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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Farnboro John" data-source="post: 3593498" data-attributes="member: 36432">6 April: Thursday 1Up at stupid o clock we thrashed straight up to Milhan Well where halfway down the track we found a couple of birders coming back even though it was barely light. It transpired they were very sorry for themselves having ripped out their sump on a rock. Another point for the high clearance of the Duster, then.... they carried on with basically no oil in the car to get back to the road before it blew up so they could deny ever having left the tarmac to their hire company. The company must have been good because the sandgrouse still hadn't arrived by the time we distantly saw the recovery truck deliver them a new car and take the dead one away - they didn't attempt to rejoin us though.At the sewage pools we had a thin trickle of migrants moving through: Yellow Wagtail, Green Sandpiper, a couple of Pallid Swifts - as well as four Trumpeter Finches and a Brown-necked Raven that both hung around for quite a while.We had to wait for any sandgrouse action and I will admit that when we did get it, I at least was far too slow to recognise that they weren't happy with people out of cars. With the Lichtenstein's having not cared a hoot I wasn't predisposed to assume these would, and took far too long to retreat to inside. Between times we had flight views of up to 50 Crowned Sandgrouse: eventually we got reasonable views on the ground as well. Future visitors, my advice is stay in the car. This is supposed to be a site for Spotted Sandgrouse as well but we didn't see any, even in flight.Eventually we moved on, revisiting the Ne'fin Plain where we failed to add new birds but had a nice encounter with a Desert Praying Mantis, and Maz took the chance to be photographed in a real desert, prompting a rather odd display from Steve!After that it was back to Eilat for another visit to IBRCE, since we seemed to get different birds, and different views of the same birds, every visit. This time we had Broad-billed Sandpiper more or less in range of the camera, along with  an immature Greater Flamingo pleasingly close, and eventually a mighty Caspian Tern that pounded in, circled a few times and settled in the shallows, watched warily by the waders.More in a bit, breakfast is about to be served!John</blockquote>

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