Eilat, Israel - 24th to 31st March 2017

24th March

Today we made our way to the International Bird Research Centre Eilat. We were surprised to find that Elon, who we had met at Yeroham, Negev last year was volunteering there and ringer-in-charge, and he was surprised to find that we were the help that he had been told of. Another ringer that we know Francis Argyll, was also there for the next few days. Carmelle was the volunteer ringer from Spain, staying for three months. We familiarised ourselves with the site, systems and processes. There were 17 nets, records were to be entered directly into Excel and nets were dropped at 6am - we'd be there from the start tomorrow. We had a look around the rest of the reserve.

Little Stint - Anita Lake

Raptor watching hide

Sedge Warbler by Anita Lake

Birds seen at IRBCE: Marsh Harrier, Black Kite, Steppe Buzzard, Steppe Eagle (3), Booted Eagle (1), Whitethroat (1), Purple Heron (3), Squacco Heron (1) Eastern Bonelli's Warbler, Savi's Warbler (1), Little Green Bee-eater (2), Citrine Wagtail (1 male), Eastern Olivaceous Warbler (1), Snipe (1), House Martin and Red-rumped Swallow.

After finishing at the IBRCE we drove to the KM20 pools: Marsh Sandpiper, Shelduck, Ringed Plover, Little Ringed Plover, Black-winged Stilt, Pintail, Kentish Plover, Glossy Ibis, Whiskered Tern (1) and Squacco Heron.

 One of the KM20 pools

 Slender-billed Gull

 Kentish Plover

 Ringed Plover

Little Ringed Plover

A run out to Uvda for larks was much too late in the day, all the speciality larks were absent but we did see Desert Lark, Tawny Pipit (4), Stonechat (1), Short-toed Lark (c25), Blackstart (3), Pallid Harrier (one male), Red-throated Pipit (2), Black-eared Wheatear (1 male) and quite a few Spotted Sandgrouse.

Uvda Plain

25th March

We joined the ringing again and helped with extracting birds from the mist nets. The most interesting bird for us was a Subalpine Warbler.

 Eastern Subalpine Warbler female

We birded Holland Park where there were good numbers of Ruppell's Warbler and Sand Partridge

Holland Park

Male Ruppell's Warbler

Pair of Sand Partridges

Next we checked out the North beach, the salt pans and the drainage ditches between them and the sea. We found two Western Reef Herons, two Pied Kingfishers and a host of migrating waders.

 Western Reef Heron in drainage ditch

 Western Reef Heron on North Beach

 House Crow

Pied Kingfisher

26^th March

The ringing total was 105 today, leading species ACRSCI (Reed Warbler) and SYLCUR (Lesser Whitethroat) both with 18, also PHYORI (Bonelli’s Warbler) 12 with HIRRUS (Barn Swallow), CECPAU (Red-rumped Swallow) and RIPRIP (Sand Martin) all caught leaving the roost. There was also one ACRARU (Great Reed Warbler).

After ringing we worked the salt pans, seeing our first Avocet and Black-tailed Godwits there, then staked out and saw the Black Bush Robin at En Advat. Last port of call was the mountain road heading towards the Egyptian border where there were raptors at the end of the day, but most drifted west although the very obliging Striolated Bunting often sang loudly, and put in a couple of appearances, reminding us that we had heard but failed to see these, last year, in the Negev.

Striolated Bunting

27^th March

There was the usual 6am start but passerine migration had slowed and it seemed unlikely that we would reach the 100 today. Amongst the usual warblers were less Bonelli’s Warblers although Lesser Whitethroats were pretty constant. Two birds of interest were a Tree Pipit and a Cretzschmar’s Bunting, the first we have seen captured here.

We left just before 10am and headed towards Se’ifim, a broad open plain where people had been finding the larks that we needed to see. On the way we stopped off to take in the wonderful spectacle of raptor migration as birds spiralled up in the thermals then drifted up to 20km before using the next updraft. From the looks of things today was a good day for raptor migration.

Kettling raptors

Steppe Eagle and Steppe Buzzard drift over

 There were hundreds of Steppe Buzzards, Black Kites and also some Steppe Eagles still making their way north after the bulk of their species had passed.

On arriving at Se’ifim it didn’t look good. We searched for a good while but found no sign of Temminck’s, Bar-tailed or Hoopoe Larks. This definitely had to be an early morning visit. Our only find was a Siberian Stonechat.

We travelled back to Eilat, and returned to the IBRCE watching the pond where a Baillon’s Crake had been seen, but only succeeded in seeing some Little Crakes. The reported Temminck’s Stint appeared to have moved on (as so much does soon after reaching Eilat) so after a while we moved on to the KM20 pools for more waders – including a Broad-billed Sandpiper and two Red-necked Phalaropes.

Little Crake

Eilat has the boldest Bluethroats. They happily run around the visitor centre.

Broad-billed Sandpiper

 Waders at the KM20 pools

 Southern Grey Shrike

Red-necked Phalaropes

After a late lunch we finished up at Holland Park where there was no sign of the semi-collared Flycatcher, but we did see other migrants of note, a Wryneck, 15 Ruppells’s Warbler, 13 European Bee-eaters, an Eastern Subalpine Warbler, a Masked Shrike and Cretzschmar’s Bunting.

28^th March

Today was Champions of the Flyways day so we hoped to have some news of unusual species to put out, but we had to be content with a couple of Nightingales, a re-trapped Robin (the only one I’ve seen since arriving here) and a Wryneck within the usual spread of species. There was also a young Steppe Buzzard.

 Steppe Buzzard

Elon about to release the bird

For the first time I scribed (direct onto Excel) and was glad of the experience I’d gained at Van Lennep, Holland. Chris continued with extractions.

The wind was less strong than over the last few days so the temperature was a bit higher. After a brief visit to the Anita Lake we drifted down to North Beach, seeing three Greater Sand Plover, Western Reef Heron and Gull-billed Tern. A distant flock of ducks were all Tufted.

Gull-billed Tern

We worked the cemetery, failing to find the Semi-collared Flycatcher but seeing Masked Shrike and two Redstarts. The pools at KM20 held a lot of the recent migrants but nothing new for us, then we moved on to Yotvata fields there were six Lesser Kestrels, a Masked Shrike and a Turtle Dove.

 Green Bee-eater

Redshank

29^th March

We took the day to get a decent chance at desert larks. These are best seen in the morning before the main heat of the day – and we can’t do that while we’re at the ringing centre.

Se'ifam Plain

We started off at Se’ifim. We walked out, searching for Bar-tailed, Temminck’s and Hoopoe Larks. It didn’t look promising to start with. There was a lot of space – and not many larks. There was no problem pinning the Trumpeter Finches down, there being 30 or so. A while later, we managed to find some Bar-tailed Larks and Chris saw a Temminck’s Lark fly over. I got onto the bird but could not make out any salient features. We were fortunate to eventually tracked down two Hoopoe Larks.

 Hoopoe Lark

We checked around the Acacia tree for more larks, finding no birds.

In a dried stream bed were some large tracks. This is not an area where people walk dogs, so potentially were wolf tracks.

We moved on to Uvda Plan by late morning, knowing that we were already passed the optimum time of day. There was already a heat haze with the temperature still rising. We headed towards the Black Hills where there had been reports of Larks previously, but found nothing but Crested and Desert Larks. We were given a tip off that a Thick-billed Lark had been seen just over a gravel ridge so we headed in that direction.

Wild ass in the heat haze

Sometime later and after a long walk, I eventually found a couple of Temmick’s Larks foraging amongst some yellow flowers in a wide wadi.

Temminck's Lark

No more than five minutes later Chris finally tied down the Thick-billed Lark.

It was after 2pm by the time we reached Shivta Junction with its café and garden. The cool drink and ice cream was very welcome, as was the Hume’s Warbler, present for over a month and looking distinctly worse for wear as it had begun to moult.

We then had a check around the nearby sewage works, not much to see there and certainly not worth enduring the stink! The KM20 pools held nothing new so we were back in Eilat just 12 hours after we set out.

30th March

It was just Carmelle and us today. It wasn't particularly busy, but the temperature soared as the day progressed. We had 110 or so birds including a couple of Wryneck, some Eastern Orphean Warblers and a Redstart. Chris also hand caught a Little Green Bee-eater.

 Green Bee-eater

We didn't go straight out after ringing as it was just too hot. We tried the South beach at about 4pm - no sign of the Brown Booby, a bird that had been taken into care and recently released. We then went to an unusual location where a Little Bittern has made itself at home.

 Little Bittern male

See below for the location of the Little Bittern, a round-a-bout (with water and waterlilies) on the road to Egypt.

We walked Holland Park but there was nothing new and a strong wind was blowing from the East, picking up sand, clouding the air. Then at the North beach we saw Collared Pratincole, 5 Sandwich Terns, 18 White-eyed Gulls and a Caspian Tern.

Sunset over the Eilat mountains

31st March

There were a total of 137 birds ringed today, an event for photographers so they were on site from 6am, and also 4 groups for talks about the sanctuary and birds. There was nothing out of the ordinary from the nets.

Eastern Orphean Warbler

Nets were closed at midday and we decided to go to Timna Park via the KM20 pools. We had our first White Stork actually on the ground and a Common Crane.

 Common Crane

 Kentish Plover

 Little Stint

 Greenshank

 Ruff

At Timna Park we looked at some if the stone paintings and rock formations, finishing off at the oasis, where the lake had attracted some migrants including Collared Flycatcher, European Kingfisher and Striated Heron.

Striated Heron

 Laughing Dove

European Kingfisher

The geology was also fantastic.

 Seams of Copper ore run through the rocks and this site has one of the first known mines

The arches

 The mushroom

Brown-necked Raven

Negev Desert, Israel - 21st to 23rd March 2017.

We arrived at Tel Aviv after the flight, almost 5 hours then, spent the next two hours waiting in a general melee that eventually after no less than an hour became rather disorderly lines. Having finally reached the front of the queue and cleared the booth rather speedily we then set about trying to find out which belt the bags had been sent to as by that time all details of our flight had long disappeared. Eventually, we had reached the stage of getting money out (Chris made a fatal mistake here as he got out less than we actually needed) and we trundled off to the Avis desk where we found that we’d been allocated a Nissan Micra, deemed to be equivalent to a Hyundai i20 – which it wasn’t, as that would have fitted all the luggage in the boot – and the Micra would not.

We were finally on the road in time to set off in daylight and made our way to Shivta farmstead, stopping off briefly only to eat (and that was a good move as there are very minimal facilities in the southern Negev, and quite a few other parts of Israel).

21 March 2017

We were up and out at 6am, travelling to Nizzana sewage works to look for sandgrouse. Around Shivta, first thing, there were Laughing Dove and Arabian Babblers with Black-eared and Isabelline Wheatears by the roadside.

At the sewage works we drove to a vantage point that should allow decent views if they came to the same place as we’d seen then in the previous year. We used the car as a hide and among the more interesting species we saw were Black-necked Grebe (3), Squacco Heron (1), Garganey, Pintail and Ferruginous Duck (1), along with an assortment of common waders, including a single Marsh Sandpiper and circa 100 Ruff. The only Sandgrouse to fly in were Black-bellied, with no large numbers seen.

Black-bellied Sandgrouse

 Black-winged Stilt

 Little Grebe

Wood Sandpiper

A handful of common migrant warblers present with three Water Pipits, one of which was in summer plumage, which being a different race to those in the UK, is not seen in Western Europe, and bears some resemblance to the summer plumage of Asian Buff-bellied Pipit.

We went to the area around Nizzana Fort to look for Wheatears and work the wadi but only found an Eastern Orphean Warbler with a very dark looking blackhead that was puzzling as it looked quite good for Arabian Warbler, but was way out of their range and sadly was not due to the extensive white in the outer tail being typical for Orphean. We then checked the area towards Nizzana tower which produced a couple of Stonechat and in the Tamarisks there was at least 5 Eastern Orphean Warblers mixed in with a few Lesser Whitethroats.

We then moved on to Ezuz with no luck finding Bustards or Coursers. We managed to pick up two Little Green Bee-eaters. We worked the wadi at Ezuz finding two Little Owls (pale morph Lilith), a Black-eared Wheatear, European Stonechat, Nile Sunbird , a couple of Redstarts, Southern Grey Shrike and two Common Minahs.

We returned to the wadi below the fort, seeing Pale Crag Martin, Southern Grey Shrike and Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler.

Finally we revisited the sewage works where we had a female Sparrowhawk, another European Stonechat and a Bluethroat.

The only other raptors seen during the day were Steppe and  Long-legged Buzzards in the morning and a group of 15 Black Kites in the evening around Nizzana.

22 March 2017

Another early start, travelling to Ezuz to search for McQueen's Bustards before waiting for Sandgrouse at Nizzana. There is now an old railway carriage sited near the area where the birds display, but we were not lucky, perhaps it's getting too late. However, we did see seven Cream-coloured Courser opposite the carriage. Other observations were a  Southern Grey Shrike and some Dorcas Gazelle.

 Cream-coloured Courser

Ezuz hide

Dorcas Gazelle

At the sewage works there were only Black-bellied Sandgrouse again, but in greater numbers than the previous day. We amassed a decent list of birds present though, Sand Martin, Hen Harrier (female), Black Kite (6), Great White Egret, Wryneck, Bluethroat (3), Water Pipit (5), and a thermal of circa 60 White Stork getting uplift.

We returned to our accommodation at Shivta homestead, had breakfast while tank shells were fired over our heads and into the desert, a result of army conscription and a lot of money spent on armaments. We also found that cash was required for payment. Chris had to drive to the nearest garage, some 20km to get a little extra cash. Meanwhile I explored the World Heritage Site of Shivta National Park.

Shivta

We started our journey towards Eilat via Sede Boker for the overnight stay at Mitzpe Ramon. Here we saw Linnet, Woodchat Shrike, Hoopoe. Little Green Bee-eater, Desert Finch (c20), Greenfinch, Southern Grey Shrike, Blackstart and also heard Nightingale.

Blackstart

Moving on to Ben Gurion Memorial Park there was a short shower before our visit.There the list was made up of Masked Shrike, Collared Flycatcher, Griffon Vulture (2), Redstart male (Samamisicus), Hoopoe, Blackstart (4), Arabian Babbler and a male Syrian Serin.

We drove on to Mitzpe Ramon and stayed in a Silent Arrow private bungalow.

23rd March

Not long after first light we went for a short drive down a track that led past a Bedouin graveyard and to a small collection of shabby huts. On the drive we encountered Redstart, Mourning Wheatear and Desert Lark, We walked along the edge of the great crater then drove further along to cover a small outlet at the back of the sewage works that flowed into a pool, getting Hoopoe, Pale Crag Martin, Scrub Warbler, Rock Dove, Eastern Bonelli's Warbler (20), Arabian Babbler, Nightingale, Cretzschmar's Bunting (2), Nile Sunbird, Golden Eagle, Egyptian Vulture (2), White-crowned Black Wheatear, Bluethroat, Woodchat Shrike, Finsch's Wheatear and Black-headed Gull.

Nubian Ibex at Mizpe Ramon

Ramon Crater

Hooded Wheatear (female)

 The pool behind the sewage works held many
Pale Crag Martins and Bonelli's Warblers

Bonelli's Warbler (called Balkans Warbler in Israel)

Palestine Sunbird

We started the drive through the crater, stopped by a small wadi and saw a Ruppell's Warbler, more White-crowned Black Wheatear and a total of 24 Chukar.

The crater floor

Mourning Wheatear

A drive into Wadi Param produced Eastern Orphean Warbler (1), White-crowned Black Wheatear (2), Desert Lark. Little Green Bee-eater (1), Scrub Prinia (1) and Blackstart (1).

At Shizzaton sewage-works we found Water Pipit (1), Eastern Bonelli's Warbler (2), Redstart (2), Namaqua Dove male, Little Egret (4), Black-eared Wheatear, Cretzschmar's Bunting (4), Grey-headed Wagtail (1), and Black-headed Wagtail. 

Namaqua Dove

We reached Eilat with enough light for a quick look at the salt pans by the reserve. We met the bird race team from Cape May (prospecting for good sites and potential stayers ready for the race in a few days time) who pointed out a rather distant White-tailed Plover. It didn't photograph well as the light was failing.

Record shot - White-tailed Plover

Other birds present: Greater Flamingo, Baltic Gull (2), Caspian Gull (1), Caspian Tern (2), Spotted Redshank (1), Redshank, Dunlin, Glossy Ibis (2), Grey Heron, Slender- billed Gull.

Tomorrow Chris and I will visit the ringing centre where we'll be assisting over the next couple of weeks.

Staines Moor and Little Marlow GP - 16th & 17th March 2017

16 March

We made an early morning visit to the Moor in an effort to try to do some monitoring work with the Water Pipits, but were unsuccessful. Three Little Egret were present, six Sand Martin, and at least five Water Pipits. Numbers are often higher in March as migrants also pass through.


17 March

After a visit to Beaconsfield we dropped into Little Marlow, where upon arrival we were meet by two Peregrines, a male and female chasing each other around the site for a few minutes, the usual stream of Red Kites with the odd Buzzard as well, a little Ringed Plover on the spit and Sand Martins coming and going with 17 seen during our time there.

Little Ringed Plover

Group of Tufted Duck

 Nesting Cormorants

Couple of Red Kites over

Great Crested Grebe

Wigeon

The resident pair of Mute Swan were showing interest in nesting at a spot close to the path, attracting the attention of the single remaining Black Swan that was one of three introduced a few years back. This bird was quite aggressive  to other birds and has apparently become increasingly so over the last few weeks.

Cob and pen