Eilat Festival update day 2 - masters of the sky

Today I led one of the long-distance tours of the festival, to the Dead Sea region. We made an early start and arrived at Shezaf reserve pretty early. We failed to find Arabian Warbler but saw a good selection of desert species including the playful babblers. Among the migrants Cyprus Warbler and 3 Euro Crag Martins are worth mentioning.

Then we drove on to Metsoke Dragot,  a small village on top of the cliff overlooking the Dead Sea. We had good raptor migration with a nice selection of species (4 eagles, 2 vulture, kites, Osprey etc. among the many buzzards). Then we went to the watchpoint overlooking the Darga gorge. We watched the Bonelli's Eagle nest - there one medium-sized chick in it, but the parents were absent. And then both of the arrived, deep in the gorge about 200 m below us. They were harassed by some Fan-tailed Ravems and demonstrated some very impressive aerobatics. Then they started climbing up until they were at eye level with us, damn close, what an amazing experience.

Bonelli's Eagle

While waiting for the eagles to show up we had great views of this singing male Mountain Bunting - fantastic bird. Later on we had them in two more sites.

Mountain Bunting (Embriza striolata)

 

On the way back checked some more sites and got most of the Dead Sea specialties, including Dead Sea Sparrow, Clamorous Reed Warbler. At Sapir Park one female Sibe Stonechat was nice. Among the mammals Nubian Ibex and Rock hyrax. Back to Eilat 14 hours after leaving - long day indeed, and without even one Pied Wheatear the whole day!

Arabian Babbler

 

Mountain gems

This morning I climbed up with Re'a to a small spring deep in a canyon above the Dead Sea. It's a key site for two of Israel's most sought-after species: Mountain Bunting (AKA Striolated Bunting) and Sinai Rosefinch. Good numbers of both species breed in the area, and come in to drink mainly during the summer mornings. Water sources are few and far between in this tough desert region, so birds must travel long distances to drink every day.

Largest numbers this morning were of Mountain Bunting, about 90 birds until I stopped counting. Adults are very worn now,being in the middle of their complete post-breeding moult, and look much drabber compared to spring, but the males are still handsome birds.

Mountain Bunting - male

The females are duller to start with, and really aren't very attractive at this time of the year.

Mountain Bunting - female

Most buntings were juveniles, most of them still very fresh.

Mountain Bunting - juvenile

This bird has already started its partial post-juvenile moult, replacing some coverts and tertials:

Not too many Sinai Rosefinches came in to drink, maybe 10. Most went down in a part of the spring I couldn't see. Only this cracking male went down in the correct spot, but it was very shy - one click (not sharp, sorry) and it took off.

Sinai Rosefinch - male

Desert Larks came in to drink in good numbers too:

This spring is not the ideal spot for photography unfortunately. Light conditions are very challenging (shade with very strong yellow reflection from the rocks), and crouching down on the cliff face is very uncomfortable. Climbing up was not easy either. The birds are also too close (about 3.2 m away) and many get startled by the shutter release, so I didn't capture many images but rather did quite a few HD video clips. Hope to get them edited soon. But after all of these excuse, it's a fantastic spot, one of my favourites.

We stayed there for very little not to disturb the birds too much, and after a good, strong coffee we headed back down.

Thanks to Rony for letting me use his precious 300 mm/f2.8, and to Re'a for the help and company.

Dawn over the Dead Sea

Mountain Buntings

Yesterday afternoon I headed south along the Dead Sea to meet up with Johannes and his team from Belgium. En route I made a quick stop for a Mountain Bunting site right on the main road south of Ein Gedi. This site was discovered by chance by Itai during a festival Dead Sea tour, and it seems to be the easiest and most reliable site in Israel at the moment for this tricky species. And indeed I had three birds feeding right by the road in nice afternoon light. I had very little time with them so results are not too good but I will certainly be back there. This is a female: These are the original afternoon colours before PS colour adjustments. What do you think is better?

Male (left) and female (right):

We headed down to Neot Hakikar where we had great views of up to five Nubian Nightjars feeding very actively before the twilight dwindeled and the nightjars called it a night. Other wildlife we had included a Diadem Snake Spalerosophis diadema and Long-eared Hedgehog Hemiechinus auritus. The Belgian guys have images of both, I was a bit lazy...

Sinai Mountain

Spent a pleasent morning at Ein Salvadora in the Judean Desert. My main ambition was to photograph two of the most sought-after species in Israel's desert - Sinai Rosefinch and Mountain Bunting. This is a regular drinking spot and probably the best place to see these species in Israel. In summer many tens of both species arrive every day at this tiny spring, but in winter birds are much less thirsty as water loss rates are much lower, and today I had rather small numbers of birds coming in to drink. I had two each of Sinai Rosefinch and Mountain Bunting but they visited all too briefly, and I had no chance to get any shots of them.

Nevertheless it was nice to sit quietly for a few hours and watch the birdlife around the spring. Blackstarts were very active and occasionaly perched on my boots. No small camera unfortunately... They are very charismatic birds and have a real character to them. this is a 2cy - note the moult contrast in the alula:

With my 500 lens I could almost do macro photography at the close focus range of 4.5 m:

Tristram's Grackles are very tame too:

A few young Nubian Ibex were loafing around the spring:

After I got back home I got good news about a Penduline Tit I ringed at Ashdod in November (I think it's this one featured in this post) that was retrapped this morning in the Hula Reserve by Dotan of the Hula Valley ringing team, distance of 164 km:

Festival update - day 2

Today I led the Dead Sea tour. We made a very early start. Our first stop was at Shezaf reserve. Soon we located an Arabian Warbler, feeding very actively and giving us superb scope views. Other good birds were Scrub Warbler, Desert Finches, and a flyover Spotted Sandgrouse.
From there we drove staright to Metzoke Dragot. There was no raptor migration, possibly due to the cold front in central Israel that must have pushed the stream farther south. But there were some quality birds around - we had a female Bonelli's Eagle sitting on a nest across the mighty Darga gorge, and a male Mountain Bunting performed nicely on the cliff below us, singing and collecting nest material.

The rest of the day wasn't that busy. In Wadi Mishmar I had a male Hooded Wheatear but none of the group managed to get on to it. We didn't manage to see Clamorous Reed Warbler and Dead-Sea Sparrow but heard both south of the Dead Sea. A White-throated Kingfisher at Hemar reservoir was nice.
We ended the dat at the very birdy KM 76. Lots of wheatears, Short-toed Larks and Tawny Pipits there, with the added value of Pallid Harrier and Siberian Stonechat.
Tomorrow I have a morning off so I will try to catch up with some of the goodies around - Menetries's Warbler, Pied Wheatear etc.