Sunday 3 April 2016

Israel - update 4 (heading north)

On Thursday, I woke up to very windy conditions in Eilat. It almost felt as though it was time to leave. I'd spent this trip pottering about, just doing some general birding with the obvious listing targets. There were so many more places and birds I could have seen this year, if I'd had more time and the inclination. But for once, it was thoroughly satisfying just to dude about and see bits and bobs. And again this morning, Ofira Park held (the same) Semi-collared Flycatcher and a couple of Cretzschmar's Buntings while North Beach allowed me my last views of White-eyed Gull for a while.
Cretzschmar's Bunting Ofira Park, Eilat 31st March 2016
Heading north, I stopped off at Shizzafon (again an old favourite from previous trips) where there were a couple of Squaccos, Redstart and lots of Red-throated Pipits and flava wagtails of all sorts. Lovely stuff...
Black-headed Wagtail (feldegg) Shizzafon 31st March 2016
Grey-headed Wagtail (thunbergi) Shizzafon 31st March 2016 
Yellow Wagtail ('dombrowskii' type) Shizzafon 31st March 2016
Yellow Wagtail (feldegg intergrade) Shizzafon 31st March 2016
Squacco Shizzafon 31st March 2016
Red-throated Pipit Shizzafon 31st March 2016
The rest of the day was spent heading into Tel Aviv, and then having a quick walk about doing some non-birding stuff. The amount of Common Mynas all over the place was ridiculous, as I remember on my first trip to Israel over a decade ago they were by no means widespread.

No comments:

Post a Comment