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Israel - on migration with Mark Thomas and Jenny Atkins - A photo essay
Israel, March 2002
Finding White-eyed Gull in Egypt, April 2002
Other trip reports from the Middle-east
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Interviews
The Birds of Israel

A monumental work by Hadoram Shirihia. Over 500 colour photos and 200 line drawings by Alan Harris it is packed with more information about the country's avifauna than any other. This is not a field guide.

US Birders click here for more details on this book from Amazon.com

UK Birders click here for more details on this book from Amazon.co.uk

The Birds of Israel

Caspian Plover

Israel - April 2004

Chris Mills, Jacky Harris, Gary Elton,Oscar Campbell


.....Just as we were leaving the Turtle Dove flock rose up, Oscar shouted to stop the car, there appeared to be a wader flying amongst them. As the wader turned belly on, hearts all missed a beat, it banked round and eventually landed 500 yards away and so we finished a fantastic trip with yet another fantastic bird...a superb male Caspian Plover.


Guide Books

A must are :- A Guide to the Birding Hot-spots of Northern Israel Vol 1 -Shirahai, Smith, Kirwan & Alon
A Guide to the Birding Hot-spots of Southern Israel Vol 2 -Shirahai, Smith, Kirwan & Alon

The above guides and the relevant pages are referred to in the daily account of birding. .Others used:- Birdwatching Sites in Israel - Dave Gosney

Maps

If you intend travelling around it is worth ordering a good quality road map we used a Map scaled at 1:250,000 , this comes with a Northen sheet & Southern sheet. Enquire at any well established book store, but allow 4-5 weeks for ordering and delivery.

Temperature

Temps varied from 20° C to 38° C, but it is imperative to take and drink lots of water all the time. It is particularly dangerous in the desert areas with a very dry heat where you will not detect that you are sweating as it evaporates as quickly as it forms.

Accommodation

We stayed at Kibbutz Gvulot, Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin and Kibbutz Lotan, these are all very clean, tidy facilities with showers, a/c in rooms, we even had a TV at Gvulot (it was never switched on!!).

All of the Kibbuts details can be found in the Guide books mentioned. At the time of writing full board at Lotan with two people sharing a twin worked out at around £30 person per day.

Security

Despite many tourists/birders steering away from Israel during our 2 week stay (in which the Israeli's assassinated another Palestinian leader) we never saw any problems or felt threatened, and unless you try and drive into Gaza or one of the occupied territories (which is almost impossible at present) you are very unlikely to witness any problems. Security is very tight at the airport, expect to be thoroughly questioned about your stay and optics on departure, this is of course for everyone's safety.

Useful websites

www.birdingisrael.com/KibbutzLotan
www.birdingisrael.com

Email addresses: chris.mills55@virgin.net; Lotan-programs@lotan.ardom.co.il

DAILY ACCOUNT OF BIRDING

Day One 04/04/2004 - Nizzana 0730 -1300 - Gvulot 1400 -1800

We arrived at Tel Aviv airport 3.30am, collected our Avis rental car (organised on-line in UK) and were surprised to find puddles of water, left by what had obviously been a heavy downpour. Security was immediate and we were questioned upon disembarking the plane, but this was done and dusted within 20 minutes. By 5am we were heading for our first destination - Nizzana in the Western Negev desert. Enroute as dawn broke we noted many WHITE STORKS and a few STEPPE BUZZARDS sat around awaiting the heat of the day to continue their migration.

On arriving at Nizzana we concentrated on the areas adjacent to the disused airstrip (Vol 2 Pg128), looking on both the east and west sides of the road. There are two big piles of earth, these provided a useful vantage point, initially, for scanning the area, and also played host to both ROCK THRUSH and BLUE ROCK THRUSH.

The rain seemed to have played it's part in a fall of Wheatears, we noted 100+ ISABELLINE WHEATEAR, & 75+ NORTHERN WHEATEAR. Several short walks from this area, and about 1km further south in vegetated Wadi, produced 10 HOOPOE, 12 DESERT LARK, 150 SHORT-TOED LARK, 12 TAWNY PIPIT, 1 DESERT WHEATEAR, 2 SPECTACLED WARBLER, 12 SCRUB WARBLER, 5 ARABIAN BABBLER, 8 WOODCHAT SHRIKE, 10 SOUTHERN GREY SHRIKE, 2 MASKED SHRIKE, 150 SPANISH SPARROW, 20 BROWN-N-RAVEN, 5 CORN BUNTING & 15 BEE-EATERS.

Late morning we checked the sewage pools at Qeziot junction (Vol 2 Pg 128). We made 2-3 stops on the minor roads in this area, a magical moment occurred as we slowed to scope a ringtail PALLID HARRIER, a group of 6 CROWNED SANDGROUSE crept out from the verge and then froze within a few feet of the car, allowing close scrutiny and some nice photographs! The pools opposite the Gas station were less productive save a pair of GARGANEY.

Deprived of sleep for the last 24 hours, we decided to head for Kibbutz Gvulot and ensure our accommodation for the night. Before entering the Kibbutz (Vol2, pg146) we visited the Refuse tip (2KM east of the Kibbutz). We had 100+ BLACK KITES, 100 + WHITE STORK, 25 CATTLE EGRET, and a passage overhead of hirundines also contained 4 ALPINE SWIFT & PALLID SWIFT. After offloading our gear, we took a leisurely stroll during the last hour of light around the Kibbutz grounds, resulting in some additions

GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOO 1 JUV (being fed by it's surrogate Hooded Crow parents), LESSER KESTREL 3, HOOPOE 4, STONE CURLEW 5, PALESTINE SUNBIRD 10, HOBBY 1 & OLIVACEOUS WARBLER 1.

Crowned Sandgrouse Woodchat Shrike
Crowned Sandgrouse Woodchat Shrike
Hoopoe Black Kite
Hoopoe
Black Kite

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