4 get stuck in the desert: Israel, 18th-27th March 2011 (1 Viewer)

After being planned for more than a year, March 18th soon came around and myself, my Dad Paul and Ian Pitts set off from Luton airport to Tel Aviv where we were to meet up with Rich Prior who was flying in from Geneva and then on to spend 9 glorious days birding the length and breadth of Israel. This was to be a full-on boys’ trip to coincide with the annual Eilat Bird Festival and to include the double whammy of Dad’s belated 60th birthday present and, as of the 21st March, our 30-year birding anniversary.....scary! We totalled 234 species and 13 species of mammal over our trip.

Flights
We flew good ‘ole EasyJet as they are still the cheapest operator by over £100 even with the added hassles of getting from the south coast up to Luton airport. The flights cost £232 each and we only had two checked bags between the 3 of us so saved another £20 by doing so. Flights were basically on time and perfectly fine, the crew amenable and the sector times were 4.5hrs outbound and 5.25hrs inbound. The only minor grumble I had was at Luton airport itself – we waited for ages for the gate to come up on screen and when it finally did so we were herded down to the very end of the airport and had to wait for nearly 40mins crammed into a tiny, hot and airless departure lounge....why they couldn’t have just left us upstairs where the seats were I don’t know! Get what you pay for I suppose!
Our flight arrived at 1720 local time and Rich, who had landed around lunchtime, had gotten the car sorted and was waiting for us upon exit. The only other hitch with the flights was that Rich had to be at the airport by 1000 on the last day whereas our flight wasn’t until 1920.
Terminals are fun in Israel as the EasyJet flights all check in at Terminal 3 and then you are bussed to the main terminal – so make sure you don’t go to the ‘main’ airport first! Security was not that bad, my bags were turfed out on departure much to my companions’ amusement but to be honest, with two tripods wrapped up in towels in my main bag and all my optics and electrical stuff in my hand luggage, I’d be more worried if I wasn’t stopped!!

Money
The New Israeli Shekel (nis) was available at 5.4 to the £ from ICE money http://www.iceplc.com, an online currency exchanger that had a much better rate than the high street options. Never used them before but their service was excellent and the money appeared Royal Mail special delivery the next day and I will definitely use them the next time I travel. They will also change back unused currency with no handling charge. I took £600 with me and returned with £175 of it, so a real cheap trip overall.

Car
Due to scheduling problems with the group trying to meet up from different countries Rich very generously sorted the car out. We had a brand new (7kms on the clock!!) Mitsubishi Lancer through Europcar which was perfect for 4 people and the boot just big enough to get the bags and scopes in. He also paid a few extra Euros for complete cover and excess waiver (wisely as it turned out!!). Petrol was anywhere from 6.05 – 7.33nis so not that much cheaper than our overpriced gas but between the 4 of us I think it worked out at no more than £70 each for the 3200kms we covered. Rich also had a ‘twat-nav’ which was actually pretty damn useful, especially as it was pre-set with ‘home’ which was actually in Airport City and not at the airport itself. The roads are in excellent condition and pretty easy to navigate but make sure that the tolls for the bigger motorways are covered in your rental as they are payable electronically.

Accommodation
We had pre-booked the first 2 nights at the SPNI field school in Snir which was about 2hrs northeast from Tel Aviv and perfectly placed for our northern sites and cost about £10 each. We all crashed in the same room which held two bunk beds and two singles, had private facilities, fridge and kettle, etc. Dad’s insistence that he doesn’t snore was soon overturned!!
We drove overnight from the north to reach Nizzana by first light after having a unsuccessful attempt to catch a couple of hours kip outside Ashdod – well, unsuccessful if you weren’t Dad or Ian. I’ve never seen two people fall asleep so quickly when in a car in my life....so much for the rear gunners spotting anything when we were driving, they were asleep!! These old gits just can’t handle the pace.....it was like having the two old dudes from the Muppets on the back seat!
In Eilat we stayed at the Arava Hostel which was perfectly adequate and friendly. We had two twin rooms (well, after changing the doubles we were shown first off!) with private facilities, TV and A/C for 180nis per room per night.
The last evening we had driven north and stayed in the Sadot Hotel in, just south of Tel Aviv, which for me was luxury compared to what I’m used to! This cost us 120nis each for two plush doubles including breakfast the following morning. This hotel also ran a free shuttle bus to the airport (only a 10min drive away) so was perfect for Rich as he said it meant we didn’t have to drop him in the airport and could squeeze some more birding in.

Hume’s Owl trip
We had arranged to do the owl and nightjar trip with Barak Granit and everything was fine until a couple of weeks before our departure. Birding politics is seemingly as complicated as their nation’s and to cut a long story short, from this year on the only way to see these birds is through the trips run by the guys at the Eilat Bird Festival...for US$150! But, Barak being as helpful as ever, arranged for us to go out with the festival for the £65 each he was going to charge us. This worked out very well as the SPNI authorized guides are the only ones allowed to spotlight the birds and we also stopped at a couple of sites as we travelled north and saw Arabian Warbler and a Cyprus Wheatear. The drive from Eilat is roughly 250kms each way so can be expensive on fuel alone, and the trip leaves at 1430 and gets back anywhere from 2330-0100 but is certainly well worth it.

Maps & books
We used the World Mapping Project 1:250000 road map of Israel, available online. This was perfectly adequate and printed at a fairly large scale with the north on one side, the southern half on the other. We also referred to the Birding Hotspots of Northern & Southern Israel too, which although now 11 years out of date, were still useful. I’m amazed no-one has re-released more updated versions by now. We also took the new Collins, the new edition of Birds of the Middle East, the Macmillan guide and the Raptors of the Middle East. We were to take a mammal guide but the bloody thing didn’t turn up until the day we left....!
For trip report reference we used Daniel Lopez’s trip here:
http://www.israbirding.com/reports/birding_reports/15-29th_march_2008/
Dominic Standing’s here:
http://www.travellingbirder.com/tripreports/view_birding_tripreport.php?id=643
Owain Gabb & Tim Syke’s downloadable here:
http://www.israbirding.com/reports/birding_reports/march_14_28_2009/
Rich Bonser’s report gave good directions for finding Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv (better than Google maps anyway!!):
http://www.freewebs.com/richbonser/israelmarchapril2008.htm
Yoav Perlman’s online rare bird site and blog were also very good:
http://www.israbirdcenter.org/rarebirds/1pagerare.htm
http://nubijar.blogspot.com/
Re’a’s blog from the IBRC is always worth a look too:
http://eilatbirding.blogspot.com/
Israbirding is good at the planning stage:
http://www.israbirding.com/
And of course, thanks to everyone who gave us tips and advice on here!!

Miscellaneous
Remember that the Israeli weekend is Friday & Saturday and only on these days it is safe to go into the desert sites, such as the Hameishar Plains, as the army ceases its’ manoeuvres.
At this time of year, sunrise was approx 0550 and sunset was approx 1745.

18th March
The travel day. After non-eventful flights we all met up at the airport and made our way to the car. We started the list with Hooded Crow, House Sparrow and flyover Cattle Egret as we left as dusk fell and drove northeast towards Snir. After driving into the kibbutz by accident we finally reached the correct gates to the SPNI hostel, which were also locked. After a lot of calling we finally managed to contact the wayward security guard...ironically just as someone wanted to exit so the gate opened anyway! The room was basic, clean and cheap so no complaints! Golden Jackals could be heard howling on the surrounding hillsides and we fell asleep wondering what tomorrow would bring.

19th March
We were all awake well before the alarm – which was lucky as I’d forgotten to put my phone forward by two hours! In the gardens the bird tally began to tot up with goodies like Palestine Sunbird, White-spectacled Bulbul, Hoopoe, Laughing Dove, Serin and Syrian Woodpecker all seen. More ‘homely’ species included Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Great Tit and Ring-necked Parakeet. Smart black-capped anatoliae Jays were as noisy as ours and overhead Great White and Cattle Egrets were seen. Migration was in full swing and we saw Lesser Whitethroats (the most abundant migrating passerine of the trip), Sardinian and Eastern Bonelli’s Warblers, Blackcap and Red-rumped Swallow. As we put our day gear into the boot I used the mp3 to call in a Syrian Wood for those who had missed the earlier one – and it worked a treat, giving great views!

We headed off northwards for Mount Hermon, the weather was good and the sky clear. The drive only took about 30mins even with a couple of stops for another showy woodie and a Whitethroat. We passed through the lower gates, paid the entry fee and began the climb up to the car-park, snow soon plastering the hillsides and we had Sombre Tit on the way. Looking around the slowly-filling car-park we had an obliging Rock Bunting, a gorgeous male semirufus Black Redstart and a calling Wren in the valley. The sloped were filled with skiers and ‘boarders wringing the last out of the remaining snow so we joined the chairlift queue, paid our 37nis and soon we were ready to get aboard. Now, I’ve always thought getting on and off a chairlift with a snowboard strapped to your foot was tricky enough...but that’s child’s play when you’re trying to do it whilst holding two cameras and a telescope!! Anyway, safely aboard and up we went.

A Blue Rock-Thrush and several more Rock Buntings were seen on the leisurely ride up and then nearer the top a couple of birds flew along the crest of the hill and perched up. A quick scrabble with the bins and we were looking at a pair of cracking Crimson-winged Finches – the target bird!! Excellent, we joked that we may aswell stay on the chairlift and go back down....which might have been preferable to getting off the damned thing with said cameras and ‘scope – thankfully the attendants had a strong grip!! From the top we had excellent views of about 15 Crimson-wings and amongst the rocks a lone Shorelark was seen, up here the pale race penicillata – the other target species. Result! A couple of Rock Sparrows were seen and another Black Redstart looked stark when bouncing across the snowfield and a bright male Northern Wheatear was also seen along with a territorial Blue Rock-Thrush. Then sadly the very loud and very bad music began blasting out of the restaurant so it was time to go!

Another pair of Sombre Tits was seen back around the carpark but bizarrely not a peep was heard from Rock Nuthatch in any suitable habitat we passed. We headed back down, stopping suddenly near the junction with 989 as a bright green bird popped up on a bush – unfortunately it was only a male Greenfinch, but the area looked promising so we jumped out and soon had the other target – a gorgeous Syrian Serin! Several Linnets, Crested Larks and a couple of Chukar were seen here but we were asked to move on by a jobbing copper as we were ‘parked dangerously’...even though we were at least 5ft off the main road on the grass - oh well, he had a gun.....! We stopped for some photos of the ancient Nimrod Fortress and had Short-toed Eagle, Steppe Buzzard, House Martin, Swallow and Swifts overhead. Year ticks a-plenty!

We stopped at the fishponds along the 99 at Dan and had a good selection of water birds: Common and smart Smyrna Kingfishers, Wood and Green Sands, feisty Spur-winged Lapwings, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Redshank, Snipe, Gadwall, Teal, Glossy Ibis, Marsh Harrier, Cetti’s Warbler, Graceful Prinia and a noisy Clamorous Reed Warbler. I missed a probable Little Crake that flew across the water and disappeared into the reeds but did see the Coypu that surfaced nearby – cool!

The temperature soon climbed as we descended fully into the Hula Valley and we pulled off the road to get the shorts on. Birding from here gave us an adult and imm White-tailed Eagle, our first 4 Common Cranes, Lesser Spotted Eagle, another Short-toed Eagle and plenty of Black Kites and Steppe Buzzards forming kettles on the thermals. We headed for the Lehavot Habashan fishponds, opposite the kibbutz entrance. Here we saw Pygmy Cormorant, 2 Little Crakes, Bluethroat, Black Francolin, Penduline Tit, Caspian Reed and Clamorous Reed Warblers and Zitting Cisticola. On the mammal front we had a cool Egyptian Mongoose and plenty more Coypu and we also noted several Caspian Terrapins hauled out around the ponds.

We took the scenic route to the Hula Agamon Reserve (which means we missed the turning and had to rejoin the main road, thus circumnavigating the reserve completely!) and after paying the paltry 3nis entry fee – and buying an ice-cream of course – we wandered down to view the flocks of Common Cranes near the lake, seeing a Purple Heron along the ditch and several of the numerous Coypu. The reserve is pretty impressive and very popular with families which I think is a great thing and shows people’s appreciation for the natural world. You can hire golf-buggies or ‘pedal-wagons’ for a fee if time is short. Entry is from 0600 on weekends and holidays (otherwise 0900) and you can stay in the park until dark.

There were at least 800+ Cranes in the flooded fields, their honking calls echoing across the landscape, but searching through them failed to produce the hoped-for Demoiselle which had apparently moved on. Over the course of the afternoon we must’ve seen over 1000 White Storks in and over the area, and 84 Black Storks going over north. In the fields themselves White Wagtails far outnumbered the Black-headeds – one of which was the superciliaris race – and we also had several smart Syke’s and Grey-headed Wagtails too, including one of the dombrowskii race, and a couple of cracking Citrines. The wagtails were accompanied by Meadow, Water and Red-throated Pipits whilst on the pools we had Temminck’s and numerous Little Stints, Dunlin, Spotted Red, LRPs, Marsh Sand, Ruff and Black-winged Stilts. In the surrounding trees an adult and imm Greater Spotted Eagle and a couple of Long-legged Buzzards were seen.
In the long grass several Quail were already calling and as we left a female Hen Harrier drifted low over the fields and a Pied Kingfisher was seen also. We watched as the tractor pulling the ‘crane hide’ trundled into the field, the cranes giving it not a second glance – again it was refreshing to see lots of families marvelling at nature. We ate at the lively complex just off the main road 90 as we headed back to Snir. Once back we made a couple of calls to contacts and discovered that one of them had found Israel’s 2nd Masked Wag (well done Amir!) and that a swan species had been seen at the Hula so plans were finalised for tomorrow. The first full day was now over and we’d seen 105 species – pretty good!

20th March
We woke early, had a brief bird around the gardens and then stacked the car full of our gear and headed to the Hula Agamon. Luckily today was a holiday so were able to get in early. We headed down to the main lake via the Crane flock that was being fed and showing excellently. A female Hen Harrier was seen perched on a dead tree, a couple of Snipe flushed in front of us and a flock of 20 Corn Buntings, several Eurasian Reed Warblers and a male European Stonechat were seen along the path. At the mist-enshrouded lake there was no sign of a swan but we did have 3 Greater Flamingos, 2 Great White Pelicans, Squacco Heron, Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler, Shelduck, Gadwall, Penduline Tit and several Pygmy Cormorants. Whilst scanning the reedy edges for crakes, a Wild Boar suddenly appeared before disappearing back in again. A Greater Spotted Eagle and Long-legged Buzzard were seen perched up in the surrounding trees and as we headed back an Osprey made a low pass, 6 Spoonbills dropped in and a Common Tern headed high the other way. All 3 kingfisher species were seen again and a lovely male white-spotted Bluethroat showed well singing by the path while Quail and Black Francolin were heard nearby. Best of all, a cracking male Caspian Stonechat performed well in bushes as at least 800 White Storks and numerous Cranes began to take flight and head north.

We soon were heading westwards towards the coast to the town of Tamra. With directions given by Amir we easily found the large quarry just north of the town....but unfortunately the long-staying Kurdish Wheatear had buggered off – dammit, missed by 2 days! Still, we gave it some time just in case and had a cracking pair of Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, 2 male Cretzschmar’s Buntings, Jackdaw, 3 Tawny Pipits, a male Sardinian and 2 Spectacled Warblers, Short-toed Eagle, many circling Black Kites and White Storks, a pair of Blue Rock-Thrushes and plenty of Swallows and Red-rumps. Also on the surrounding rocks we had 5 (Syrian) Rock Dassies, several Starred Agamas and an excellent Israeli Fine-fingered Gecko.

So, a good stop but annoyingly missing the target bird. We headed down the coast towards the fishponds at Ma’agan Mikha’el, following our directions which were spot-on! We began scanning the fishponds as we drove through to the sailing club. The thousands of gulls mostly comprised Black-headeds and Slender-billed with the bigger gulls being the handsome Armenian. Black-crowned Night-Herons and Little Egrets sat atop the covered ponds with the trapped corpses of both species hanging below them making a disturbing sight – there was even a dead Little Grebe hanging by one wing in another pond.....quite macabre really. On a lighter note, 4 Hoopoes gave excellent close views sitting on wires at car-height and a male Northern Wheatear was seen on the track.

We pulled up near some round metal tanks and a viewing pergola and soon had the excellent Masked Wag in our sights – a truly lovely bird that showed really well. We also had Water Rail, 2 Citrine Wags, Common and Green Sands and an Egyptian Mongoose picking up a dead fish on this last pond. Looking out to sea we had a Gull-billed and an imm Caspian Tern go by and then a surprise Scopoli’s Shearwater and a young Gannet fly past – although the last split our group 50/50 between Gannet and booby....I’m with Gannet. On the beach were thousands more gulls and careful scrutiny found a lot of gorgeous Baltics, a few Yellow-legs and finally a stonking 2ndw Pallas’ Gull. Even sitting down it was huge but when it stood up it completely dwarfed the other gulls around it.
We had our only Curlew of the trip flying over here and also saw Grey and Kentish Plovers on the beach. A newly-arrived Isabelline and a Desert Wheatear were also feeding along the beach while Eastern Olivaceous Warblers, European Stonechat and Spanish Sparrows were seen in the bushes. A walk down the opposite end of the beach gave us our first Ruppell’s Warbler in the coastal scrub and we had 10 Citrine Wags together in the muddy pond here along with 100+ Little Stint and 20+ LRPs and 12 flyover Pintail.

It was now getting near dusk so we began our long journey southwards. We turned off the main route 40 at Ashdod and found a lovely pizzeria. We ordered loads of food and managed to stay in munching and chatting until gone 2300. We set off again and pulled up off the motorway near a petrol station and McDonald’s an hour later to get some sleep. Unfortunately no-one told the Palestinians who had bombed the nearby town of Ashkelon so we had a stream of Israeli helicopter gunships flying overhead....! The following day they bombed Ashdod itself – eek!

21st March
So Rich and I managed maybe 20mins sleep between us and we were back on the road just after 0230. We turned eastwards off the main road onto the 211 towards Nizzana, pulling off the road for a pee-stop and just to listen to the desert at night. A distant Stone-Curlew was heard but little else, although we saw a couple of (Desert) Cape Hares and a (Southern) Red Fox further along the road. We arrived in Nizzana way too early so decided to get the lay of the land – we followed the directions in another trip report we had but the bridge mentioned in it has since been completely washed away so after seeing a Barn Owl along the Ezuz road itself, a quick call to my friend Eran Banker and he put us onto a better site. We birded the area around the start of the Ezuz road and had a fine Desert Little Owl giving us the evil-eye, a pair of nesting Brown-necked Ravens in the only big tree here, plenty of Chukar and a single Sand Partridge. Bar-tailed Larks were singing and big flocks of Lesser Short-toed Larks were moving around. A female Hen Harrier was seen also.

As the sun came up we drove down towards Ezuz until we passed a huge water tank that has collapsed onto its side. We pulled up as directed about 100m beyond it and stood up on the raised bank and began scanning for birds. It wasn’t too long before Dad had found our main quarry – a stunning male MacQueen’s Bustard in full display! He soon found another, closer, individual on our side of the road which showed even better. We had a couple of Dorcas Gazelles here too and a Scrub Warbler that disappeared all too quickly. A large flock of 60+ Pin-tailed Sandgrouse flew over, calling noisily, while Isabelline, Desert and Eastern Black-eared Wheatears kept us entertained. A pair of Spectacled Warblers was bouncing around the barbed-wire infested bushes, a Hoopoe flopped over the road and a couple of smart Desert Grey Shrikes were seen too.

Now the biggest balls-up of the whole holiday occurred here: somehow none of us saw a poxy courser....not one, yet a mate who turned up on an organised tour was watching them about half a km further down the road...I could see him through my bins! He said he thought we must’ve seen them so didn’t bother saying anything....unbelievable. Another friend who’d visited a couple of years previous had seen so many throughout he’d stopped counting them, so with that in mind and the amount of desert habitat we’d be visiting over the next week, none of us was duly worried. How wrong can ya be??!! Bollocks is the word I’m looking for......still bugs me now!!

As time was pushing on we had to track back to get to the Keziot ponds by 0800 latest to get in place for the sandgrouse. The ponds are reached by taking the last turning right (as you leave Nizzana) and drive until you see some very large water towers, turn right at the crossroads here so the prison is now on your right, and then take another right after you pass the prison itself and you’ll see the raised, fenced off ponds ahead of you. As we passed the alfalfa field next to the prison a smart Black-shouldered Kite drifted down into the wadi.

We parked up and stood at the easternmost side of the ponds and we soon had a party of 15 Black-bellied Sandgrouse flying around, whilst a female Monty’s went through and several Pallid Harriers were hanging around, including a nice 2ndyr male, another pair of Hens and a Marsh were also seen. A cracking pair of Crowned Sandgrouse (stupid name – it’s more spotted than Spotted!) soon dropped in and disappeared down the bank and when they took flight, another pair went up with them. Then, to make 4 species, a lovely male Spotted landed on the bank for a couple of minute before disappearing again – result!! The bushes around the ponds held Willow Warbler, Chiffs, Lesser Whitethroat, Spanish Sparrows, Sardinian and Eastern Bonelli’s Warblers, a nice male Eastern Stonechat and 11 Calandra Larks flew over. The ponds themselves had Black-winged Stilts, Spur-winged Lapwing, Ruff, LRP, Little Stint, Little Grebe, Black-headed Wags, Water Pipits and 5 Bluethroats ducking into the vegetation. The Black-shouldered Kite (or another) perched up ahead of us along the perimeter fence and showed excellently just before we left.
We went back to the crossroads and drove straight on, so now running parallel with the main road eastwards on a minor track. This was a good move as we found another excellent MacQueen’s Bustard very close to the road and on the other side at least one Arabian Desert Warbler that was doing exactly what it said in the book: following-on behind a wheatear, great stuff!

Finally rejoining the main road we headed southwards once we were onto route 40, stopping at Sede Boker for lunch. The views across the valley were pretty breathtaking and we scanned in the hope of Bonelli’s Eagle, but no luck. We did however have a 2 pairs of Egyptian Vultures, 2 Eurasian Griffons, Peregrine, Common Raven and an Alpine Swift go over. Around the picnic benches a friendly Blackstart joined us for lunch along with a very tame Desert Lark, House Sparrows and boisterous Hooded Crows. Several smart Tristram’s Starlings showed well and crossing the road through the valley below us we saw a Nubian Ibex.

Carrying on southwards we stopped for photos at the edge of the Ramon Crater where several ghostly Pale Rock Martins and Swifts were zipping around and a family party of Nubian Ibex sat on the rocks below us. As we descended onto the Hameishar Plain it was actually quite painful to not be able to pull off down the track where we knew the good larks were....but the army, replete with many tanks on manoeuvres, put pay to that!! We joined the 90 just above Lotan and headed down towards the km20 pools, stopping briefly into Yotvata where we had 2 excellent Little Green Bee-eaters – I think this race, cyanophrys, is the best looking of all! An odd-looking wheatear was finally id’d as an older female Eastern Black-eared (after Cyprus was mooted – thanks Jonathan!) but looked nothing like any of the illustrations in guides we had with us and showed features at odds with the text....a good instructional bird that had us stumped!
Now the road has been turned into a dual-carriageway for most of its length, getting off at km20 when travelling southwards is not possible. Luckily for us a lorry had overturned right by the army checkpoint so we went through there and did a quick U-turn where the central crash barrier ends and turned off towards the pools.

It was here that I was finally reunited with Eran – after 7yrs of chatting on email since we birded together in Thailand, both ‘selling our souls’ to see Gurney’s Pitta with Yothin! It was great to see him again and we had at least 200 Greater Flamingos on the pans, with Green and Marsh Sands, Greenshank, Grey and Kentish Plovers, Blackwit, Avocet and a single imm Great White Pelican also seen. We left at 1630 and made our way to the km19 pools to get into situ for the last target of the day.

We parked alongside the cow-sheds and walked up the bank and took up a place near the reeds at the water’s edge in the northwest corner, where a showy pair of Little Crakes was feeding along with several Eurasian Reed and Sedge Warblers. A male Tufted Duck was a surprise in amongst the Teal, Pintail and Shoveler on the water and hundreds of wagtails appeared as the light faded: mostly Whites, with quite alot of Black-headeds (inc. superciliaris) and Grey-headeds (inc. dombrowskii) also. Watching them almost hovering over the water to catch flies was quite a sight. Loads of hirundines were feeding also and at least 2 Pallid Swifts were seen too. Just before the light faded completely the wags and hirundines all disappeared and then, in a hushed whisper, the couple in front of us said the words we’d been waiting for: “They’re in, drinking by the metal pipe”. After frantically squinting to see through the gloom, three amazing Lichtenstein’s Sandgrouse, 2 males and a female, were finally visible with just enough light to pick out the breastbands and face markings. Unfortunately, after about 10mins of watching them an idiot of a guide brought his group up onto the bank and surprise, surprise, the sandgrouse were off!

So, all 5 species of sandgrouse in a day...fantastic!! With elation fuelling our sleep-deprived bodies we struggled into Eilat along the ‘bottom’ track, thus avoiding the need to use the 90 again. We finally found the Arava Hostel and thankfully they had our rooms ready...well, they had two doubles ready! A quick mention of this at reception and we were ‘upgraded’ into two triples.

We ate in the Brazilian theme restaurant next door and had a beer to celebrate our anniversary....30 years, bloody hell! Apparently I fell asleep within 2mins of my head hitting the pillow...! Bliss.

Excellent stuff 3B. Looking forward to the next instalment.

David

Sounds as though it was worth all that planning. A great read from a lovely country.

John.

C'mon Adam, where's the next installment, i keep checking the thread to so how your trip compares with ours.

Despite you thinking that our trips didn't coincide, i reckon you must have got your dates wrong. We were still at the Arava on the 21st and i do remember a fella booking in and complaining that he'd got double beds as opposed to singles. Also seem to remember he'd caught a bit too much sun too!! Shame we didn't realise as we could have swapped a bit of info.

Sounds like you had as good a time as we did, looking forward to your next update.

Graeme

graeme782 said:

C'mon Adam, where's the next installment, i keep checking the thread to so how your trip compares with ours.

Despite you thinking that our trips didn't coincide, i reckon you must have got your dates wrong. We were still at the Arava on the 21st and i do remember a fella booking in and complaining that he'd got double beds as opposed to singles. Also seem to remember he'd caught a bit too much sun too!! Shame we didn't realise as we could have swapped a bit of info.

Sounds like you had as good a time as we did, looking forward to your next update.

Graeme

Click to expand...

Ah, that sounds like me!!! Yeah, I think we just did the normal quick chat while they swapped the rooms over I remember...?
Next bit coming soon - car gave up completely on me earlier so gotta get another one sorted now.....bugger

Interesting to read and compare how you got on - great stuff. Booby on the med coast - wouldn't that be something of a mega??

(And of course, Cream-coloured Coursers are a lovely bird... Disappointingly, I only saw 8 near Nizzana, but then I didn't even need them for the year anyway ... )

I used to like you Dan..... I won't even mention missing rosefinch then!! Apparently there'd been an adult Brown Booby off the coast there not very long ago

Some of the dinner guests at Sede Boker.....

Some locations.....

Some goon shots.....

Some beasties.....

The nice and not so nice from Ma'agan Mikha'el.....what a waste

And the last for now.....

22nd March
We set off early and dropped in at the North Beach seeing a large flock of 60+ Garganey come in, several Armenian Gulls and a couple of House Crows in the trees. Checking up the dykes (which were being fenced off and marked with new ‘Danger, Mines’ signs – eek!) we had several Green Sands, Common Sand, Redshank, Ringed Plover and lots of Spur-winged Lapwings. A Crag Martin was a surprise as it flew over with Sand Martins, Swallows and Red-rumpeds and a fine male Eastern Black-eared Wheatear showed exceptionally well on the barbed wire fence.
A quick check on the salt pans on the outskirts of the town gave us 3imm Greater Flamingos, Kentish Plover, Little Stint and Black-winged Stilts whilst Black Kites, Steppe Buzzards and a single Steppe Eagle began to pass northwards overhead.
We headed north to the acacia grove literally just south of Yotvata and parked beneath one of the trees. We wandered around for about an hour or so in search of Arabian Warbler but only got close with a pesky Eastern Orphean Warbler. Other birds of note here were 2 Blackstarts and 4 Eastern Bonelli’s Warblers with Red-throated Pipit, Pale Rock Martin and a Lesser Spotted Eagle overhead. We also scared a Desert Cape Hare from beneath a bush. I then received a text from Eran informing us of a couple of goodies back at Eilat – Black Bush-Robin at the ringing station and White-throated Robin near the date plantation – so we high-tailed it back. We stopped at the IBRCE first but no joy, the BBR had not been seen since it was ringed. We had a female Redstart down the main path and a couple of Purple and Squacco Herons and a Marsh Harrier on the lake itself. As we left a fine dark-morph Booted Eagle flew low over the car-park.
We headed back down to the date plantation nearest the beach, accessed from the dirt road to the IBRCE. Several others were scouting the bushes but all we turned up was a cracking male Masked Shrike, plenty more Eastern Bonelli’s and the ever-present Lesser Whitethroats and Graceful Prinias....certainly no WT Robin.
By now it was nearly time for us to meet up at the Festival in the Agmin Hotel for our owl trip. We checked the sightings board and met up with Jonathan Meyrav and Yoav Perlman and some of the other participants on tonight’s ‘Rambo tour’. For Rich, who had lived and worked at a nature reserve in neighbouring Lebanon for two years until the trouble started up again, this was a meeting of old friends for him this time. With Yoav leading us today, the bus left just after 1430 and we headed northwards up the 90, stopping at km76 and turning down the dirt track to the antennae where we soon had our target species – a female Cyprus Wheatear – in our ‘scopes. Result, what a nice bird! Also here we had Hoopoe, a male Northern Wheatear, 2 female Eastern Black-eareds, Corn Bunting and a female European Stonechat.
Back in the bus again until km152 and decamped at the Shezaf Nature Reserve. Now began the search for Arabian Warbler and I soon saw a dark warbler fly into a nearby tree with an all-black tail.....cool, now we just had to re-find it. After a lot of mucking about and another pesky Eastern Orphean, we all had the bird and saw it well through the ‘scopes – bonus bird no2!! Also here we had a nice flock of 95 Spotted Sandgrouse fly over, 2 Little Green Bee-eaters and a male Sand Partridge. Also here the resident Arabian Babblers are super-tame and will take food from your hand so photo opportunities abound – great birds.
Now the big push up into the Dead Sea area and an unmarked wadi somewhere nearby. The sky was brilliantly clear with a thousand stars sparkling down at us. We were told to turn off all torches, let our eyes get used to the dark and proceed up the gentle rocky path. It was amazing how much you could actually see and the ambience of the high wadi walls and the inky sky above was quite breathtaking. After about a 10min walk, Yoav blasted the tape and promptly got a reply from a little further up the wadi. Then the bird called again from the cliff ahead of us and through the bins I could see an owl-shaped silhouette against the night sky and then as Yoav put the light on it there he was – a fantastic Hume’s Owl in all his glory, his sandy plumage and piercing orange eyes a sight to behold. What a bird!! We watched him for about 5mins and then left him in peace. Another called from the other side of the valley and Yoav said that it would be another male as their territories are quite close. Then as we walked back Rich let out a little whistle imitating the Hume’s distinctive call and Yoav called the group to a halt as there was an owl right next to us.....oops! Didn’t have the heart to tell him....still, at least Rich knows he can do a good impression!
Having all got back to the bus (with its grumpy driver....smile, what’s a smile?!?) without breaking any bones we now headed back southwards to Ne’ot Hakikar. We soon arrived and headed out into the fields on the edge of the saltbush – this area holds the last such habitat in Israel. Within a couple of minutes we had the last target in the spotlight – an excellent Nubian Nightjar on the track ahead of us! How easy was that?? We watched it until it flew and had views of another further on. These birds, ssp tamarisis, are Yoav’s ‘babies’ and he’s been studying them for years: they differ in just about every way a subspecies can from the nominate and thus they are trying to get them upgraded to full-species status which would then enable the land to be officially protected...and probably put the bird straight onto the Red List!
So, after a very successful night’s birding, we arrived back in Eilat by 2330 four very happy boys!

23rd March
After getting some details from Jonathan yesterday we headed up to km76 again for first light. We slowed as we approached Yotvata as Yoav had told us on last night’s trip that the big enclosure on the west side of the road holds the last 19 ‘Acacia’ Gazelles left – at present a subspecies of Mountain Gazelle but differs morphologically apparently – and saw two near the fence. On the opposite side on the way up is a huge fenced area that is the last staging post of the re-intro scheme for extirpated native animals: inside are Arabian Oryx, Onager and a few Ostriches also. All three species have been re-released but the latter unfortunately was not successful with all birds dying....

Upon our arrival, we parked by the big antenna and began to walk northwards up the very shallow vegetated wadi. The Jordanian border is only a matter of feet from here and it’s can be quite easy to walk across when chasing a good bird and not even realise it as the fence is very low – so be careful!! A smart pair of Desert Wheatears was nice but far outnumbered by Northerns. 4 Isabellines and a single female Eastern Black-eared were seen here along with a nice female Eastern Stonechat. We bumped into a couple of birders coming back from the far end and their news was negative – no interesting larks that were reported here yesterday were still present....bugger! Larks we did see included over 100 Short-toeds, 20 Crested, 20 Bar-tails and best of all, 3 Bimaculated. A fine Barbary Falcon flew in and landed up on the antenna and we saw another later on high up overhead. 8 White and 88 Black Storks drifted northwards as did a single Steppe Eagle and Steppe Buzzard. A male Marsh and a female Hen Harrier were also seen here. No sign of yesterday’s wheatear so a lot of stuff moved on overnight.

Back around the grassier area near the antenna we had a fine male red-spot Bluethroat, 4 Ortolans – 1 male and 3 females – and a stunning male Eastern Stonechat. We bumped into some more birders who’d not seen much either but one had just received a rare-bird alert telling of a Menetries’ Warbler ringed at the IBRCE and to be released soon...bollocks!! So, a little bit disappointed with the lack of larks and missing another damn good bird we headed down to Kibbutz Lotan.

As we pulled in and took the right turn towards the sewage ponds a fantastic male Ehrenberg’s Redstart flew across the road and posed nicely in the trees next to us. At the pools themselves we soon located the scruffy-looking Buff-bellied Pipit on the 3rd pool, along with some smart Red-throateds and several Waters gaining summer plumage. A couple of Black-headed Wags fed here with at least 60 White Wags also. Two male Bluethroats (one of each coloured spot!) and at least 10 hectic Chiffs nipped in and out of the reeds and a Caspian Reed Warbler showed nicely too. In the last pond, Dad found a corking Wryneck that showed down to a few feet and in the bushes beyond there was a female Spectacled Warbler and a male Woodchat. Another female Eastern Stonechat perched up on the perimeter fence as did a splendidly bright male Eastern Black-eared Wheatear. A Sparrowhawk zipped through and out up pretty much everything, including the 200 or so Feral Pigeons around the outbuildings. Waders included 2 LRPs and 8 Green Sands, a pair of which looked somewhat out of place standing on a sandy hill!

We left the kibbutz and headed off on the 40 again towards Shizzafon. We stopped at the rather impressive sewage works here too – probably the nicest I’ve ever been with planted flowerbeds and benches...! We had our only Namaqua Dove here – a female – and added Black-winged Stilt, Pale Rock Martin, Arabian Babbler, Hoopoe and Linnet to the day total. Another addition was the bizarre sight of a Ruff zooming in low over the desert and then landing in amongst the scrub.....looking all the world like something completely different! Also nearby on the crags were two promising-looking Rock Doves.
At the Shizzafon junction we bore left onto the Ovda Road and continued down until a distinctive black flint hill was visible on the left. We decamped and began a fruitless search for any larks but there was nothing here either except a reptile tick – a smart Bridled Mabuya. We drove a little further and parked up by the big bridge from which we saw nothing but as we turned around we had our first ad White-crowned Wheatear on a large rock and 2 Blackstarts and another male Woodchat close-by. We then took the Sheharut Road and parked up near one of the bridges. Again, no sign of any larks here but we did see a nice flock of 35 Spotted Sandgrouse fly over as well as a constant stream of fully-laden F-16s, Cobras, Apache’s and Black Hawks on manoeuvres – cool!!

We left, again a little disheartened at the lacklustre lark appearances, and headed back down to Yotvata. We stopped at the north circular field which had just been mown and saw at least 30 Bimaculated Larks amongst the Short-toeds. We couldn’t locate either of the Oriental Skylarks that were here but looking at the larks in the mown grass was a nightmare!! Heading back southwards we diverted up towards Amram’s Pillars and did the walk up to the pillars themselves which were quite impressive. The falling light created some excellent shadows in the valley and back lower down a photographer had set up some water to entice the birds closer for photos. A nice 1styr White-crowned Wheatear, a Desert Lark and a Blackstart took advantage of this and showed excellently. A nice Sand Partridge was also seen on a nearby rocky hillside and a Brown-necked Raven flew low up the wadi too. No sign of any rosefinches of course....but as we left and headed back down the bumpy track a fab Hooded Wheatear perched up on a dead tree and showed well before flying across the road and out of sight.

So, with the day nearly done we pitched up at the North Beach to chat with other birders. Scanning offshore we had 7 gorgeous White-eyed Gulls, 3 Sandwich Terns, 30 Slender-billed and 10 Armenian Gulls whilst a nice dark-morph Western Reef-Egret posed on the beach in front of the gathered throng. We ate at our adjacent restaurant again as the food was damn good and there’s so much of it....one thing I liked about Israeli restaurants was the speed at which your meals – and courses – turned up...definitely no time for chit-chat!

Still burning the midnight oil, Ads?

Sounds like a great trip, despite the odd dip, thanks for the account.

But, is it just me, or does your avatar need an upgrade to take in the weight gain?!