rollingthunder
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Eilat..... (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter rollingthunder
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rollingthunder
Well-known member
rollingthunder
Well-known member
Just working through more stuff.....
cyanophrys - thank gawd for digital, more than half a dozen prints and you would need a new colour cartridge.
Eilat mountains watchpoint - soft affable limestone in the foreground and dark hard up-for-it granite in the background.
Brown-necked Raven..........I think
Shachar with an Eastern Bonelli's for comparison.
The best of a blurred bunch - not seen these since Maroc.
cyanophrys - thank gawd for digital, more than half a dozen prints and you would need a new colour cartridge.
Eilat mountains watchpoint - soft affable limestone in the foreground and dark hard up-for-it granite in the background.
Brown-necked Raven..........I think
Shachar with an Eastern Bonelli's for comparison.
The best of a blurred bunch - not seen these since Maroc.
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rollingthunder
Well-known member
rollingthunder
Well-known member
Nearly there.
The long and the short and the toed.
Yet another species named after Temminck
Issy.
Pintailed Sandgrouse - Shachar has birded these fields for over 20 years and this is a first.
The Beast of KM76.
*Isabelline is a colour and here is the reason.....
en.wikipedia.org
The long and the short and the toed.
Yet another species named after Temminck
Issy.
Pintailed Sandgrouse - Shachar has birded these fields for over 20 years and this is a first.
The Beast of KM76.
*Isabelline is a colour and here is the reason.....
Isabelline (colour) - Wikipedia
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rollingthunder
Well-known member
rollingthunder
Well-known member
We had a blast, no pun intended. The only time they got serious was when I asked if I could borrow an M16 and shoot at something. The bald one said there is nothing to shoot at - I said yes there is.....and pointed at Jordan over their shoulders
On a more serious note. Stefan said he was here about 8 years ago and drove out from Eilat adjacent to the Egyptian border and was stopped at a blockhouse by 4 IDF soldiers. All was cool and off he wended. A month later that building was rocketed by insurgents and the soldiers slaughtered. Those responsible melted back into the Negev never to be found. Yesterday a school party were at the IBCRE - they always have an armed guard. Noam says that the area between the N90 and the reserve is considered dangerous upto 1 mile inland.
This is where I will do 90% of my birding for the next 6 weeks.
Sleep safely and good birding -
Laurie -
On a more serious note. Stefan said he was here about 8 years ago and drove out from Eilat adjacent to the Egyptian border and was stopped at a blockhouse by 4 IDF soldiers. All was cool and off he wended. A month later that building was rocketed by insurgents and the soldiers slaughtered. Those responsible melted back into the Negev never to be found. Yesterday a school party were at the IBCRE - they always have an armed guard. Noam says that the area between the N90 and the reserve is considered dangerous upto 1 mile inland.
This is where I will do 90% of my birding for the next 6 weeks.
Sleep safely and good birding -
Laurie -
Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
Keep up the good stuff. I expect to be there in a month or so, and it's fun to see the reports and the pics.
rollingthunder
Well-known member
I am here until the 15th Jeff so we might overlap.....
Laurie -
Laurie -
rollingthunder
Well-known member
I am going to roll the last few days birding into one post as I have settled into a routine that is dictated by transport and weather. More birders have arrived, mainly from the North of Europe by the sounds of it. Whether I am birding around the IBRCE reserve, mooching around Holland Park or sitting at North Beach I hear Amish-type overtones (I know they are from Germany iirc). Lots of Swedes and a few Finns from what I have been told. All very nice people very polite and bedecked with binocular harnesses and a lot looking like ageing poster-boys for…..you guessed it - Swarovski!
Tuesday it rained for a lot of the day with an ominous build up culminating in impressive storms over the Eilat Mountains - lots of electrical activity. Flash floods were the order of the day and it is easy to see how land moves about and is sculpted by water and wind. I got drenched twice which means I ran out of clothes thankfully I found a pair of shorts someone had left behind and had a spare smock. The temperatures have dropped to a daytime 20-23c but have picked up today (Thursday). I think it is safe to say that normal service has resumed. I am down here long enough to allow for a blip but if I am honest I like it warm. I am ok with 25-30c anything higher than that then it’s holiday mode and beer o’clock can come early…..
Birdwise things are picking up with hundreds of raptors being reported from the watchpoint. Some drift over but I haven’t seen that many really. I am not one for staring at dots. Whether they be at 15 thousand feet or 3 miles out to sea - fine technically if it’s your thing but it’s not mine. I don’t even use scopes that much preferring bins every time.
My pattern since Monday has been as follows:
Holland Park as near after first light as possible ca0600.
IBCRE at about 8-830 and mooch around the hides whilst checking the ringing which ends usually at 10 but can extend until 11 if a group is turning up in order to how birds.I then scoot off a couple of kilometres checking a range of habitats before back for some lunch made earlier.
There is then sometimes an option from Stef the Swede go off in the car. It is very sweet of him but I have declined a coupla times as I do not want to bird from or travel in a car that much unless something has been reported. I am happier using my bike which allows me to explore. The back track down to KM19/20 is packed with little areas that when things kick off will be productive as will most places. I look forward to more people turning up because as we all know - birds are where the birders are.
Finish at North Beach which has also been quiet from what I can see. A few White-eyed Gulls and a coupla Ospreys. Last night I had a dark Western Reef Heron that looked like it was fresh out of the paint shop in its undercoat - smart or what. A Common Sand further up and a coupla distant Kentish Plovers - this on a creed adjacent to the beach. There are a lot of people and it is like Blackpool-on-Red Sea. I saw something breach the water and had fingers crossed for a Risso's Dolphin but it turned out to be some old Heeb on the wrong side of what looks like a shark net.
Holland Park is picking up. More Lesser Throats and now Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and a Garden Warbler. 3 Ruppell’s on Monday were a triple first for me. Spanish Spugs aplenty plus residents like Blackstart and Sand Partridge. Sunbirds with their Wren-like trill and subtle flight calls of the LGBeaters make for a pleasant soundscape. A walk thru the ‘Desert Dragon’ habitat, they do not emerge until it is 35c) and I spied 2 quite young birders staring at 3 Sandgrouse. They were scratching their heads fortunately the distinct male Lichtenstein was subtle but obvious - a lifer for me. Another smartly marked Oriental Honey Buzzard very low. A handful now Winter in a nearby Date plantation so that is presumably where it originated. A nice range of stuff in the afternoon e.g. 3x Broad Billed Sands, ca10 Greater Sand Plover (too distant but scoped) and both a Citrine n Feldegg Wag. The freshwater pools are quiet but things come and go like 40+ Green Sandpiper, a couple of Marsh Sand, 6 Fudge Duck, Night Heron, Striated Heron, mixed Martins/Swallows and every once in a while a marauding Marsh Harrier to put up the things that have been skulking.
Only a single visit to Ofira Park but that yielded another Feldegg.
I have caught up with both Dorcas Gazelle and Arabian Jackal the former static and inquisitive and the latter wary and off like a shot. I don’t think Striped Hyaena or Wolf will be encountered but you never know…..
The ringing has picked up with the following noted:
Eastern Orphan Warbler
2 more Eastern Bonelli’s Warblers
Lots of Lesser Throats.
Common Throat including a re-trap that was dead in the bag - for whatever reason it is sad that a bird makes it several thousand miles to end up ignominiously like that. I saw birds dead in nets and bags and was a reason why I dropped ringing but that’s me.
Half a dozen Bluethroats - they are just coming into the Red bit but show more White at present.
Spanish Sparrows.
Chiffchaffs
Reed Warbler
Sedge W
Eastern Olivaceous - nice close up re: the bill shape.
Today notables were a Lesser White-fronted Goose that overflies with local Egyptian Geese and has decided to stay in Israel rather than migrate North and can you blame it. I still haven’t caught up with a wintering Pygmy Cormorant that has been seen hither and thither elusive little rascal that it is. The saltpans today had an overflying flock of a dozen Night Herons, a Whiskered Tern, 3 Caspian Terns and a Caspo Gull. I was treated to an up close and personal duo of hovering and fishing Caspian Tern and Pied Kingfisher from one of the hides to finish this afternoon at about 3 as the Mercury (on my mobile phone said 27c)
It is still early days and is relatively quiet, enough to keep me interested that’s for sure - I can see why it’s called The Promised Land…..
Good birding -
Laurie -
Tuesday it rained for a lot of the day with an ominous build up culminating in impressive storms over the Eilat Mountains - lots of electrical activity. Flash floods were the order of the day and it is easy to see how land moves about and is sculpted by water and wind. I got drenched twice which means I ran out of clothes thankfully I found a pair of shorts someone had left behind and had a spare smock. The temperatures have dropped to a daytime 20-23c but have picked up today (Thursday). I think it is safe to say that normal service has resumed. I am down here long enough to allow for a blip but if I am honest I like it warm. I am ok with 25-30c anything higher than that then it’s holiday mode and beer o’clock can come early…..
Birdwise things are picking up with hundreds of raptors being reported from the watchpoint. Some drift over but I haven’t seen that many really. I am not one for staring at dots. Whether they be at 15 thousand feet or 3 miles out to sea - fine technically if it’s your thing but it’s not mine. I don’t even use scopes that much preferring bins every time.
My pattern since Monday has been as follows:
Holland Park as near after first light as possible ca0600.
IBCRE at about 8-830 and mooch around the hides whilst checking the ringing which ends usually at 10 but can extend until 11 if a group is turning up in order to how birds.I then scoot off a couple of kilometres checking a range of habitats before back for some lunch made earlier.
There is then sometimes an option from Stef the Swede go off in the car. It is very sweet of him but I have declined a coupla times as I do not want to bird from or travel in a car that much unless something has been reported. I am happier using my bike which allows me to explore. The back track down to KM19/20 is packed with little areas that when things kick off will be productive as will most places. I look forward to more people turning up because as we all know - birds are where the birders are.
Finish at North Beach which has also been quiet from what I can see. A few White-eyed Gulls and a coupla Ospreys. Last night I had a dark Western Reef Heron that looked like it was fresh out of the paint shop in its undercoat - smart or what. A Common Sand further up and a coupla distant Kentish Plovers - this on a creed adjacent to the beach. There are a lot of people and it is like Blackpool-on-Red Sea. I saw something breach the water and had fingers crossed for a Risso's Dolphin but it turned out to be some old Heeb on the wrong side of what looks like a shark net.
Holland Park is picking up. More Lesser Throats and now Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and a Garden Warbler. 3 Ruppell’s on Monday were a triple first for me. Spanish Spugs aplenty plus residents like Blackstart and Sand Partridge. Sunbirds with their Wren-like trill and subtle flight calls of the LGBeaters make for a pleasant soundscape. A walk thru the ‘Desert Dragon’ habitat, they do not emerge until it is 35c) and I spied 2 quite young birders staring at 3 Sandgrouse. They were scratching their heads fortunately the distinct male Lichtenstein was subtle but obvious - a lifer for me. Another smartly marked Oriental Honey Buzzard very low. A handful now Winter in a nearby Date plantation so that is presumably where it originated. A nice range of stuff in the afternoon e.g. 3x Broad Billed Sands, ca10 Greater Sand Plover (too distant but scoped) and both a Citrine n Feldegg Wag. The freshwater pools are quiet but things come and go like 40+ Green Sandpiper, a couple of Marsh Sand, 6 Fudge Duck, Night Heron, Striated Heron, mixed Martins/Swallows and every once in a while a marauding Marsh Harrier to put up the things that have been skulking.
Only a single visit to Ofira Park but that yielded another Feldegg.
I have caught up with both Dorcas Gazelle and Arabian Jackal the former static and inquisitive and the latter wary and off like a shot. I don’t think Striped Hyaena or Wolf will be encountered but you never know…..
The ringing has picked up with the following noted:
Eastern Orphan Warbler
2 more Eastern Bonelli’s Warblers
Lots of Lesser Throats.
Common Throat including a re-trap that was dead in the bag - for whatever reason it is sad that a bird makes it several thousand miles to end up ignominiously like that. I saw birds dead in nets and bags and was a reason why I dropped ringing but that’s me.
Half a dozen Bluethroats - they are just coming into the Red bit but show more White at present.
Spanish Sparrows.
Chiffchaffs
Reed Warbler
Sedge W
Eastern Olivaceous - nice close up re: the bill shape.
Today notables were a Lesser White-fronted Goose that overflies with local Egyptian Geese and has decided to stay in Israel rather than migrate North and can you blame it. I still haven’t caught up with a wintering Pygmy Cormorant that has been seen hither and thither elusive little rascal that it is. The saltpans today had an overflying flock of a dozen Night Herons, a Whiskered Tern, 3 Caspian Terns and a Caspo Gull. I was treated to an up close and personal duo of hovering and fishing Caspian Tern and Pied Kingfisher from one of the hides to finish this afternoon at about 3 as the Mercury (on my mobile phone said 27c)
It is still early days and is relatively quiet, enough to keep me interested that’s for sure - I can see why it’s called The Promised Land…..
Good birding -
Laurie -
Steve Arlow
Well-known member
Might see you out there?
I should arrived late April
wolfbirder
Well-known member
Great read Laurie. Have you cycled up to see the Black Bush Robins yet?
Yow ay missin out back um buddy!
Yow ay missin out back um buddy!
Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
Nope. I leave the US on Apr. 15th and don't arrive in Israel until the 20th (stopping in Cyprus on the way).
Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
Possible. Though I'm doing the Field Guides tour, so I don't know how much interaction there'll be with "independents."
Steve Arlow
Well-known member
Good time to visit for later migrants such as Thrush Nightingale, Golden Oriole, Wood Warbler, Red-backed and Lesser Grey Shrikes, more Masked Shrikes around, Barred Warblers Eastern Olivaceous and Olive-tree Warblers (the latter are scarce in the south in spring), Rufous Scrub Robins, wading birds in breeding plumage and of course the often spectacular Levant Sparrohawk and Honey Buzzard migration.
If doing the mountains for Honey Buzzard in the morning theres more than a slight chance that both myself and Frank Moffatt will be there
Steve Arlow
Well-known member
Black-crowned Finch Lark and Pale Rock Sparrow at KM76 today; seems to be the place to be in the Arava right now
rollingthunder
Well-known member
It does Steve but I can't help thinking that this sort of thing feeds on itself as the newly arrived folk will head straight there - not an option for me. I cycled this afternoon to KM19/20 and although I managed it ok the back track is hard on my 'street bike' a good job West Midlands roads have been good training! I won't be doing that too often unless there are lots of waders or something really good because the birds just move further away from someone walking or on a bike unlike cars which work well as a mobile hide. There appears to be a headwind from the Arava first off, presumably cool overnight air turbulating and then a Southerly onshore in the afternoon..........just when I don't need it
Also 3 Bimac's in with some Short-toed @ KM76 - that's 76 kilometres.
Wolfie: not a chance unless there is a lift mate in addition they are dark and look intimidating - has Mike Tyson been coaching them
Laurie -
Also 3 Bimac's in with some Short-toed @ KM76 - that's 76 kilometres.
Wolfie: not a chance unless there is a lift mate in addition they are dark and look intimidating - has Mike Tyson been coaching them
Laurie -
rollingthunder
Well-known member
Stuff.
1. When she walks by I get so high Pretty Flamingo.
2. When it absolutely chucks it down and you get Spur-winged Plovers bathing in the road you know you are in Southern Israel!
3. I got drenched twice so it was the turn of the Eilat Mountains to get a beasting.
4. This dude has style all the gear but clock the cigar. As soon as he lit up I was transported to Havana - he had a Duty Free box of Petite Monte Cristo's. He offered my one but I declined.....only because we had just met
5. Holland Park - so called due to donations to purchase the land from Dutch birders and there are dedicated Granite monoliths to prove it.
1. When she walks by I get so high Pretty Flamingo.
2. When it absolutely chucks it down and you get Spur-winged Plovers bathing in the road you know you are in Southern Israel!
3. I got drenched twice so it was the turn of the Eilat Mountains to get a beasting.
4. This dude has style all the gear but clock the cigar. As soon as he lit up I was transported to Havana - he had a Duty Free box of Petite Monte Cristo's. He offered my one but I declined.....only because we had just met
5. Holland Park - so called due to donations to purchase the land from Dutch birders and there are dedicated Granite monoliths to prove it.
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rollingthunder
Well-known member
More stuff.
1. I cannot understand the mentality behind this sort of action - answers on a postcard please
2. Sunbird Tours.
3. Day of the Jackal.
4. Smart male on guard.
5. Is it Orphean because of the melodious/entrancing song after the poet Orpheus or because the dark plumage deemed it a denizen of the underworld and a personal friend of Hades?
1. I cannot understand the mentality behind this sort of action - answers on a postcard please
2. Sunbird Tours.
3. Day of the Jackal.
4. Smart male on guard.
5. Is it Orphean because of the melodious/entrancing song after the poet Orpheus or because the dark plumage deemed it a denizen of the underworld and a personal friend of Hades?
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