Israel Birds Part 02_08 IBRCE, Mount Shlomo, Sachamon Park (Eilat town) and North Beach, Eilat

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!