Goodbye Israel

Goodbye Israel, thanks for two marvellous weeks of birding. What a birding country, great birding, great people. Zero problems with authorities or police. Excellent food. Just a ok.

Our last three days started slow, mostly because we spent an enormous amount of time failing to find a Caspian Plover. We woke up early in Eilat, hotel night, sorely needed. Birded Ofira and Central parks before breakfast. The parks of Eilat attract quite a few exhausted migrants. Nothing new (tick wise) but generally good birding.

We also spent some time in IBRCE where I got to capture Little Crake from the hide. Imagine how much we fuzzed about Little Crake in Kuwait when Erik found one and Mårten and I didn’t. Probably not the last time we fuzz about a bird we get easy later on.

Always nice with a good hide. Birds come close.

Here we are in IBRCE.

Bought food and prepared for a few camping nights. The temperature in Negev is now high, birding mid day sucks, activity is very low. We went to Kilometer 20, searching for Caspian Plover. Instead we found the Red-necked Phalarope that had been reported from the salt pans earlier. A tick and a species which is not rare, but we had no plan to see it anywhere it breeds, thus this was good.

Searched Yotvata fields for the Plover all afternoon. Just when we had raised the tent at Yotvata, dusk arrived, and a Nightjar flew by the camp. No one saw any white markers on the wings, but too poor views to definitely id the bird. We drove the roads around Yotvata in the dark, saw nothing but a few jackals and foxes. Mårten birded in Israel some 5 years ago, and had great birding at Yotvata at the time. It’s been a standing joke in the group, whenever Erik or I ask about a bird, Mårten has said – Yotvata. We have had good, but clearly not spectacular birding at the famous Yotvata fields.

During night, we rigged my cellphone together with the bluetooth speaker and a power bank, playing the call of Caspian Plover all through the night. The idea being that it should bring down migrating Caspians right down to our tent, so that we can just find them first thing in the morning. Brilliant idea that didn’t work, instead we searched all the fields – again – to no avail.  A compost had attracted a nice mix of Pipits and Wagtails though.

Came back to the camp and a short sand storm had wreaked havoc with our camp, which was now dispersed in the desert.

We decided to spend the mid day birding a few of the Kibbutzes nearby, there are several and they all have pretty good birding. Lotan produced no new ticks, but some nice photos.

Drove to Nizzana, close to the Egyptian border and birded the small village of Ezus which produced absolutely nothing. Set camp at the exact spot where Barak Granit had told us the Pin-tailed Sandgrouse appearr in the morning. Awesome camping in the desert, whiskey, stars and the moon, close to an IDF army camp.

Early morning, rise and shine. We’re standing at the spot, at the time according to Barak Granit, and sure as clockwork they arrive.

Drove north, and decided to make one final effort on the Batteleur. We set up the scopes at the same spot again, just north-west of Gal’on. Mårten, finds the eagle almost immediately.

 

Tenaciousness pays off, what a goddamn WP bird. Mmmmm. Towards Tel-Aviv and then spent a few hours in the afternoon in the Yarkon Park. This turned out to be a struck of genius,  we just ticked off migrants there. Especially the Semi-collared Flycatcher which was a wanted bird but also a Levant Sparrowhawk was very nice.

To finish up, we want to thank the Champions of the Flyway teams for sharing info about observations, Barak Granit for guiding (Hume’s Owl and Nubian Nightjar) and accuracy with the spot for Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Markus Lampinen and Hannu Huhtinen for providing the spot for Baillon’s Crake. Also thanks to Gal Marinov and Leor Dor for helping us to id the Barbary Falcon.

Now – new countries – new birds.