12 April 14 - A Cracking Scops Owl

We left Eilat after an early breakfast to head up to the Kfar Ruppin kibbutz, near to small town of Beit She'an, in central Eastern Israel & close to the Jordanian border. This kibbutz is set up to attract birders to it numerous fish ponds, good fields & bird hide. It is also has a ringing station, but no ringing was going on while we were there. The first stop was the fields at the start of the Ovda road for a final look. There were a few migrants moving South West through the valley.

White Stork: Stopping off on migration

Crowned Sandgrouse

Ortolan 

Then it was for a final walk around the sewerage works at the nearby Ne'ot Smadar kibbutz.

The Ne'ot Smadar sewerage works: A mixture of open pools

The Ne'ot Smadar sewerage works: As well as landscaped reed beds

Rock Martin

Tree Pipit: This is the nominate trivialis subspecies

Yellow-vented Bulbul

Wheatear: Female

A quick check on the car reveals a few recent additions: Striated Heron (far left), the Grey Phalarope (middle) & Pied Kingfisher (for Simon on far right)

Bush shelter: Travelling back to the main Dead Sea to Eilat road, we saw this great bus shelter. How long before this would be vandalised in the UK

The bush shelter proved to be a good omen as we had great views of the real thing, Nubian Ibex, at the En Gedi turn off.

Nubian Ibex: This desert Goat occurs in Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordon, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yeman, Eritrea, Ethiopia & Sudan

Nubian Ibex: These ones are clearly used to tourists photographing them

Nubian Ibex: I couldn't resist another photo

Carrying on North, we left the arid Dead Sea area and passed into the West bank. The further North we got, the greener & more agricultural it was. It was a quick journey as the road bypassed all the main towns and we only made a couple of quick stops when we saw birds of interest. Passing through the border fence at each end was pretty quick with just a quick scan of the passports at the exit point.

The West Bank: The Southern end where it started to get green

White Stork: We passed a rubbish tip where at least 90 White Storks were feeding along with at least 20 Cattle Egrets

Tank & Cafe: Soon after leaving the West Bank we saw this closed up cafe with tank in the car park 

We arrived at the Kfar Ruppin kibbutz around mid afternoon & were soon being shown to our accommodation, a self catering flat, by David: who as well as running the accommodation was also a birder. This gave us a chance to catch up with directions for a few birds. The key birds here were Long-billed Pipits on the nearby hills near to Beit She'an & Dead Sea Sparrows (which we had missed near Eilat). David confirmed there were a few pairs of Dead Sea Sparrows on the kibbutz & after a quick drink, we were ready to head out birding. We started on the kibbutz, but later explored an area close to Beit She'an.

Pygmy Cormorant

Black Kite

Montagu's Harrier: Male

Moorhen: Immature of the nominate chloropus subspecies which occurs throughout the Palearctic, wintering to Arabia & South China

Bee-eater: It's great when you see them this well

Yellow-vented Bulbul

Clamorous Reed Warbler: This is the levantinus subspecies of Northern Israel with the similar stentoreus subspecies occurring in Egypt. There are a number of other Asian subspecies which occur from Arabia, to the Indian Subcontinent, SE Asia & Indonesia

Palestine Sunbird: Male

Palestine Sunbird: Male who must have seen some Hummingbird Hawk Moths given it was frequently trying to copy them

Dead Sea Sparrow: Male

We headed into Beit She'an to try & get some food. But everything was closed up as it was the Jewish Sabbath. So we ended up with plan B: a few bits from the garage & self catering. It was dark when we got back to the kibbutz & we could hear Scops Owls calling. I put the food plans on hold & grabbing the torch & camera headed out to see if I could get some photos. For me, some of the most enjoyable overseas birding I can remember is walking around at night looking for Owls. I'm always up for the challenge, especially for the smaller Owls. It's rarely quick, but if I see good views of the Owls, then it is really rewarding. I knew from previous experience in Europe that Scops Owls will call for ages from the same perch, but can be tricky to find & won't respond to a tape. But that wasn't a problem, as I didn't have a recording anyway. But there were several around & all calling to each other & so not having a tape wasn't going to be a problem. After about 15 minutes, I had seen a couple of brief flight views as birds moved perches, but that was all. Finally, after about an hour of looking, I located one calling from the top of a palm tree & got some reasonable photos. Time to cook some food at last.

Scops Owl: This is the cycladum subspecies which occurs from Southern Greece to Turkey, Israel, Jordon & South Asia Minor. Still managed to photograph all the Owls seen, although the following evening I had brief flight views of a Barn Owl, so that is currently amended to photographing all the family of Owls I've seen since getting the camera (but the family of Barn Owls will now have to wait till I can get a shot of a Barn Owl in the UK)

6 April 14 - Back To The Desert

Last Autumn, I heard my mate Edge, Mark Edgeller, was planning a return trip to Israel for around a week in Spring 14. The plan was to trying to catch up on a few missed Israeli birds, including the Nightbirds. Having been to Israel myself in Sept 94, I had managed to see the majority of the resident Israeli specialities. However, I had only succeeding in seeing Pharoah Eagle Owl and had drawn a blank on the remaining key Nightbirds: Hume's Tawny Owl, Nubian Nightjar & Egyptian Nightjar. Therefore, with the improvement in Israeli bird guides since 94 and their ability to show visitors the Nightbirds, it didn't take me long to join the trip. The other two going were mates of Edge: Nigel Jones & Simon Ingram, both local to the wider Southampton area.

Nigel, Edge & Simon: We took the birding seriously, with an ice cream needed to celebrate each of the ticks

It was an 07:00 Easy Jet flight from Luton to Tel Aviv, which arrived about 14:00 local time. The car hire company were well organised with a decent new car (a big improvement after the poor quality car on the Western Saharan trip). We were quickly out of the airport & heading South towards the Dead Sea: our base for the next 2 nights.

The scenery heading South for the first couple of hours was quite green

As we had all been there at least once before, the plan was to focus on seeing World & Western Palearctic ticks for us, as well as, just get lots of general birding in. The Western Palearctic (or Western P) is an area I was introduced to when the landmark handbook, Birds of the Western Palearctic (BWP), was started in the late 70s. This set the boundaries which includes Europe to Western Russia up to the Ural Mountains, various Atlantic islands from Iceland to the Azores, North Africa (North of the Sahara) & parts of the Middle East (but excluding the Southern part of the Arabian Peninsula). This had stood as a well documented area for the last 45 years or so, but recently there has been an alternative set of boundaries defined which adds in the rest of the Arabian Peninsula. I have chosen to stick with the well established boundaries, rather than to switch to the new boundaries as the Southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula contain a significant number of species which are more typical of NE Africa or the Indian Subcontinent. As one of my mates described it, the new boundaries were right as it introduced as lot of vagrants into the Western P (as well as allowing him to consider going for the newly described Omani Owl). Adding a lot of vagrants doesn't sound like a valid argument to me to change the boundaries.

There were a number of large villages along the way

It didn't take long to see the first Western P tick for the trip: Common Myna as one flew past the car soon after leaving the airport. Somehow, I had managed to miss this on the first trip and as they are an established introduced species to Israel, then it is no worse than ticking Pheasants or Ring-necked Parakeets in the UK. I should add at this point, that I keep a separate list of Introductions to my main list so this brought me to 662 & 7 Introduced (Cat C) species. Whenever possible, I will look to see a wild individual rather than an Introduced one, but there are a few species including Common Mynas that don't occur in the wild in the Western Palearctic.

Common Myna: Photographed at the end of the trip in Tel Aviv

We then turned off the main road & headed off towards the Dead Sea. The scenery rapidly changed and became very arid & dusty. The road drops steeply on the last bit towards the Dead Sea as it winds down. Road markers indicate the drop in elevation -200 metres, -300 metres until you finally end up at the lowest point on the Earth's surface around - 410 metres.

The road drops quite steadily towards the Dead Sea: The quality of the roads was generally very high & the traffic was light making driving a real pleasure

There is a viewpoint in the final stretch of the road, which gave good views over the Dead Sea.

Looking towards the Dead Sea: With Jordon on the far side of the Dead Sea

We were now in very arid conditions: The most significant vegetation in the wadi bottoms, where they must occasionally see a bit more water

Steppe Eagle: Heading North over the edge of the Dead Sea hills

Steppe Eagle: This is the orientalis subspecies, whereas the birds I was seeing in Gujarat were nipalensis

We arrived at our Dead Sea base for the next 2 days: the Aloni self catering flats in small settlement of Neve Zohar. Once we had unpacked the car, we had a chance for a half hour of birding in the fading light of the day.

Laughing Dove: This is the senegalensis subspecies which ranges across Sub-Saharan Africa to Arabia

Yellow-vented Bulbul: This is also known as White-spectacled Bulbul

Yellow-vented Bulbul: A couple of birds were feeding on the insects attracted by the marquee lights of the restaurant at Ein Bokek, where we ate that evening 

Blackstart: This is the nominate melanura subspecies. Blackstarts occur from Mali to Somalia & parts of the Arabian Peninsula

Blackstart: One of my favourite birds of the region. They have a distinctive black tail

Palestine Sunbird: Female of the nominate osea subspecies which ranges from Turkey to Israel & parts of the Arabian Peninsula. A second subspecies occurs in Sub-Saharan Africa from Lake Chad to South Sudan, extreme NE Zaire & NW Uganda

Palestine Sunbird: Female sticking her tongue out to appear to extend the curvature of the bill

House Sparrow: This is the biblicus subspecies reflecting that BWP isn't the only significant book for the region