thought: perhaps in the end it won't be only aviators that make split-ass turns.

John
 
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