• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Israel Sep-Oct 2013 (1 Viewer)

joe cockram

Registered Member
I'm currently in Israel, primarily to assist with the annual monitoring of migrating soaring birds in the Northern valleys, but also doing a bit of 'regular' birding in my free time. The number of raptors passing through this region is quite astonishing, particularly for the 2 key species for the survey; Lesser Spotted Eagle and Levant Sparrowhawk, both of which are at peak passage around now.
I am updating my blog most days with noteworthy counts, and photos of dubious quality (thanks to the great height most birds pass over at). The survey runs every year and is manned by a small number of international volunteers alongside local birders, so I hope my reports may be useful to anyone considering taking part in the future.

Updates are at Joe's Birding Blog

Joe
 

Attachments

  • mon.jpg
    mon.jpg
    167.7 KB · Views: 100
  • honeys.jpg
    honeys.jpg
    164.5 KB · Views: 114
  • lse.jpg
    lse.jpg
    203.9 KB · Views: 111
  • lgbe.jpg
    lgbe.jpg
    277.7 KB · Views: 79
Last edited:
Excellent stuff Joe. I was lucky enough to take part in this survey in 2008.A great bunch of people and some amazing birds.The big Eagle days were superb.
 
Excellent stuff Joe. I was lucky enough to take part in this survey in 2008.A great bunch of people and some amazing birds.The big Eagle days were superb.

It was one of those big Eagle days today. We haven't added totals and corrected for double counts yet, but it looks like around 25,000 Lesser Spotted Eagles passed South over the count today!
 
are you with Dave Jackson Joe? If so, please pass on my regards.

Great blog by the way - I'm envious of those clouds of Levants.
 
Last edited:
Much smaller numbers of Lesser Spotteds today, just a few thousand, but we had the first Imperial Eagle of the count today, a juvenile over Alonim.

are you with Dave Jackson Joe? If so, please pass on my regards.

Indeed I am Robin, he says hello.
 

Attachments

  • impy.jpg
    impy.jpg
    206.5 KB · Views: 98
Thanks for the kind comments folks.

Raptor counts have plummeted in the last few days and it seems like most birds have passed through. This has allowed us to take some time to look for a few of the local specialties, such as Dead Sea Sparrow and Namaqua Dove, both brilliant little birds.

Our total for Lesser Spotted Eagle is still a little under par, so hopefully there's a decent day or two left to come.
 

Attachments

  • dss.jpg
    dss.jpg
    136.6 KB · Views: 57
  • namaqua.jpg
    namaqua.jpg
    201.4 KB · Views: 49
I'm back home now after a very enjoyable time in Israel. Here are the final totals for the key species of the count:

Honey Buzzard: 216,966
Lesser Spotted Eagle: 100,746
Levant Sparrowhawk: 47,549
White Pelican: 57,523
Red-footed Falcon: 5,186
Short-toed Eagle: 4,386
Steppe Buzzard: 2,479
Black Kite: 16,244

The overall total number of birds counted was a whopping 472,667!!

At the end of the count, we were treated to a day/night trip to the Dead Sea, where the undoubted highlights were Hume's Owl and Nubian Nightjar. A brief report, a few photos, and a video (apparently the only one online) of Hume's Owl, are now on my blog: 24 hours at the Dead Sea
 

Attachments

  • humes.jpg
    humes.jpg
    98.9 KB · Views: 48
Warning! This thread is more than 10 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top