Israel bird info (2 Viewers)

[opisska]

I find swapping Saudi Arabia for Israel mildly ironic, but that's exactly what covid forced me to do. We will be in Israel for a week 27/12-03/01 with the main target being the apparently wintering Verreaux's Eagle(s). However a rarity is never not welcome, especially in a place like Israel - however it seems to me that there is quite a few websites and FB pages for records, most of them not very active lately. On the other hand, eBird seems much more populated than it used to a few years ago, maybe everyone moved there? Or are there some secret WhatsApp groups that would like to add me?

Also, any news on Nubian Nightjars? I heard some rumors there may be additional sites to the one near Neot Hakikar? Is it still true that visiting the Neot Hakkikar at night without a guide risks arrest by the army?

 

[jurek]

We went to the well known place (a kibbutz with mine fields) and driven all around it at night, The only people were Asian farm workers who driven around for a party and did not care about anybody at all. At some point we even found ourselves driving alongside Jordan river and the border, but turned back.

 

[opisska]

Did you actively spotlight from the windows, or were you just driving and looking like a normal car?

 

[Bubbs]

Eilat & Arava Birders are very active on Facebook.

 

[Bubbs]

Southern Israel - Key Site Information

NOT a bird report but for new visitors, the following information might help. Even for repeat visitors, who knows it maybe a useful summary or reference. From Tel Aviv Airport you initially follow signs for Jerusalem, then head south on Route 6 where you see signs for Be'er Sheva (Route 6)...

www.birdforum.net

 

[Steve Arlow]

I find swapping Saudi Arabia for Israel mildly ironic, but that's exactly what covid forced me to do. We will be in Israel for a week 27/12-03/01 with the main target being the apparently wintering Verreaux's Eagle(s). However a rarity is never not welcome, especially in a place like Israel - however it seems to me that there is quite a few websites and FB pages for records, most of them not very active lately. On the other hand, eBird seems much more populated than it used to a few years ago, maybe everyone moved there? Or are there some secret WhatsApp groups that would like to add me?

Also, any news on Nubian Nightjars? I heard some rumors there may be additional sites to the one near Neot Hakikar? Is it still true that visiting the Neot Hakkikar at night without a guide risks arrest by the army?

Both Nubian and Egyptian Nightjars are being seen at the Yotvata Fields at the moment.

The Israel birding portal is very active ציפורים, פורטל צפרות - אתר הצפרות הישראלי

 

[Steve Arlow]

The eagles are not easy and required a good 4x4 vehicle to get out to where they are, I would suggest speaking to Noam Weiss at the IBRCE as to best way of trying for the birds

 

[opisska]

Reportedly the nightjars have moved on from Yotvata, not seen this week.

We will not have a 4x4, however we will have legs and it's only 9 kms on a hiking trail (200 m altitude gain) from the nearest tarmac to the core of the eBird sightings - unless they moved somewhere else and were not reported?

 

[wolfbirder]

I was umming and arring about going to Eilat again, to try for the Verreaux's Eagle, though it is actually very difficult to get much response. I emailed IBRCE offering to pay for a 4 x 4 tour but got no response, and another company wanted to charge me £350 for 4 hours 4 x 4 to the area.

Just too much hassle in the end so I binned the idea.

 

[jurek]

Did you actively spotlight from the windows, or were you just driving and looking like a normal car?

We spotlighted, but stopped when we seen a car. But not really trying to hide much.

 

[opisska]

Seeing the Verreaux's Eagle is indeed not easy, but according to the nice people we met on the site, no amount of intel is really gonna change that, just luck and patience - the bird is always seen in roughly the same obvious area, but is really irregular and sometimes spends a week ... somewhere, nobody knows where. The site can be accessed by any kind of higher clearance vehicle, we saw people in Subaru VX and Dusters. Otherwise it's 10 km walking one way. We did see the bird, really well, for about a minute soaring over us, then it left and never appeared again.

 

[opisska]

@wolfbirder maybe you need some motivation

 

[Richard Prior]

Ouch!

 

[opisska]

With the Oriental Honey Buzzard(s) (not sure if more than one are still present) it's a mixed situation. The bird can be seen with luck and patience, because it flies all around IBRCE, the date plantations and the channel towards the beach. But lack thereof can mean that even after three days in the general area brings you nothing.

And that's where the intel kicks in. We learned from locals that we should simply climb through the fence into the date palms immediately north of the border crossing and look for the bird inside, looking up into the canopy, despite the "no entry" signs. To quote "this is not Belgium". We did so in the morning to no effect and again in the late afternoon - we were surprised though that "looking up" was a bit pointless as the bird was really not willing to wait for us to come anywhere near it and took flight any time we got a dozen palm trees or so from it. So we never got much of a good view and taking photos was an ordeal, as the plantation is pretty densely filled with the tree trunks. Eventually we got some bad shots showing ID marks - this was a female and those are much harder to tell - and beware, normal Honey Buzzards also winter here!

 

[opisska]

As for getting rarity info, now I know for sure there are channels that are not publicly known - probably WhatsApp and Telegram groups - this was mentioned to me by birders and the icons used for news sources at the Birding Israel page are pretty clear

 

[Muppit17]

As for getting rarity info, now I know for sure there are channels that are not publicly known - probably WhatsApp and Telegram groups - this was mentioned to me by birders and the icons used for news sources at the Birding Israel page are pretty clear

Definitely a WhatsApp group. But bear in mind plenty of the local sources are all in Hebrew - an alphabet I have never managed to decipher.

 

[wolfbirder]

@wolfbirder maybe you need some motivation View attachment 1486256

Ouch that hurts Jan. Congratulations. I couldn’t walk that far 10kms these days. You should go for the three banded plover up north. If you haven’t already.

 

[opisska]

We contemplated the plover, but it's far and spending the whole day in a car is annoying on such a brief trip. We instead birded some mostly empty places and searched in vain for Syrian Serins. On the flip side, we have a video of Palestine Molerat

 

[opisska]

To add some more gen - this time we found the Vinous-breasted Starlings in HaYarkon finally. In the evening they came to roost at 32.0952047, 34.8097911