Oriental Honey Buzzard, Pied and Cyprus Wheatears and other birds - Eilat 02-06 April 2018

Had an amazing few days in Eilat with my brother Rod. He came over with the express wish to relax with some quality birds. Mission accomplished! Star of show (for me) was the overwintering female Oriental Honey Buzzard in the date palms north of the Bird Park. Birding this area is difficult to say the least and we had no great hopes of locating the OHB. Amazed then, to see the bird fly from behind us and out into the open border area.

She came back into the palms but gave no further sightings until she dropped out of the canopy ~70m ahead and flew through the palm trunks before disappearing into the canopy again. Very lucky to get a couple of record shots of this beautiful bird!

 Yotvata was the place to be with a 2cy rubescens Menetries Warbler

  and two! Pied Wheatears located (and ringed) around the pumpkin field.

The second,young, bird below.

The pumpkins attracted a lot of prey for Lesser Kestrels

 Although Yotvata was certainly the place to be K19 and K20 are always worth a look. The Lesser Flamingo was feeding right by the entrance to the K20 pools and gave fantastic views!

As did a few Collared Pratincoles

Shachar Shalev found a Cyprus Wheatear between Yotvata and Grofit. We arrived in the midday heat and had some fine views. Here's a short series of pics showing that even skilled insectivores make mistakes. 

Got the prey.

 Dropped the prey.

 Not letting that get away.

 Got it.

 Really stunning bird.

And now the best of the rest. Juvenile Bonelli's Eagle at K19. This and a Booted Eagle were hunting the cow shed pigeons.

Red-necked Phalaropes (12) at the Bird Park.

And a Spoonbill on Lake Anita (Citrine wagtail too, but it flew off before I could even raise my binoculars let alone camera).

Ortolan at K20 (not too many around but several flybys),

 cracking Semi-collared Flycatcher at Lotan,

 and some Short-toed Larks

 many Tree Pipits around

  and Rock Pipits,

masses of Yellow Wagtails (all sorts)

White-crowned Black Wheatears

 Wrynecks (this at Neot Smadar).

It was sad to leave the Arava but a bonus on our trip back north was a flock of five Temminck's Larks near Har Ait and a couple of Hooded Wheatears at Neot Hakikar.

This was a short but incredible trip. Apart from the birds photographed the sky was full of Steppe Buzzards, a few Steppe Eagles and extraodinary numbers of hirundines - Swallows, Red-rumped Swallows, House Martins, Sand Martins, Swifts, Pallid Swifts, a small number of Alpine Swifts. A walk in the dunes near the border brought the amazing calls and a brief sighting of Hoopoe Lark displaying as well as Quail, a single Montagu's and Pallid Harriers. 

Besor updates

A really good morning at Besor reservoir today. There was quite a storm last night and the remains of it was still with us. Cold wind and dark clouds. Challenging conditions for photography but this Great Spotted Cuckoo came out ok.

Very few GSCs this year - I've only seen a handful. The storm brought several flocks of Bee-eaters and hundreds of Swallows with a few Red-rumpeds mixed in. The reservoir held a small flock of Pelicans and a single Flamingo,

a couple of Ferruginous Duck, Garganey and Pin-tail as well the usual Shoveller, Teal and Mallard. A large cloud of passerines  flew up on the far side of the water and a couple of minutes later this Merlin flew past me clutching a meal.

A single Pallid Harrier flew along the top reservoir before heading down the Besor stream. A couple of Marsh Harriers turned up, including this brown morph.

A Honey Buzzard checked out the reservoir banks and an Osprey hovered hopefully over the water as the sun finally came out.

Purple, Grey and Squacco Herons patrolled the reed fringes and I caught sight of my first Little Crake of the year.

Three Whiskered Terns were a nice surprise.

As I crossed the bridge back to the carpark I heard the croak of a Nightingale calling. So, nothing too special but a great mix of quality birds.

Checked out the composting site yesterday but a fair number of the wagtails seemed to have moved on and I couldn't relocate the Citrine x Yellow hybrid. Nice lutea though.