This was our last full day in Eilat and we didn't venture too far from town. First stop was another visit to the IBRCE.
We celebrated World Migratory Bird Day
Got onto some real skulkers in the reed beds (crakes and rails - same MO as in Australia).
Little Bittern Ixobrychus minutus
Little Crake Porzana parva
Also saw some birds-in-hand as caught in the mist nets.
Little Bittern Ixobrychus minutus
Whitethroat Sylvia communis
Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia curruca
White-spectacled Bulbul Pycnonotus xanthopygos
We also checked out the ponds around the IBRCE.
Great Cormorant Phalacrcorax carbo
Little Egret Egretta garzetta
Purple Heron Ardea purpurea
Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubius
Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula
Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus
Marsh Sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis
Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus lobatus
Ruff Philomachus pugnax
White/Pied Wagtail Motacilla alba alba
Even the surrounding vegetation, sparse and dry, had birds.
Graceful Prinia Prinia gracilis
Next stop was up into the mountains, raptor migration watching.
Long-legged Buzzard Buteo rufinis
Back to town, Meidad's contacts came up trumps with 3 rarities. Humes Warbler in a small square on the main thoroughfare and Shachamon Park with two rarities (Yellow-browed and Subalpine Warblers). After that it was off to the beach, North Beach, which faces south at the "top" or northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba. All the heavy shipping docks at the wharves in Jordan so we had uninterrupted views of ... bouys and water.
The highlight of the day was watching a Booted Eagle do a ripper stop into a flock of feral pigeons in the cattle feedlot next door to one of the ponds and come up trumps with a meal. The flock of hundreds of pigeons "exploded" but too late for one!
