Israel 6 -20th March 2011 (1 Viewer)

Trip to Israel 6 -20 March 2011– summary

Just back from spending 2 weeks travelling around Israel, mostly solo, in the desire to get some decent WP ticks and enjoy another stint of desert birding. Never been to Israel before, getting into the country was a breeze, unfortunately got given the fourth degree when trying to leave, but escaped eventually.

The birding was great, 200+ species (206 if you include heard only Cetti’s Warbler, Rock Nuthatch and Black Francolin, and a freshly dead Spotted Crake on the pavement). Nearly stepped on a snake one night, saw various ‘wild’ mammals and even went snorkelling in the Red Sea -fantastic experience. All but one night was spent wild camping, hitched, walked, had a few long distance bus journeys, and met up with other birders/cadged lifts on 3 days – a German birder and his young family, an Irish birder, and 2 Finnish taxi drivers (birders and self-confessed twitchers). Very few uk birders observed - the one group I did speak to were re-encountered on the flight back home funnily enough.

Had 46 or so lifers, and a further 20 or so year ticks (that’s one of the ‘problems’ of having done Morocco etc this year already – no new hirundines, swifts or terns for example.) In terms of target species, mixed success – a number of the Israeli ‘endemics’ failed to fall, notably Brown Booby, Dead Sea Sparrow, Namaqua Dove, Hooded Wheatear, Syrian Serin and the above-mentioned Francolin, despite a reasonable amount of effort. Not to be. I regret not having put in the effort for Hume’s Owl, with rough camping, and although you strictly aren’t meant to be in the wadis at night, I’m sure I could have ‘arranged’ to be in suitable habitat at the right time. Didn’t make any effort for Nubian Nightjar (guiding too expensive IMO), Egyptian Nightjar, and lacked gen on other species such as Cyprus Warbler until it was too late.

Did see such great species as Mountain Bunting, 4 Sandgrouse including Lichenstein’s, Long-billed Pipit (after a herculean effort), 17 species of raptor including lifer White-tailed Sea (!), Steppe and Eastern Imperial Eagles, MacQueens Bustard (that’s the bustards sorted for the year), Arabian Warbler, Bimaculated Lark and and a swathe of the ‘common’ southern goodies of the region including migrant Ruppell’s Warbler, Arabian Babbler, Sand Partridge, Little Green Bee-eater etc etc.

Highlights difficult to ascribe – it was more a case of spells of seeing great birds in great locations than individual birds standing out, although the Lichenstein’s was probably one of them, the 3 Caspain Plover at Yotvata were pretty special too, with occasions like the 4 lifers in a few hours in Wadi Salvadori – Fan-tailed Raven, Mountain Bunting, Sinai Rosefinch and Pale Rock Sparrow being memorable. First Great White Pelican and Pallas’s Gull were not only a relief, but impressive beasts too. Finding Cyprus Pied Wheatear and my first Olivaceaous Warblers, Cinerous Buntings and Finsch’s Wheatear were a good buzz, and smart birds too. Early migrants include Masked Shrike on the 10th, Collared Pratincole on the morning of the 20th, Turtle Doves, and the like. Multiple Citrine Wagtails, a flock of Greater Sandplovers and the wader spectacle in general deserve an honourable mention.

The trip went smoothly enough, considering I was almost totally unprepared – I had printed out a bundle of trip reports in the week beforehand, but barely looked at them, and regret not having tried to acquire one of the couple of published birding guides to the area. As it turns out Stephan, the German guy lent me his (admittedly old – updated in 1996) copy of the Gosney, which proved pretty useful more than once. Birding around the Eliat area (Holland Park, the various town parks, North Beach and the Ringing and Birding Centre) for the first 3 days was a good introduction (having taken the overnight bus from Tel Aviv where my flight had come in), 2 days would have been better perhaps. I then headed north to Nizzana for the Bustard, Hezeva for the Arabian Warbler, the Dead Sea (Wadi Salvadori), Mount Gilboa for the Pipit and nearby fishponds, the Hula Valley (Cranes etc), Mount Hermon in the far north (lots of snow), then overnight back down to Eliat for a last few days birding in the slightly wider area (Yotvata and Wadi Sheloma etc).

Pretty much full time birding, hitching was generally very easy, walked far too far on some days, with full rucksack, should have made more effort to hide it away for the day on occasion. I subsisted on the whole on bread, sardines, tomatoes, fruit and bottled water for the duration. The people were on the whole very friendly and helpful, there’s always exceptions, but was pleasantly surprised given the general media image of the nation etc etc. Security concerns were almost of no consequence in day to day birding, life and travel even, the weather was mostly great (it can’t help being sunny and a little too hot given its location I guess), and overall a great trip.

Nice one Dan, some great birds there, and an exciting trip :t:.

I wonder if you went up the Ovda road and into the mountains for the raptor passage? Also what was the newly flooded area like up in the Hula?

John.

Thanks Larry, yes, some pretty exciting birds, and a great location!!! Would highly recommend it for a birding trip, although sadly it looks as if the security situation is deterioating again a little if news events are anything to go by. Shouldn't affect general birding too much one would hope ...

Bubbs said:

I wonder if you went up the Ovda road and into the mountains for the raptor passage? Also what was the newly flooded area like up in the Hula?

John.

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No, I didn't go as far as the raptor viewpoint, as it was I encountered probably most of the species to be expected generally birding around the place. If I'd had the info before leaving I may well have planned to do so however, with a car of course it would be easier to decide to go. Winds did not seem conducive to a great raptor passage on the days I had available.

The Hula re-flooded area, 'Argamon Hula', which is what I believe I visited, maybe 5km north of the original hula reserve was good*. A 9km or so circuit, although you aren't allowed out on it until 9am. Paltry fee of 3 shekels to enter the reserve, although of course they make their money by hiring out bicycles/golf carts/perambulators etc etc - I think a bicycle would have been 55 shekels to hire. Got a cafe etc. Can't recall if you are allowed to take your own private vehicle around the perimeter, although there is a road for buses etc. Highlights included thousands of Common Cranes, a Demoiselle had been seen the day before, although despite extensive scanning of the remaining birds I couldn't pick out anything resembling, all 3 kingfisher species, a couple of Pelicans, 2 Flamingos, various wader and duck, Glossy Ibis, a couple of Eastern Imperial, Steppe and Great Spotted Eagles, Long-legged Buzzard, Bluethroat, Serin and Fan-tailed Warbler. The Cranes the highlight, Black Francolins occur, but not often seen of course. Can't compare it the 'other' Hula, as I didn't really do it, which costs something like 33 shekels to get in, but might possibly contain more habitat types.

(* Good, but not necessarily great. Taking the Cranes out of the equation, the fishponds at Kefar Ruppin and She'an junction (just to the NE of Bet She'an) were probably better in terms of wetland/water birds spectacle.)

Having been to the original Hula reserve many times you didn't miss anything by not going. I hear the Agamon is much better and by all accounts you can drive round it in your own vehicle. Sorry you didn't make it to the mountains, but you would need the wind from the north to see at it's best.

John.

Dan,

I was given directions to a good Hooded Wheatear site after I last saw you.

I did see two there

John

hpux said:

I was given directions to a good Hooded Wheatear site after I last saw you.

I did see two there

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I really don't want to know that ... lol. Nice one.

Nice meeting you out there.

Great stuff Dan! A few there I'd have loved to see, Caspian Plover especially.

At least you could use the trip reports as bedding

MSA said:

At least you could use the trip reports as bedding

Click to expand...

Never thought of that ... Bed time reading AND Read time bedding??

List of birds seen, in order of occurrence, lifers in Blue.

6/3/11 Tel Aviv

1) Feral pigeon

7/3/11 Eliat –North Beach- Birding Park-Central Park –North Beach

2) House Sparrow
3) House Crow (30+ around town, 100+ later on)
4) Laughing Dove (common)
5) Chiffchaff
6) Collared Dove
7) Common Swift
8) Sardinian Warbler
9) White Wagtail
10) Yellow-vented Bulbul (probably seen daily, common in most habitats)
11) Spur-winged Plover (seen almost daily)
12) Common Mynah (1)
13) Ring-necked Parakeet
14) Black-headed Gull
Gull sp.
15) Tristram’s Grackle (1, then seen on odd occasion thereafter)
16) Little Egret
17) Cormorant
18) Tawny Pipit (1 near shore, occasionally seen again)
19) Grey Heron
20) Western Reef Heron (1 dark and 1 pale phase at least, on further occasions too)
21) Black-winged Stilt
22) Common Sandpiper
23) Sandwich Tern (1 only)
24) Greater Sand Plover (11 on N Beach))
25) Crag Martin (2, then occasional)
26) Slender –billed Gull (flock of c.300)
27) White-eyed Gull (daily, up to 15 at N Beach)
28) Crested Lark (seen daily)
29) Ringed Plover
30) Shoveler
31) Redshank
32) Isabelline Wheatear (well over 50+ seen over trip)
33) Northern Wheatear (up to 10 seen over trip
34) Graceful Prinia (seen almost daily)
35) Swallow
36) Cattle Egret
37) Flamingo
38) Ruff
39) Kentish Plover
40) Little Stint
41) Spotted Redshank
42) Marsh Sandpiper (3-6 birds at birding park, elsewhere too)
43) Red-rumped Swallow (5+, seen on various occasions)
44) Steppe Buzzard (1, usually the odd bird seen, migration of up to 20+ also)
Eagle sp. (either G Spotted or Steppe)
45) Stonechat
46) Quail (ten or more flushed during trip, more heard)
47) House Martin
48) Little Grebe
49) Teal
50) Green Sandpiper
51) Squacco Heron (1, 2 or so seen on various occasions)
52) Green Sandpiper
53) Bluethroat (1 white spotted, red spotted commoner later on, 50+ seen throughout trip )
54) Moorhen
55) Eastern Olivaceous Warbler (1, another seen near Holland Park on further occasion)
56) Lesser Whitethroat
57) Marsh Harrier
58) Greenshank
59) Temminck’s Stint (2 on canal, seen thereafter)
60) Little Ringed Plover
61) Sedge Warbler
62) Spanish Sparrow
63) Tree Pipit
64) Tufted duck

8/3/11 Holland Park- Birding Park – North Beach

65) Whitethroat
66) Ruppell’s Warbler (1 male, seen in various locations thereafter, up to 14 in HP later on)
67) Subalpine Warbler (1 only)
68) Palestine Sunbird (1 male, seen scattered thinly throughout trip)
69) Blackstart (1 bird, seen thinly in various desert habitats thereafter)
70) Sand Partridge (up to 25 in Holland Park, seen elsewhere too)
71) Willow Warbler (1, 1 seen later)
72) Sparrowhawk (1, 5 birds seen overall)
73) Hoopoe
74) Spectacled Warbler (1 only)
75) Curlew Sandpiper
76) Dunlin
77) Wood Sandpiper
78) Ruff
79) Reed Warbler
80) Coot
81) Baltic Gull (15+, 2’s or 3’s seen on several occasions thereafter)
82) Shoveler
83) Armenian Gull (2, maximum of 20 on a number of occasions thereafter)
84) Arctic Skua (1, 3 on another occasion)
85) Pied Kingfisher (1, more common in the north near water)
86) Common Tern (1 ad winter only)

9/3/11 North Beach – Birding park – Holland Park – North Beach

87) Oystercatcher (8 only)
88) Kestrel
89) Curlew (1 flew north)
90) Caspian Tern (2 only, fishing close inshore)
91) Steppe Eagle (5, maybe 100+ seen overall)
92) Rock Martin (first confirmed; several along the canal, seen throughout thereafter)

10/3/11 km 22 - 20 – Mitzpe Ramon – Nizzana (ride north with German birder)

93) Desert Lark (6, odd birds seen thereafter)
94) Pintail
95) Avocet
96) Shelduck
97) Ruddy Shelduck
98) Masked Shrike (1 only)
99) Little Green Bee-eater (2, odd birds seen thereafter)
100) Brown-necked Raven
101) Hooded Crow
102) Mourning Wheatear (2, 5km s of town)
103) Black Redstart (1 semirufus, odd birds of nominate seen thereafter)
104) Chukar (flock of 15 by roadside, seen various locations thereafter)
105) Arabian Babbler (3, up to 3 family groups seen in a day on various other occasions)

11/3/11 Nizzana (near Egyptian border)

106) Pallid Harrier (1 female, 1 female on another occasion)
107) Crowned Sandgrouse (4 only)
108) ‘Southern’ Grey Shrike (5, several dozens seen overall)
109) Black Kite (1, becoming slightly more numerous thereafter, 500+ from coach on last day)
110) Cream Coloured Courser (8 only)
111) Woodchat Shrike (1 only)
112) MacQueen’s Bustard (1 displaying male)
113) Scrub Warbler (2 only)
114) Short-toed Lark
115) Hen Harrier (1 male only)
116) Long-legged Buzzard (1, several seen subsequently)
117) Black-bellied Sandgrouse
118) Mallard
119) Yellow Wagtail (2 feldegg, increasingly common towards end (incl. apparent superciliaris))
120) Corn Bunting
121) Desert Finch (1 from roadside, 1 additional seen later)
122) Pallid Swift
(Intriguing distant flock of what I can only think of as being Rose-coloured Starlings!!)

12/3/11 – Haveza – Wadi Salvedori – Dead Sea

123) Arabian Warbler (2 in wadi S of Hazeva turning)
124) Spotted Sandgrouse (4 only)
125) Fan-tailed Raven (2 only)
126) Pale Rock Sparrow (1 only)
127) White-crowned Black Wheatear (2, seen occasionally thereafter)
128) Blackcap
129) Sinai Rosefinch (2 males)
130) Mountain Bunting (1 singing)
131) Trumpeter Finch
132) White stork

13/3/11 Villages near Bet She’an - Mount Gilboa – Kefar Ruppin (Lift from Mt G with Irish birder)

133) Barn Owl
134) Stone Curlew
135) Spotted Crake (1 freshly dead on the pavement)
136) Spoonbill
137) Peregrine
138) Jay
139) Great White Egret
140) Chaffinch
141) Blackbird
142) Jackdaw
143) Night Heron
144) Clamorous Reed Warbler (3, a few heard elsewhere)
145) White-breasted Kingfisher
146) Osprey
147) Greenfinch
148) Blue Rock Thrush (1, several therafter)
149) Cretzchmar’s Bunting (1, 4 next day)
150) Short-toed Eagle
151) Syrian Woodpecker
152) Eastern Black-eared Wheatear
153) Common Crane
154) Cinereous Bunting (1, 1 next day)
155) Finsch’s Wheatear (1 only)
156) Eastern Orphean Warbler
157) Goldfinch
158) Great Spotted Eagle (1, several seen thereafter)
159) Pallas’s Gull (4, several occasions thereafter)
160) Pochard
161) Pygmy Cormorant (1 flyover, up to 30 on occasions thereafter)
162) Purple Heron
163) Black Stork
164) Grey Wagtail

14/3/11 Bet She’an – Mount Gilboa – Bet She’an fishponds – Hula Valley (morning with Irish birder)

165) Great White Pelican (1 flyover, later up to 50 seen in flight)
166) Long-billed Pipit (1 distant bird)
167) Booted Eagle (1 dark and 1 pale phase bird only)
168) Eastern Imperial Eagle (1 ad, 1 juv, several further birds seen)
169) Common Snipe (1, 3 seen subsequently)
170) Garganey (1, flock of 25 seen subsequently)
171) Eurasian Kingfisher (1, 1 seen subsequently)
172) Citrine Wagtail (3, 3 further birds seen)
173) Alpine Swift (5 only)
174) White-tailed Sea Eagle (2 birds coming in to roost)

15/3/11 Hula – Argamon Hula -

175) Dunnock
176) Black-tailed Godwit (12 only)
177) Wigeon
178) Glossy Ibis(100+ only)
179) Serin (70+, seen subsequently))
180) Gadwall
181) Fan-tailed Warbler (3+)

16/3/11 Mount Hebron (then overnight hitching/bus)

182) Wren
183) Robin
184) Woodpigeon
185) Great Tit
186) Linnet
187) Skylark
188) Sombre Tit (3 only)
189) Rock Nuthatch (heard only)

17/3/11 Eliat - Holland Park – km 19

190) Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler (2 only)
191) Common Redstart
192) Gull-billed Tern (1 only)
193) Sand Martin (1, flock of 30+ on subsequent occasion)
194) Red-throated Pipit
195) Little Crake
196) Lichenstein’s Sandgrouse (3 coming in to drink)

18/3/11 km20 – Yotvata – Kibbutz Lotan – km33 (hitched then had lift with 2 Finnish birders)

197) Meadow pipit
198) Oriental Skylark (1 only)
199) Caspian Plover (3 only)
200) Bimaculated Lark (2+)
201) Turtle Dove (2 only)
202) Water Pipit
203) Cyprus Pied Wheatear (1, 1 seen following day)

19/3/11 Holland Park – Coral Beach – Wadi Shelomi

20/3/11 Holland Park – Birding Park –Holland Park (to 10am, then caught bus to Tel Aviv for flight home)

204) Collared Pratincole (1 only)
205) Indian Silverbill (4 only)
206) Lesser Kestrel

And the final set of gratuitously poor record shots ...



gg

Thanks for sharing your trip report Dan. You did remarkably well without a car and seemed to get around to most of the country's top birding sites!

good report ,its on my to do wish list .but the wife said not this year with the deteriorating situation in the whole region

You may not believe this but Israel is going through a settled time at the moment. I wouldn't hesitate to go back.

John.