MacDancer

Yesterday Team Brazil (my brother Gidon, Ami, Eli and myself) reunited and ventured deep into the Negev Desert in search of some unique birds and mammals. Our first stop (Kelach Sinai NR) was very cold and bird activity was rather minimal during the golden hour. We had one brief female MacQueen's Bustard that shot off as soon as it spotted us, a couple of Spectacled Warblers and not too much more. Yet, golden hour is golden hour and one must take photos of what there is available.

Desert Wheatear 

Isabelline Wheatear - especially males are rather attractive now with this peachy breast

Dorcas Gazelle

After a quick breakfast picnic we headed south of Ezuz, towards one of the remotest desert sections of the country. We had some nice birds - Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Asian Desert Warbler and Bar-tailed Lark. Crested Lark is so common in cultivated areas, suburbia and even urban settings, but in the desert it looks much better:

What we were really after was dancing MacQueen's Bustard (AKA Asian Houbara Bustard). It is globally Vulnerable, also in Israel they're in trouble, classified as Endangered. We scanned vast areas that used to host numerous dancing males, but saw only three, testament of their worrying state in Israel. Some of the old faithful boys were not present, which was rather sad. Eventually we connected with a male who seemed quite confident with us. We watched him for a while doing normal bird stuff - feeding, preening and walking around.

It was getting warm and we had low expectations from him in the way of dancing - he also looked rather young with unimpressive black neck sides. But then we experienced that special moment. He halted, stretched his neck up to look quite impressive:

Suddenly, within two seconds, he transformed from a normal-looking birds into an alien, puffing his neck feathers up to cover his head:

This is really a video job, which I did not shoot. I have many photos of this transformation - will try to construct something together from the images soon. I have witnessed this kind of transformation with Great Bustard a few years ago - bustards are such fascinating yet odd birds.

And off he was, dancing across his chosen arena to impress an invisible female, waving his swagger all over the place, looking kind of dumb (and the shape of a cockatoo on his forehead) but apparently very full of himself. At first he performed near a horrible barbed wire laying on the ground:

Then he stopped, turned around and for a few second returned to look like a normal bird:

But only for few seconds - he puffed himself up again and returned to dance, thankfully away from that barbed wire this time:

Eventually he danced out of view and we let him be. The whole act lasted for a minute or two, and those were moments of true joy for us. To share such an intimate moment with a threatened and so unique bird is very special. I can complain about the poor photography - light conditions were horrible, he was a bit distant and that barbed wire, but I guess I shouldn't.

Armageddon birding

Had a very long and pretty crazy day of birding yesterday. Left home at 02:00. Picked Meidad up at Sde Boker and together we headed south towards one of the remotest parts of Israel, in the southern Negev close to the Egyptian border. In this area there are some very good flat vegetated plains and wadis that are important for ground-breeding birds. In spring 2011 we surveyed the area with Shachar Alterman and NPA, and it was quite awesome there. In March this year, this same area experienced some exceptional rainfall, and as a result a productive 'green' patch evolved, that immediately attracted lots of fast-breeding birds. A couple of weeks ago Shachar was there again and had very good early breeding activity. Yesterday we returned there to try and find breeding evidence for some rare species.

Driving down the weather became worse and worse. Gale-force winds plus sandy desert means dust storms - at some points visibility was zero and I had to pull over. We almost u-turned and headed back home becuase in this wind birding is pointless, but we had driven so far already and made such an effort, so we decided to give it a go anyway. After a long hour of tough off-road driving we arrived on site right on time, at first light. Immediately we started hearing lark song up in the sky - first Greater Short-toed and Temminck's Larks, then more species joined in. 

We started working the five km-long wadi and flanking plains - luckily the wind dropped and birding conditions became rather pleasent. But it was tough for photography - very dark clouds. I am not used to shoot in such high iso in Israel...

Most impressive were Temminck's Lark - we had 13 singing males along this wadi - very good density of this scarce lark. In addition I had two feeding females - breeding confirmed...

Temminck's Lark - male

Bar-tailed Larks were present in good numbers - we had about 13-15 singing males, and again several feeding birds. No proper photos this time but I managed to get a reasonable sound-recording. It's the first Middle-Eastern sound recording uploaded to Xeno Canto as far as I know - very different from N African birds. 

Bar-tailed Lark

Other larks we had were several families of Crested Larks, and few singing male Greater and Lesser Short-toed Larks, but we couldn't find any further breeding indications of those. We couldn't relocate the Hoopoe Larks Shachar had here a couple of weeks ago, but by the time we got to the area where he had them, the weather deteriorated again, so they might still be there.

Another good find was a breeding female MacQueen's Bustard - she was walking and hiding in the way they do when they have young chicks with them. We left her alone not to disturb her too much but I am confiden she had chicks with her. In  addition we had another small group of seven males. They were either non-breeding or post-breeding males; in this time of year they are often seen in small groups. This group might have walked accross the border from Sinai - sadly they were very shy and jumpy, despite being safe in the only country on this planet where they aren't hunted to extinction.

The stronghold of MacQueen's Bustards in Israel is in the Nizzana region, with about 30-40 breeding pairs there. In the rest of the Negev they are present in very lower densities, so this concentration of eight birds at one site was quite impressive. 

MacQueen's Bustards

Other good local birds we had were several Cream-coloured Coursers, and some flyover Spotted Sandgrouse.

There were quite many migrants around - mainly pipits and wagtails, but in the few bushes there were some common warblers and shrikes of three species - Masked, woodchat and Red-backed.

Masked Shrike 

Probably because of the crazy winds there was virtually no raptor migration. We had quite many Lesser Kestrels feeding along the wadi, and this smart 2cy male Montagus Harrier cruising low:

Not too many other animals - a few Dorcas Gazelles and one impressive Spiny-tailed Lizard that jumped back into his den before I got my camera on him.

Dorcas Gazelle

Thanks to the cloud cover the temperatures remained reasonably pleasent the whole morning, but before we left the storm resumed, wind built up again, and an impressive thuder storm hit us - so we escaped back into the car, and back home.

Thanks Meidad for the great company!

Eilat Festival day 3 - Nizzana

Led the Nizzana tour today with Meidad. Left Eilat at 04:00. We arrived at Nizzana a bit late but started seeing birds immediately. It took me about 10 seconds to locate a dancing male MacQueen's Bustard, and the next hour was truly magical - so many birds that the tour participants didn't know what to look at first. We had at the same spot two hilarious dancing bustards, four Cream-coloured Coursers attacked by a superb male Pallid Harrier, Asian Desert Warbler, and Pin-tailed and Black-bellied Sandgrouse. Overhead good migration started off - many raptors including Steppe, Lesser Spotted, Booted and Short-toed Eagles, Egyptian Vulture and Alpine, Pallid and Common Swifts went overhead. 

Egyptian Vulture

Then we started driving towards Ezuz, where we saw a huge take-off of White Storks (about 1000), some of them returned to drink in a small waterhole. Then they all took off, and were joined by a small group of Eurasian Cranes.

White Storks

White Storks and Eurasian Cranes

At about 09:30 the weather deteriorated and a dramatic sand storm began blowing hard, slowing our birding considerabely. However we stayed near that waterhole a little longer where we had quite many Hill Sparrows coming in to drink, with additional birds there being some large flocks of Spanish Sparrows, Cretzchmar's Bunting and Eastern Black-eared Wheatear.

Hill Sparrow

Spanish Sparrows

We checked some more sites near Nizzana. Didn't see too much else but found some Dorcas Gazelles, and had a nice group of Negev Iris.

Dorcas Gazelle

On the way back to Eilat we stopped at Sde Boker which was very productive. We had there typical desert species such as Arabian Babbler, Tristram's Starling, BlackStart etc. The babblers were really entertaining, hopping on the ground near us looking for grubs. A flyby Eurasian Griffon was cool just as we drove out. Got back to Eilat tired but very satisfied.

Arabian Babbler

Schwarzschwanz 

Rock Agama

It ain't over yet

Our locust wars are not over yet. More locust swarms entered yesterday from Sinai to the sand dune area north of Ktziot. They were sprayed with a pesticide of the Peritroid family. Billions of dead or dying locusts are spread over a huge area.Yesterday Amir Balaban found three dead storks in an area with tons of dead locusts. He examined their stomach contents in the field and found them stuffed with locusts. We haven't received the toxicology results yet, but I can only guess that they died of secondary poisoning. During the last few days we observed many different birds feeding on dead locusts - Cream-coloured Coursers, Steppe Eagles, Steppe Buzzards, White Storks, Brown-necked Ravens. It is very difficult to find poisoned birds in such a huge area, but we will keep looking. We are working hard to prevent further spraying in these sensitive habitats, but the ministry of agriculture, responsible for the spraying, shows little interest in our concerns regarding the potential impact on these habitats. This is how huge areas look like:

Today we organized a few teams to scan large areas on foot and with 4X4's, to look for poisoned birds and flush storks and eagles landing to feed in this area. I worked in an area where there is normally a territory of MacQueen's Bustards. This area was sprayed on Wednesday, though no locusts made it to that specific site. This morning the site had almost no bird activity. We found lots of dead insects and saw no live insects and arthropods. I had one bustard - it looked OK, but I guess it will have no food to feed its young. I searched a larger area later on, and eventually we saw some stuff. Some flocks of White Storks, but none on the ground:

Mammals included Dorcas Gazelles, jackals and hares.

Golden Jackal

Rock Doves are in fact on Israel's red list due to mixing with feral pigeons. In remote parts of the deserts genuine-looking doves can be seen. I think I have never photod a Rock Dove before. Good looking birds to be honest.

Rock Doves

Some migrants around, especially wheatears and Woodchat Shrikes:

Other birds seen were some Hill Sparrows in several sites (breeding invasion began), some singing Lesser Short-toed Larks, and a male Pallid Harrier.

Recent updates

Here in Israel spring is already evident, with more and more migrants appearing, and in the desert breeding is already taking place in some species. 

This is going to be a busy spring for me. I am coordinating to breeding bird atlas surveys - one in open scrub habitats ('Batha')n in the N Negev, and another on Mt. Hermon. On Wednesday had a look at Lahav reserve where the atlas project will take place. Just checked some different methods so didn't see much but found already three pairs of Spectacled Warbler nest-building and incubating, and a few Finsch's Wheatears.

Thursday evening and Friday morning I helped Meidad guiding his bird-guide training course at Nizzana. I gave a couple of presentations to his excellent trainees, and led a morning field excursion. At night, near our camp, we had a few singing Lilith Owls. In the morning I took them to my favourite hill overlooking some pristine, beautiful habitat south of Ezuz. We had there three dancing male MacQueen's Bustards. This hill has some ancient Nabatean rock carvings - really spiritual feeling to think how 2500 years ago people sat on the same hill and shared their observations with me.

Nabatean rock carvings

Later on we had another two dancing bustards, giving us all great views (but still to distant to photograph). Apart for that some coursers and Pin-tailed Sandgrouse. Enjoyed my first Eastern Black-eared Wheatear of the season. The desert is very green as a result of good rainfall - looking forward to another good breeding season.

Nizzana

Yesterday I met up with Rune Palmqvist and we had an enjoyable day of birding together. Just after we met, north of Beer Sheva, we had two Eastern Imperial Eagles sat right next to the road. Though it was not raining anymore the weather was still pretty bad - cold, windy and dark. Like a nice Danish summer day.

We headed south to Nizzana. We arrived at the sandgrouse ponds too late for the sandgrouse, but had a nice Barbary Falcon and this cracking male Pallid Harrier (every time when I post photos of Pallid Harriers I call them 'cracking', but that's just what they are, aren't they?):

Cracking Pallid Harrier

Further south we had pretty good numbers of MacQueen's Bustards - seves birds within a few minutes of searching. All were males - it seems that the males have returned from their non-breeding grounds. No dancing seen yet.

MacQueen's Bustard

Apart for the bustards we had a nice couple of Cream-coloured Coursers and not too much else. Weather was not best for passerines.

In the afternoon we checked Lahav reserve, and had one Long-billed Pipit, three Finsch's Wheatears and a Spectacled Warbler.

Do bustards count?

This morning I joined the annual MacQueen's Bustard count organized by the NPA. Six teams of us surveyed the last remaining steppes of the northern Negev, mainly inside Hazerim Airbase, west of Be'er Sheva. As in many other parts of the world, this large military facility is closed off and holds impressive habitats, protected from the uncontrolled overgrazing outside. Most of Israel and Sinai's bustards migrate after the breeding season into the base (walking all the way there, as discovered in a research carried out by my colleague Asaf Mayrose).

My team had 19 bustards, while the grand total was over 100. I wasn't able to get any images of them - they were all distant, and the light was bad. This image is from last year:

This is a general impression of the steppe habitat inside the base:

Other birds I had in the quality habitats were several families of Cream-coloured Coursers, and a few Black-bellied and Pin-tailed Sandgrouse. The only migant of note was one Eurasian Cuckoo. On the way out I had a flock of 30 Red-rumped Swallows perched on wires - they are clearly on the move: