11 April 14 - A Morning At Yotvata

Another early start saw us heading to an early breakfast, so we didn't have to raise back to Eilat mid am for a late breakkie. Then it was back North to Yotvata. The sewerage works were the main location with another attempt to photograph a Little Crake. There were also a number of other species present at the sewerage works, as well as in the nearby kibbutz. We also had a look at the dunes next to one of the circular fields, but making sure that we didn't stray across the border. 

Looks like there was a formal border crossing at one point

The dunes nearby: Apparently the border is just a low fence in the dunes

Garganey: Male. My favourite Western Palearctic dabbling Duck

Osprey: Adult. Just in case you have forgotten what they look like since the photos a few posts ago

Marsh Harrier: Male of the nominate aeruginosus subspecies

Marsh Harrier: Male. Sand dunes aren't the normal habitat!

Little Crake: Female. The grey face of the males extends down to the breast

Spur-winged Plover

Wood Sandpiper

Little Green Bee-eater

Pied Wagtail: The White Wagtail alba subspecies

Yellow Wagtail: The Black-headed subspecies feldegg

Citrine Wagtail: Male. This looks like the werae subspecies which has a greyer mantle (whereas the nominate citreola has an olive or brown tinge to the grey mantle). Also werae has a less extensive black nape (which doesn't extent onto the sides of the breast)

Citrine Wagtail: Male. The werae subspecies is the commoner subspecies in Winter & on migration, but the nominate citreola does occur on migration

Rufous Bushchat

Masked Shrike: Female. Males would have black, rather than grey upperparts & would be deeper orange on the flanks 

Masked Shrike: Female. She finally moved to a natural background

Ortolan

Ortolan: Another photo of the same bird. The streaks on the breast indicates this is a 1st year bird which still retains some of the 1st Winter plumage

The next stop was the Caspian Plover area at the start of the Ovda Road, but very close to the start of the turnoff this time. We had met some Swedish birders the previous evening, who had seen a party of Scrub Warblers in the bushes in this area. A quick look & we located the birds, which remained quite skulky.

Scrub Warbler: This is the inquieta subspecies. Not a great photo, but it shows the prominent streaking on the crown, whitish supercilium, dark line through eye & dark eye. The Moroccan birds we saw earlier in the year had fine streaking on the crown, an indistinct buffy supercilium & weaker eye stripe

Whinchat: They will soon be passing through Dorset again

We returned to Eilat along the Ovda road that goes via the Eilat Mountains. This gave us another chance to have a look for the Hooded Wheatear, but this time we saw it. With the border fence in the background & being right next to the army checkpoint, I decided it would be better to leave the camera in the car: especially as it would have been a poor photo as it wasn't close.

Desert Lark: The birds found in the Southern Israeli deserts & the Sinai are intermediate between the deserti subspecies we saw in the Dead Sea area & the isabellinus subspecies of North & West Eqypt & SW Saudi Arabia

Desert Lark

Crested Lark: This is the brachyura subspecies which occurs in the Southern Deserts of Israel as well as North Libya to coastal Egypt, North Sinai, North Saudi Arabia & South Iraq. Other subspecies occur further North in Israel

Dorcas Gazelle: Mum & youngster. When they saw us they headed off into the desert, which we couldn't consider following as this is all firing ranges

A lot of the desert on both sides of the road was off limits during the week due to the firing range

7 April 14 - A Desert Owl Tick

After a great first morning in Israel at Wadi Salvadora & a drink stop we were heading back to the previous afternoon's viewpoint above the Dead Sea. As there was clearly a Northerly Raptor movement, we hoping for some close views from the viewpoint.

Masada: This is the historic Jewish hill top settlement which held out against Roman rule until finally overrun around 73 AD when the remaining Jewish rebels committed suicide. I enjoyed visiting it on the first trip, so wasn't too worried about not walking up it again on this trip

We arrived at the viewpoint on the Arad road to find a couple of Dutch birders already there who had been photographing the spectacle. My little 400 mm lens felt very small compared to their two much larger 500 mm lens positioned on their tripods. However, I can easily walk around with my camera set up all day & take photos without having to carry a heavy tripod as well, so overall I think the 400 mm lens is a better set up for me. Almost as soon as we were out of the car, we saw our first Black Storks & Raptors and they kept coming over the next hour or so, but at a slower rate compared to the Wadi Salvadora.

Black Stork: 3 more passed North over the viewpoint

Black Stork 

Buzzard: Over 100 Steppe Buzzards headed North 

Steppe Eagle: With another 10 Steppe Eagles

Finally, we decided we had better head back to the accommodation for a quick kip as we knew we had a long night of looking for Nightbirds ahead of us. Feeling refreshed it was then back to the restaurant for some more Yellow-vented Bulbuls photos (surely I mean food).

Laughing Dove

Laughing Dove: This bird was nesting inside the marquee & quite unconcerned at the number of people feeding close by

Little Green Bee-eater: This is the cyanophrys subspecies which also occurs in the Arabian Peninsula

Yellow-vented Bulbul: Proving they also can be found outside the marquee

House Sparrow: Male. Ever the opportunist they were quick to appear after customers had left 

House Sparrow: Female

We met our Yoav Perlman, our Nightbird guide just after 17:00, along with our 2 new Dutch friends. We were given two options for the last couple of hours of light: either look for Clamorous Reed Warblers & Silverbills or look for a Black Bush Robin that had been found earlier that morning. It wasn't a difficult decision that we were going to head South to Hazeva for the latter rarity. Arriving about 20 minutes later we soon spread out to look for it. It was quickly seen, but disappeared into a tangle of bushes under an Acacia. However, a few minutes later & it was relocated & we all had great views of this bonus species along with a Rufous Bushchat in the same vegetation.

Graceful Prinia: I didn't spend long on photographing this bird, as there was another more interesting species with a long, stuck up tail to see

Rufous Bushchat: All 3 subspecies occur in Israel. The greyer-brown upperparts & slightly greyish wash to the underparts indicates this is the syriacus subspecies. The commoner & nominate galactotes subspecies has pale rufous to rufous-brown upperparts & sandy or creamy underparts & the uncommon migrant familiaris would be greyer, rather than browner on the upperparts than syriacus

Black Bush Robin: This is a rarity in Israel with a few Spring records each year. Having seen a few in Northern Cameroons, I could still remember what a great bird this was and was keen to see another 

Black Bush Robin: Showing the characteristic stuck up tail. Frustratingly I had knocked the camera onto the wrong settings & the best photos were unexposed

Black Bush Robin: Israeli vagrants seems to be an intergrade between the nominate podobe subspecies which occurs from Mali to Somalia & the melanoptera subspecies of the Arabia Peninsula. This shows the characteristic white undertail markings

Having had good views of the Black Bush Robin, it was soon time to head back to Neot Hakikar. This is a kibbutz which borders Jordon & Yoav had arranged with the army for us to look along the border fence line for Nubian Nightjars until it got dark. We arrived in the half light & saw 2 Nubian Nightjars briefly. After leaving as it turned dark, we tried for other birds in the kibbutz & had better views of one sitting on a track. Apparently, they like sitting on tracks & jumping up to catch some food, before quickly returning to the track.

We were right on the border fence line

Army watchtower

Nubian Nightjar: Given it's a rare breeding bird in Israel, you are not allowed to use flash & I had to make do with the Yoav's torchlight. this is the tamaricis subspecies which occurs in Israel & Jordon, SW Saudi Arabia & Yeman

It was then time to go to look for Desert Tawny Owl. This is a bird I only managed to hear on my first visit to Israel in 1994, when it was known as Hume's Tawny Owl. On that trip, I had been totally unimpressed with the lack of skill our esteemed guide for the night showed in looking for Owls. Additionally, he insisted he was the only person good enough to drive our hired car up the wadi, whilst smashing up the exhaust in the process: which we ended up having to pay for when the car was returned. Fortunately, Yoav was a complete contrast, being a more knowledgeable & pleasant birding guide.

Desert Tawny Owl: We saw 2 birds that evening

My main reason for visiting Israel again were to see Desert Tawny Owl & Nubian Nightjar. In this single evening Yoav had succeeded in showing us both of them along with the Black Bush Robin. A long & tiring, but very rewarding day's birding.

19 Dec 13 - Winter Sun?

Decided to escape the Christmas thing this year & have headed off to the Indian Andman Islands & the Western Ghats (SW India) with Brian Field. I've been on a few foreign trips with Brian in the old days, but this is the first time we've teamed up in recent years. As I had more free time on my hands that Brian, I headed out a few days early to acclimatise to the chaos of India & to allow me to get over the jet lag before Brian arrived. Flew into Calcutta with Qatar Airlines, via a short change of planes in Doha, Qatar. A remarkably straight-forward flight, with a mere 30 minutes from arriving at Heathrow T4 to being at the boarding gate. With some Asian airlines in the past, it's taken that long to just check the main bag in.

After all I've heard of India having changed massively in the last decade, it doesn't appear to have changed that much on the ground. Still the noisy, poor, chaotic country that I remember. Standards of driving remain unchanged, but more modern cars on the road now.

The Ambassador taxi: They seem to have been on the road since the days of the British Morris Minor (except the latter disappeared off the UK roads decades ago)

The Ambassador taxi: The inside decor isn't plush

There are some basic rules of the road when driving in Indian cities. To prove your car is roadworthy, you only need to beep your horn at least once a minute. Leaving any gap no matter how small is a sign of personal weakness. Taxi drivers are expected to disprove the laws of nature & try to fit their cars into any gap that's about half a car wide: again beeping the horn helps to bend the space-time continuum to allow this to happen. Stephen Hawking has yet to adjust the latest theories to explain this rule.

It's important not to leave a gap: to avoid another taxi squeezing in

There was little chance of seeing any ticks around Calcutta, given I've already spent 6 weeks birding in Northern India in 91 as well as a couple of Nepalese trips. Therefore, birding was planned to be a couple of laid back trips to local sites with the camera. First site was to Joka Marshes. This is a set of marshes, flooded fish ponds & scattered trees on the edge of the city in a semi rural area where there were plenty of small basic homes. Didn't manage to find the better area of marshes as the directions to the best patch of marsh are patchy on the internet. I explored the fish ponds until the track I was on just gave up as I reached the last of the houses. The people were friendly & surprisingly unfazed by seeing a tourist wandering around taking photos of the birds.

Indian Pond Heron: A common resident species in the local wetlands

Yellow Bittern: This species replaces Little Bittern in most of the Indian Subcontinent

Yellow Bittern: Males are separated from Little Bittern by the pale brownish not black, mantle

Little Green Bee-eater: A species many British birders will be familiar with from Israel trips

Ashy Minivet: Surprisingly this isn't on the Calcutta checklist. I'm sure it's just an oversight on their part as I can't believe my party of 3 birds are a city first

Ashy Minivet: They spent a lot of time just inside the canopy

Jungle Babbler: They often seem to have a hunchbacked appearance

Jungle Babbler: I do like Turdoides Babblers: they are generally obvious, noisy & full of character

Asian Pied Myna: Starling species are well represented in India

Purple-rumped Sunbird: I had forgotten how bright the females can get

As for the Winter sun, that was missing. Throughout my visit, there was a hazy smog over the city
which I'm assuming was a pollution problem, but the BBC news had mentioned it was foggy over large parts of the Subcontinent, so may be a mixture of reasons. Still it kept the temperatures down to a more pleasant t-shirt & shirt weather.