Pssss...

As temperatures keep on rising and over the last week we reached to 47-48 deg' in the shade...

It's been very hard to go out and look for anything moving, but still I've tried almost every morning to see if any surprises arose from the Red Sea. At most mornings I found myself gazing into a very quiet sea, but hey, Brown Booby, Arctic Skua, White-cheeked & Bridled Terns, Striated Heron are not that bad...

Other than these there are growing numbers of waders at K20 and a nice gathering of 23 Caspian Terns.

Last Friday, I joined the annual Dorcas Gazelle count which is carried by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) in an area called "Wadi Hayun" and "Wadi Ketzev", located roughly 85 Km north of Eilat . This area is mainly a training zone for the military, during most days of the year so there is not much of birding around there. But during the last 4 years, we've been engaged in monitoring the breeding species around the Arava (the southern part of the Rift Valley in Israel), and the wide open wadies upper in the Southern Negev desert as part of an Atlas work carried by the Israel Ornithological Centre (IOC).

This area has proven to be very good for a 'sexy' assemblage of ground living species (Larks, Sandgrouses and more) so it is always interesting to be there.

The count went well and despite the very little rain we had around (only 3-4 mm this year), there wasn't any dramatic changes from last year count. But there were some nice surprises awaiting in the bushes and trees...

Autumn migration was evident with Eastern Orphean and Eastern Olivacous Warblers leaping around. At one point we flushed a beautiful Long-eared Owl (a probable female by the dark face). But the greatest surprise was the finding of a family (male, female and 1 fledge) of Arabian Warblers a species which have gone through dramatic decline in Israel and is regionally classified as Critically Endangered. Despite seeing them as a kid few Km's further up the wadi, I never realised that they are still present as there were no records of them from this area throughout the 4 years of monitoring. The gang was very actively feeding and thus I could not get any record shot of them but all the relevant features like tail pattern, eye ring were seen more than once. 

2 Macqueen's Bustard were seen by some participants and few pairs of Bar-tailed Larks and Spotted Sandgrouse were also seen around. 

So now that Autumn is officially here, it is high time for the temp to drop so it will be easier to go out and look for more migrants...