Tuesday 3 May 2011

Israel trip with Birdfinders - Day 5. Saturday.

Before breakfast I was in Shulemit Park by the hotel. The bottlebrush tree was a lovely backdrop to the local birds. The migrants were in other parts of the Park.


Blackcap - male

Blackcap - female
After breakfast we went back to the sewage pools at Km 19 where we had been previously. In the reedbeds we saw Dead Sea sparrows, Sardinian warbler, woodchat shrike, red-throated pipit, isabelline wheatear and a fine male namaqua dove nearby.


Isabelline wheatear

Sardinian warbler

Namaqua dove - male

Red-throated pipit
Also present were 2 spotted eagles which drifted off towards Jordan.

Spotted eagle

Next stop was the saltpools of Km20 where there were a couple of hundred slender-billed gulls, 25 ruffs, etc.

It was our last chance to go to the firing range for desert species so we drove north to Ha'Meishar plains. Larks abounded including thick-billed, greater short-toed and bimaculated.

Thick-billed lark
Our main target was crowned sandgrouse and we were lucky to come across a flock of over 100 which allowed us to approach relatively near.

Crowned sandgrouse. Female on left, male on right.
We moved to a different range where we were fortunate to encounter a small flock of bar-tailed larks.

Bar-tailed lark
There was little else of note, despite a diligent search till just before sunset. Ah well! Back to the hotel for another splendid buffet dinner.

1 comment:

  1. Hi,

    very nice photographs. i too love bird-watching.

    vinod

    ReplyDelete

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