Israel Birds Part 02_03 Nizana and Mandatory Road

Day 03

Ramon Inn, the hotel at Mitzpe Ramon, had a unique layout. It was on three levels including the ground floor and the rooms were uniquely numbered. Thus Room 12 in a typical hotel would be on the first floor, and the second room from one end of the corridor. But not in the Ramon Inn. Rooms were numbered by stairwell! Thus Room 12 is accessed from stairwell 1 and is the second room up! Truly bizarre. And all the stairwells were several miles from reception and the dining area, another plus! And there were no lifts nor concierge nor busboys so everyone had to lug their luggage (boom boom) by themselves.

First thing, well before dawn, (with breakfast on board the bus), we went to near Nitzana, northwest of Mitzpe Ramon, very near the Egyptian border to a site where the estimated 60 pairs of Macqueen's Bustard breed on the rocky desert environment. We travelled alongside the long abandoned Ottoman Railway Line built by the Turks during WW1 to transport troops to the Suez Canal with the objective of either capturing it from the British or disabling it. Neither happened and the Brits took over that part of the world in 1917.

Part of the line near Nizana has been preserved along with two railway wagons which are now the Hubara Hide at Nizana-Ezuz, one of the few places to reliably see the bustard. When we arrived there was already a big crowd present. We discovered that the annual Champions of the Flyway bird race in the "unparalleled and legendary migration hotspot - Eilat, Israel" was happening the next day, 26 March 2019, and teams were everywhere do final reconnaissance stuff. There were a few hire cars about.

We hopped out of the bus having been told to be quiet, very quiet. Those bustards are so sensitive. Well, there is only one thing wrong with 20 people trying to crowd into a metal railway wagon that is accessed by a metal stairway and balcony!! Even breathing on the thing made a bell-like sound which echoed its way across the desert in the calm dawn light. Despite all the setbacks, the bird was seen doing its headless chicken dance although about 300 metres away and with scope only. No images.

No matter where you are in the world, birds like water and what better place for undisturbed water than a Water Treatment Plant. After the bustard, we visited the WTP at Nizzana Military Base where we saw Sandgrouse coming soonish after dawn, right on cue.

Spotted Sandgrouse Pterocles senegallus

Black-bellied Sandgrouse Pterocles irentalis

Sites visited before lunch included any old Mandatory Road just in the middle of nowhere. At one of our stops, a young Scrub Warbler decided that the safest place would be on top of the rear bumper of the bus! He stayed there for quite a long time as his parents moved through the area and away. No image. A visit to a wetland at a winery finished the day off.

Mandatory Road. Egypt in the distance.

White Stork Ciconia ciconia

Common (Steppe) Buzzard Buteo buteo vulpinus

Mitzpe Ramon has a resident herd of Nubian Ibex which were gathered in a small park near the hotel when we returned. It has to be said that they are not underweight!

Nubian Ibex Capra nubiana

Israel Birds Part 02_02 Tel Aviv to Mitzpe Ramon

Day 02

Thirteen birders, two guides and one driver loaded ourselves into a 17-seater bus/van. We had all our luggage plus extras and it was a very tight fit in the "luggage" area of the van, essentially the space between the back seats and the rear doors. It wasn't spacious enough for all the gear (and no-one was bringing more than stipulated) so some of it went onto the back seat. The bus roof was not high and the luggage racks had a very small gap (a camera would not fit in) so plenty of us had packs and cameras on our knees for the day. It is possible to snooze with your forehead resting on the back of your camera to which is attached the 300mm2.8 resting on your knees! No photo though! Not happy campers. Magically, from the next day, our luggage had its own transport!

We headed south to Mt Amasa and birded a beautiful side valley of spring flowers and a gorge of rocks and gravel. Highlight there was the Persian Wheatear; only the second sighting ever of this bird in Israel. Actually the first sighting was the previous spring when the same bird was seen in the exact same spot! How do we know it was the same bird? It was caught and banded the previous year!

Here, at Mt Amasa, are most of the members of the VENT tour with our Israeli guide, Meidad, in the red shirt. He is talking to a fellow Israeli birder, one of many sussing out sites for an international birding event a couple of days away.

Black-eared Wheatear Oenanthe hispanica melanoleuca male

 

Long-legged Buzzard Buteo rufinus cirtensis (Sinai)

Little Owl Athene noctua

This little tacker was flushed otherwise we wouldn't have known he was there

 Alpine Swift Apus melba

Finschs Wheatear Oenanthe finschii

Wheatears were everywhere. Similar diagnostic hurdle for new birders in Israel
as LBJs or thornbills are to newbies in Australia.

 Persian (Red-tailed) Wheatear Oenanthe chrysopygia

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Across the road from the valley was Tel Krayot, an ancient "village" of holes/caves in the ground from where Judas Iscariot came (allegedly).

Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni

Crested Lark Galerida cristata

Rock Thrush Monticola saxatilis

Woodchat Shrike Lanius senator niloticus

From here we headed further south, stopping at a motorway services for fast food. Lunches for the trip were mostly a falafel wrap with salad, not a bad meal but eventually they become a tad boring. 

We then visited the Ben Gurion Memorial Park where Israel's first Prime Minister, David, and his wife, Paula, are buried. It is a small desert garden with pretty spectacular views over the Tsin Canyon and the Aviat highlands in the heart of the Negev Desert. Our base for the next few days was a hotel at Mitzpe Ramon

An international visitor

Song Thrush Turdus philomelos

White-spectacled Bulbul Pycnonotus xanthopygos

Arabian Babbler Turdoides squamiceps

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

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