It's been very quiet, strangely, since my last post. There were not so many birds around and the nice beginning of November seemed to have change atmosphere and it felt as if nothing is moving. During this time is still managed to see most of the regular stuff for the season, but there was no major attraction.
On the 10th a nice Ferruginus Duck was on a small water pond next to K19 Sewage farm
Also I managed to find almost daily a family of Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse feeding and resting happily in the desert. On Friday I planed to meet Mattia and Andr'eas from Italy and it was good to make sure that these sandgrouses are staying around in one place...
I met the guys early in the morning and we drove to check how does K 76-77 looks like. It was freezing cold, but we managed at last to find some Bar-tailed Larks, many Desert Wheatears and a group of Crowned Sandgrouses
We then drove up to Uvda Valley to check what is going on there. No less than 40 Temminck's Larks along with the same number of Bar-tailed Larks were running around and to top it up a group of 6-10 Thick-billed Larks were also flying among them. Both Mattia and Andr'eas were very pleased to see all these, but unfortunately they kept some distance most of the time so I couldn't get any good photo.
Look for the Temminck's
In Neot Smadar many Eastern Stonechats and a nice dark adult Steppe Buzzard.
Later in the Arava it was already hot and except for a Richard's Pipit in Yotveta, all the rest were "usual's" Red-throated Pipits; Hooded, Desert, Isabeline & Northern Wheatears; Bluethroats; Namaqua Doves...
We couldn't find the sandgrouses in their usual spot, but thankfully 6 birds came to drink in their usual drinking place.
On our way back to Lotan we stopped again in search of night life and found a Barn Owl hunting in Yotveta and a great list of mammals Red Fox, Golden Jackal, Scrub Hare and probably the jewel in the crown; a beautiful Striped Hyaena who was posing for 2-3 minutes looking very calm (I hope that Andr'eas took some good photos, as I kept on holding the light...)
Saturday morning I received a call from Mattia saying that they found a Yellow-browed Warbler in Lotan. When I came to Lotan later in the day, it was still at the same spot and despite being very quiet, it was very eager to see where is this YbW that is singing from my player...
Re'a who came for a visit has failed with the YbW, but reported of a Fieldfare in Lotan (Yoatm also had one earlier this week in Netafim wadi andi had another 2 in Samar).
Thank you to Mattia and Andr'eas for a great weekend and I hope to have more to report soon...
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