Wednesday 29 April 2020

Israel Birds Part 02_01 Tel Aviv

After flying back to Israel, we had one day to "spare" before meeting with the guides and clients of the Victor Emmanuel Nature Tours (VENT) Southern Israel: A Spring Migration Spectacular.

This day consisted of a long walk around Tel Aviv along the beach front and up and down the Yarkon River as far as Yarkon Park and the lake. It was a sedate walk along the river banks avoiding passing cyclists, skateboarders, family mobs etc passing by various ovals, mostly soccer.

Day 01

In the evening we congregated with the rest of the tour participants (mostly from the US) and met with our VENT guide, Andy Whittaker, a Brit who has been resident in Brazil for decades but has experience of Israeli birds) and local guide Meidad Goren, who, by the end of the trip, proved to be one of Israel's best younger birders with top knowledge and experience and an unrivalled network of Israeli birders keen to advise him of any exciting birds in the neighbourhood of wherever he happens to be. Those contacts yielded us several rare, twitchable birds that we would not have seen.

White (Pied) Wagtail Motacilla alba alba

Hooded Crow Corvus cornix

Monk Parakeet Myiopsitta monarchus

Egyptian Goose Alopechen aegyptiaca

Mallard Anas platyrhynchus

Moorhen Gallinula chloropus

Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus

Eurasian Collared Dove Streptopelia decaocto


Modes of Transport

Monday 27 April 2020

Ethiopia Bird Trip_11

Day 05

Long-tailed Cormorant


 Squacco Heron

Marabou Stork

African Pygmy-goose


Black Crake

Common Moorhen

Malachite Kingfisher

Nubian Woodpecker

Northern Black Flycatcher (sans tail)

White-rumped Babbler

Saturday 25 April 2020

Ethiopia Bird Trip_10

Birds from Day 03 and 04

Blue-winged Goose

Yellow-billed Duck

Augur Buzzard

Ethiopian Siskin

Marabou Stork

Habada Ibis

Wattled Ibis

Ruddy Shelduck

Rouget's Rail

Blue-headed Coucal

Speckled Mousebird


Woodland Kingfisher

Yellow Wagtail

Common Bulb ul

Mountain (Abyssinian) Thrush

Broad-ringed White-eye

Tacazze Sunbird

Thick-billed Raven

Ruppells Starling

Baglefechts Weaver