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