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Indian Robin

Mikolaj Koss was born in Gdansk (Poland) where he spent most of his formative birding years. His passion for birds and drawing started when still a teenager. For many years ringer of Waterbird Reasearch Group KULING (www.kuling.org.pl). Favorite technique is watercolour, but had a short romance with watercolour crayons, now exploring pencil. For the time being living in Copenhagen, Denmark.


Just after graduation from university I decided to volunteer for International Birding and Research Center (IBRCE) in Eilat (http://www.birdsofeilat.com/) as a ringer and sort of do everything man. I spent there roughly 8 months and undoubtedly it was one of the most creative and fruitful periods in my wanting-to-be bird artist career. IBRCE itself, for those who do not know, is a successful conservation project run from the beginning till now by Dr Reuven Yosef (director of IBRCE), which aims at restoring the salt marsh-the natural habitat, which used to be one of the main stop-over sites for various species migrating towards breeding grounds in spring. This natural stop-over site vanished nearly completely with the coming of civilization. Today in the place of salt marsh one can find houses and fancy hotels. Bird Sanctuary (IBRCE) stands in the place of an old garbage dump that was covered up by several meters of soil. Different species of plants (mainly sea blyth- natural constituent of the salt marsh) where planted there. Each of them blossoms in the different period of spring so that all the consecutive waves of passerines find food there. Many species of waterbirds are attracted by pond in IBRCE and salt pans that are a part of salt factory.

My daily schedule was quite solid and pretty much the same. 5 o'clock in the morning was the time to wake up and then ring birds and do some small gardening works. Around noon my work in the bird sanctuary was over, unless I had not been helping Noam Weiss (main tour guide) to guide tours in IBRCE or around southern Arava. It was Noam, whom I owe seeing all the interesting bird places as well as various local specialities e.g. Hume's Tawny Owl or Nubian Nightjar that one cannot reach without knowing places or experienced guide. Free time I had, I spent birding and sketching birds.

When I arrived Bird Sanctuary at the beginning of October the autumn migration was well beyond halfway. Even though it is not as dynamic and spectacular as spring migration, especially in the Eilat region, I could still enjoy Steppe Eagle and Steppe Buzzard migration. My main three birding destinations around Eilat where:

'Northern Beach'
Place where one can enjoy Red Sea specialities like White-eyed Gull, Green Heron and Western Reef Heron. Tubenoses do not show up there so frequently as they used to do in the past (probably due to environmental changes). In autumn and winter there were many species of gulls: Great Black-headed Gull, Siberian Gull, Steppe Gull, Caspian Gull and Slender-billed Gull.

IBRCE
It is always an interesting and attractive birding place even in winter. In February we discovered there young Oriental Honey Buzzard that stayed till spring migration festival in the date plantation nearby. I filled up many pages with sketches of Spur-winged Plover which has a very simple plumage and frequently changes position, thus becoming an excellent object for practicing quick field sketches. Another species that appeared frequently on the pages of my sketchbook was Sardinian Warbler whose rattling call made me awake many times during early winter mornings. Many times it was the only species in the bushes around.

Yotvata Circular Field
Part of the desert transformed by Yotvata kibbutz into agricultural land. Wintering ground of many passerines e.g. Richard's Pipit, Buff-bellied Pipit, Small Lark, Desert Finches, Isabelline Wheatear, Desert Wheatear and exceptionally Steppe Shriek and raptors e.g. Eastern Imperial Eagle, Hen and Pallid Harrier. It was the place where, during the night tours organized by IBRCE, I saw my first Egyptian Nightjar, Pharaoh Eagle Owl, wolf and many species of desert rodents.

Writing about Israel is like bringing wood to the forest and probably everyone in the birding world knows about how amazing and unpredictable the spring migration in Israel can be. It is actually difficult to describe when the spring migration actually starts, because small parties of Steppe Eagles can be seen heading north already in January, which in Europe is considered to be the main wintering period for nearly all species of birds. February is definitely the slowest time of all, considering migrants, but very good period to see some of the local specialities like Hoopoe Lark (southern Arava), Cream-Coloured Coursers, Macqueen's Bustard as well as four species of Sandgrouses (Nizzana, eastern Israel). End of February and beginning of March made my dreams about the Asian Desert Warbler come true, I had a couple of sightings of this very agile warbler, both in southern Arava and Negev. Unlike any other species of warblers it frequently hops on the ground, thus giving a chance to have a good look at it. But otherwise it remained deeply hidden in the bush without the possibility of even the shortest glimpse, except for the brief moments when it was darting towards another bush.

End of March we experienced the first big wave of migrants and I was a bit grounded at the bird station ringing, but eventually it paid off, because many of the nicest birds of that season were seen just there e.g. Black Bush Robin, Menetries's Warbler, Bateleur. Birds were literary everywhere, every bush was heavy under the load of the thousands Lesser Whitethroats. All the time one could see on the ground moving shadows of gliding Steppe Buzzards that in the late April were replaced by Honey Buzzards.

Rare birds in Europe like Caspian Stonechat could have been seen in dozens scattered along the canal leading from IBRCE towards its mouth in 'the North Beach'. Black-headed Wagtail was the commonest form of Yellow Wagtail and one time while birding with a couple of friends in kibbutz Neot Smadar I realized that the field with yellow flowers is not really the one. These were hundreds of Black-headed Wagtail with few other forms.

Waders were not as numerous as during the autumn passage, but instead rewarded us with fresh colorful breeding plumages. I spent long hours taking quick sketches of Curlew Sandpipers and Marsh Sandpipers resting and foraging along the pond in IBRCE.

This is only small selection of all the drawings I did during my 8 month stay in Israel. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the staff of IBRCE and other birders that helped me in many corresponding ways in exploring the birds of Israel. I wish all birders from around the world could experience such birding frenzy as I did at that time.