Champions of the Flyway 2024

On Monday (April 1st) it was Champions of the Flyway again, for the 11th year. It was a strange one, all-Israeli, without the international component. Because of the war we didn't even try to engage with the international birding community - not easy to be an Israeli organisation or individual these days. Despite the ongoing war situation, we decided to go ahead with the Israeli race this year for several reasons. First, the conservation project, to support Nature Tanzania's work in tackling illegal killing of White Storks and other birds, is so important that we were determined to raise whatever funds we can through COTF. Second, the race is a central event for the local birding community, bringing together so many people and connecting the birding community with conservation. It was great to be part of the leading team of COTF, with Alen and Noam but very strange without Jonathan Meyrav. You were missed, bro!

I headed down to Eilat on Sunday, March 31s, the day before the race. The weather turned terribly hot and migrant numbers on the ground were very low. In Yotvata sewage there were a few migrants, shorebirds, wagtails and pipits, best of the bunch was a Little Crake. In hot and windy Canada Park, this male Collared Flycatcher (one of my favourite birds) was the only migrant of note.

Over at the IBRCE we did a live birding webinar, broadcasting from the JBO (Dror), Hula (Nadav) and IBRCE (Daniel and Moritz ringing, I was out with my scope). You can watch the webinar recording here. I had phone issues (demonstrated also in the attached video below), so I contributed only visual, without sound. But it went OK I think. Outside of the zoom there were some nice birds in the park, including Whimbrel, Gull-billed Terns, a pale-morph Western Reef-Heron and Citrine Wagtails. Identifying this pale morph is a bit more challenging - note the dagger-shaped, non-black bill, and less black and yellow legs. It was also slightly larger that an adjacent Little Egret:

Citrine Wagtail

Whimbrel, Whiskered Terns, Glossy Ibis, Caspian Tern, Gull-billed Terns:

In the evening at North Beach the Brown Booby was sitting distantly on a buoy, and I saw my first White-cheeked Tern of the year.

Race day (April 1st) started in an unexpected way:

With this wake-up call (siren) teams sprang into action. I spent the whole day out in the field, with teams, making sure they are working well and seeing as many birds as possible. First thing in the morning I headed up to in Uvda Valley, that was actually quite good with decent numbers of migrants. The habitat looks great there - one of the few productive spots in the Negev this year. Most of the Negev is stone-dry, literally, after a rain-less winter.

My birding started well with a Striped Hyena that disappeared behind a ridge just as I got my camera on it... I had Bar-tailed and Med Short-toed Larks there, and another lark that got away and was probably Arabian. 

In Neot Smadar sewage a male Semi-collared Fly showed nicely:

Heading down towards the Arava valley, I intercepted a fantastic stream of migrating raptors, mainly Steppe Buzzards - thousands of them! Somehow, photos of such migration spectacles are always underwhelming; it is impossible (for me) to capture the size and power of this awesome experience.

During the hottest hours (it was already above 40 C / 104 F) I checked some sites near Eilat, including IBRCE and the football pitches. The most impressive creature that I photographed was this poisonous grasshopper Poekilocerus bufonius, here on its poisonous plant host - Sodom's Apple Calotropis procera.

In the afternoon teams started to concentrate in the Eilat sites. At KM20 Flamingo Pools there were many shorebirds and ducks, including two Red-necked Phalaropes and Collared Pratincoles. So great to see the kids and teens in action:

At North Beach the classic evening gathering of teams was photogenic as ever:

After dark we opened the finish line at the IBRCE and worked with the incoming teams until midnight.

On Tuesday (April 2nd) before the closing events I used the early morning for a little birding, with Itai and Meidad. In Holland Park it was nice to find a 'wild' Black Scrub-Robin (unlike the sedentary 'feral' ones in Samar).

At quick whizz through the IBRCE produced a columbinus Greater Sand-plover and a female Oriental Honey-Buzzard. I am still bewildered by their rapid expansion in Eilat - they have become a regular feature of birding here almost year-round. Note that in this photo the bird is half-gliding, therefore the first finger is tucked in.

Then it was the traditional group photo at North beach, classically interrupted by a passing Eurasian Curlew:

And a proper photo by Yuval Dax - thank you to all who participated!

The award ceremony was exciting and emotional as ever. Five titles were awarded to different teams - Guardians of the Flyway (most fundraising) to Women in Steppe, Knights of the Flyway to the young Bee-eaters (most noise and impact towards the cause), Green Champions of the Flyway to the Francolins (on foot in the heat!), IBRCE Champions of the Flyway to the Woodchat Shrikes (full day in the park), and classic Champions of the Flyway to the Desert Owls, led by Nitay Hayun, with an excellent score of 152 species! They received Zeiss binoculars, donated by Zeiss Birding - thank you! The Desert Owls are a brilliant team - exceptional birders and fine young lads - from L to R Yagel Yamin, Nitay, Beeri Abramov and Amit Spivack. This photo and the next are also by Yuval - thanks!

Uplifting to see the engagement and commitment of so many young birders to the project (41 participants under 18!) - not only their participation in the bird race itself. I also witnessed the importance of the conservation component and the connection of the younger participants to a 'bigger' story. I only wish there were more girls in this photo - still a big challenge we need to overcome, how to make birding more inclusive and safer for young girls.

From a birding point of view it may have been one of the quieter Champions, with very high temperatures and low numbers of migrants on the ground. However, this made the race itself even more challenging. With harder work of all teams most expected species were seen (195 species seen in total during the race by all teams) and lots of good species. Check my eBird trip report for the three days here.

From a public POV, as always, this event is so unique and motivational that I am very proud to be part of its leading team. Of course, that lack of international teams decreased the volume of the message, the importance of the battle against the horrible illegal killing of birds, and also decreased the amount of money raised for Nature Tanzania. You can still donate to COTF and support the work carried out by Nature Tanzania to tackle illegal killing of birds - please follow the link here,

Within Israel this still is one of the most prominent birding events of the year, that connects birding with conservation. IBRCE hosted the event and the the team did a stellar job. Huge love and appreciation to Noam and all IBRCE team - Tzadok, Libby, Sasha, Shachar, and Moritz and Daniel who operate the ringing station.

Alen and Noam deserve huge thanks for leading the whole campaign and event, with the online support of Mark Pearson. Hats off - you all did a great job in difficult conditions. Thanks as well to all of my team who came down to participate and help - Yuval, Meidad, Yotam, Ofir and the entire JBO team, and two BirdLife Israel 'affiliates' - Dan Alon and Amir Balaban - thank you all!

See you in Champions of the Flyway 2025! Go Champions!

364

Well, I wasn't expecting THAT

It started yesterday, I headed down to Eilat for a leisurely overnighter of scuba diving. My birding expectations were very limited. En route I stopped at Hameishar for a quick look. It was very dry and pretty quiet. I did find one Asian Desert Warbler but it wouldn't play ball. This Long-legged Buzzard did.

This morning I had a bit of time for pre-breakfast birding before scuba diving. I checked Wadi Zefahot in the Eilat Mts. It was quiet there, a small flock of five Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse was very nice (thanks Piki), but they were super shy.

Commoner desert species weren't shy at all.

White-crowned Wheatear

Blackstart

As I was heading to breakfast Noam Weiss calls me: 'Come quick! I have a Dideric Cuckoo!'. Thanks Noam! I had little time to think, I skipped breakfast and drove to the IBRCE, my heart beating very fast. I arrived while it was being ringed by Shachar - so small! Weighing 24 gr only. Then it was taken to a photo session before being released back to where it was trapped. While taking photos of it an oriental Honey-Buzzard flew over. Classic.

Thanks Amir for the photo

This young male represents the second record for Israel. I actually saw the first one, in March 1994, few hundred meters from the spot it was found today. Barak uploaded this photo on FB - I am not sure who is the photographer. I am on the left, aged 18 with my first scope, Kowa TS1. Barak is second from the right. It was found by Mark Lawlor who volunteered at IBRCE that time.

This brings my annual total of bird species seen in Israel to 364. With less than two hours left, I think now I can call it a final figure.

Eilat Birding Festival 2022

After two years of covid, finally this year our successful Eilat Birding Festival returned. It was so wonderful to see here again visiting birders - festival guests and others. I joined the week-long festival halfway through, on Wednesday, and returned home last night. It was a busy few days, leading tours and helping Jonathan and Alen with logistics almost 24/7. Birding was brilliant, some sites were packed with migrants, and there were lots of good birds to see. 

Heading south on Wednesday, I intercepted Lesser Spotted Eagle migration south of Be'er Sheva:

Further south, I made a quick stop at Wadi Sha'alav, in hope that the Turkestan Shrike would still be there. It wasn't, but the place was literally hopping with birds (eBird checklist here) - thousands of warblers, larks and wagtails feasting on abundant caterpillars. It was beautiful there despite the high temperatures and harsh light.

Western Yellow Wagtails (2x feldegg, 1x flava), two Chiffchaffs, Lesser Whitethroat and a local Crested Lark:

In the afternoon I already took a festival group out to Yotvata. The fields were somewhat quiet (eBird checklist here), but the sewage was productive (eBird checklist here).

Next day (March 31st) we started off early at Uvda Valley. It was a bit slow to start, but eventually we found where the birds were concentrated and enjoyed fab views of Crowned and Spotted Sandgrouse, and had fun with Bar-tailed and Temminck's Larks. eBird checklist here. On the way back we stopped again at Wadi Sha'alav that was still productive, and there was nice raptor migration overhead (eBird checklist here).

In the afternoon we checked KM20 saltpans (Black Scrub-Robin jumped along the road heading in...), then north beach. At north beach the Brown Booby was showing, albeit distantly, a few gulls and terns were knocking about including four gull-bills, and a Western Reef-Egret flew by, heading to roost probably at IBRCE. eBird checklist here.

On April 1st the festival group had a late start, so I went for an early morning, pre-breakfast session at IBRCE. Always great there, with Little Crake, Little Bittern, Red-necked Phals. eBird checklist here.

After a fantastic breakfast we went up to the mountains for raptor migration/hawkwatch. It was an amazing session, with over 12k Steppe Buzzards passing through in less than two hours, alongside many other raptors (eBird checklist here). When we arrived a Temminck's Lark was running in the carpark (thanks Tamir) - very unusual there. 

There were so many birds taking off in all directions, at different levels and distances. really overwhelming, especially for Hannah and Erik - it was their first morning in Israel.

Spot the Lesser Spot?

Especially dramatic views of the birds migrating against the dark volcanic rocks of the Eilat Mts. 

A Nubian Ibex joined our hawkwatching squad:

White-crowned Wheatear and Jonathan's group:

Back down in the city, Ofira Park produced an Olive-backed Pipit! Exciting stuff. 

As I was getting prepared for a much-needed powernap in my room, the rare bird alert rang - my mate Eran had just found 4 Caspian Plovers at KM20 saltpans. I sacrificed my siesta and dashed off to see them - stunning birds, one of the signature species of the festival.

An hour later I was there again with the group, and connected with them, to the groups' delight. On the way out and north, Ilan and Rivka pulled us over - they had just found four Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse at the little grove by the junction - amazing daytime views of them:

Later in the afternoon we saw a pair of Arabian Warblers in wonderful aerial display in Shezaf NR - what an ending to a fabulous day.

Yesterday (April 2nd) I went for a quick solo scouting session at Holland Park, finding a Hume's Warbler, three pale Rockfinches and a few other target species. I returned there later with the group and we had a great time with a showy Black Scrub-Robin:

Then two Oriental Honey-Buzzards bombarded us, the female too low over our heads, leaving us in a state of shock:

Carrying a piece of beehive

The male was a bit farther away:

That tail

On the way out, by the carpark, we had our second daytime encounter with Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse, this time a wonderful group of seven:

eBird checklist here.

Then it was time for me to say goodbye to the lovely guests, and I headed home for a short break. Tomorrow I return to Eilat, for Champions of the Flyway. There is still time to take part and contribute - please check this page and consider donating to help protect Turtle Doves.

Thank you to Jonathan, Alen, Noam and IBRCE team for the great effort and work during the festival.