Weekend in the north 

My father was invted to a doctors convention in kfar Blum, Hula Valley and I joined him.

In Friday I visited The Agmon, no rares but the regulars were shown, the highlight for me was a group of 7 Hawfinch.

Water Rail

White Stork with Cranes

Hawfinch

Today we were looking for the Cinereous Buntings in Nahal Tzvia, Gilboa Mt.

The Nahal was full of flowers and mammals like Boars and Mountain Gazelles.

We found the Cinereous Buntings and also Cretzschmar‘s Bunting, Long-bellied Pipits, Blue Rockthrushes,Lesser Kestrels, Snake Eagles and more. 

Cinereous Bunting

Cinereous Bunting

Long-bellied Pipit

See you next week in the Champions of the Flyway!!

Northern Birding

In Gamla resereve we had rare birds that includes Radde's Accentor, Black Vulture, Bonelli's Eagle,Wryneck  and Woodlarks and also regulars like Griffins Vultutres, Common Whitethroats, Finches Wheathears, Blue Rock Thrushes and Hen Harrier.

Black Vulture

Griffin Vulture

Radde's Accentor

Wrynecks isn't common in this time of the year

Also in Hula valley we saw our target species. The highlight was the Bean Goose, only the 5th for Israel, additionally we saw Marbled and Tufted Ducks, Common Pochard and White-Headed Ducks.

Bean Goose

Marbled Ducks

White-Headed Duck with Tufted Duck

 Judean Birding  

2 weeks ago a dutch birder found a Pallas's Leaf Warbler at En Gedi reserve,the 5th for Israel!

Last week Nisim Primo relocated her.

Today we found her after  30 minutes search. we spent  2 hours with this beautiful bird.

Pallas's Leaf Warbler

Mountain Buntings were also in En Gedi reserve

  After we left the reserve we went to Wadi Mishmar , where we saw Cyprus and Spectacled Warblers. 

with the good vibes we continued to Jerusalem. Bramblings and Redwing were the highlights.

Redwing

                        

Brambling

                            

Birding in Thailand

Last month my family and I flew to Thailand for 10 days vacation in Khao-Lak,

2 hours north from Phuket. It wasn't a birding trip at all but I was birding were I could.

I visited 3 times in Leam Pakarang, one of the best birding sites for waders and seabirds

in the west coast of Thailand, one time at Sri Phang-Nga National Park and one day with a birding Guide.

Leam Pakarang

If you will stay in Kho-Lak or Phuket I recommend you to visit there.
Big numbers of Terek Sandpiper, Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers, Red-Necked Stints,
Whimbrels and Curlews, Bar-Tailed Godwits,Pacific Golden Plovers, Grey Plovers, Ruddy Turnstones, Pacific Reef Egret  and Brahminy Kites. I had lucky to see White-Bellied Sea- Eagle and Grey-Tailed Tattler.

White-Bellied Sea-Eagle

Grey-Tailed Tattler with Greater Sand Plover

Red-Necked Stint

Pacific Golden Plover

Lesser Sand Plover

Whimbrels

Terek Sandpiper

Pacific Reef Egret

Sri Phang-Nga 

Birding in the Jungle is very hard mainly in your first time but I did what I could.

Abbots Babblers,Arctic Warblers,Black-Crested Bulbuls, Crismon Sunbirds,Black-Winged Flycatcher-Shrike,Swinhoe's Minivet and more.In the way back to the hotel we spotted a Dollarbird.

Dollarbird

Black-Crested Bulbul

Swinhoe's Minivet

Birding day with a Ike Suriwang

In our day we stoped in three places.

We started at Sri Phang-Nga national park, we were trying to ticked the Banded Pitta but we did'nt 

find her. We saw Red-Bearded Bee-Eater not realy well,Asian Brown Flycatchers,White-Rumped Shamas,Chinese Blue Flycatcher,Abbott's and Grey-Throated Babbler, Asian Glosy Starling, Ochraceous and Hairy-Backed Bulbul, Graeter Racket-Tailed Drongo,Grey-Rumped Treeswift,Chestnut-Headed Bee-Eater also we heared Great Hornbill and Japanese Paradise-Flycatcher.

White-Rumped Shama

Chinese Blue Flycatcher

Greater Recket-Tailed Drongo

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Abbott's Babbler

Chestnut-Headed Bee-Eater

In our next stop we saw one of my target species in Thailand, the River Lapwing.

River Lapwing

In the end of the day we have been searching for the Spotted Wood Owl and

we found two pairs! In the same area we saw Brown Shrike,Vernal Hanging-Parrot and  Gray-Capped Pigmy Woodpecker. 

Spotted Wood Owl

                       

Vernal Hanging-Parrot 

                       

Brown Shrike

                      \

                 

Gray-Capped Pigmy Woodpecker

                                         

It was a privilege to spent a day with Ike, thank you on a great trip.

I also want  thank to my grandfather who organized this vacation. 

Two days in the Arava

We started our morning at Yotveta circle fields. After few minutes we found 14 Ruddy Shelducks

and 4 Greater White-Fronted Geese.

 We also saw several species of pipits, Corn Buntings, Desert finches And others.

While we where getting close to the geese, we saw a Lanner stands on a tree.

Greater White-Fronted Geese

Lanner

After we left Yotveta, we tried to find the Red-Breasted Flycatcher at Samar. thanks to  Yaniv Basher that helped us, we managed to find it. We also found the Basalet Wheatear at Be'er Ora. 

Basalt Wheatear

Red-Breasted Flycatcher

In the afternoon we went up to Eilat mountains and had good birds;

Sinai Rosefinches, Hooded and desert weathears and Desert warblers.

Sinai Rosefinch

After the sunset we found Barn Owl at Yotveta, but no Egypetian Nightjars.

Barn Owl

                       

Today we spent our time in Ovda and we had quality birding.

Cream-Coloured Courser, another Basalet Wheatear, Desert Warblers,Spotted Sandgrouses

Bar-Tailed, Hornd and Thick-Billed larks, Mountain Buntings and more.

Cream-Coloured Courser

                                                                                                                                                                                                   

 Basalt Wheatear

                       

Desert Warbler

Hornd Lark

                          

Thick Billed Lark

                     

In the way back home we stoped at Neot Smadar sewage and saw 2 adult imperial Eagle.

Imperial Eagle

                   

In the Mammals domain, we had Arabian Wolf and Asian Wild Ass.

Arbian Wolf                

Asian Wild Ass