LGRE Tours in Year 2008
March 31, 2008
I have just returned from my 24th tour of Israel and was very pleased to see an excellent turn-out of up to 220 birders to the annual Spring Bird Festival in Eilat, including 80 birders from Britain and several from Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Finland and from Sweden. It was great to see the return of some old stalwarts, in particular Dick Forsman, Per Alstrom and David Cottridge.
Although migration these days is nothing like that of previous decades, it was still extremely enjoyable, with northerly winds on some days providing us with excellent opportunities for raptor watching, with morning tallies totalling some 18,000 Steppe Buzzards, 37 Steppe Eagles, 250 Black Kites and 9 Egyptian Vultures, with a scattering of Osprey, Lesser Spotted Eagles, Booted Eagles and Pallid Harriers.
The highlights included the overwintering first-year ORIENTAL HONEY BUZZARD (my first in the Western Palearctic and 829th species overall), 3 superb CASPIAN PLOVERS and a fabulous BLACK BUSH ROBIN, whilst of the 203 species we recorded during the week, standout birds included 3 GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOOS, huge migrating flocks of both BLACK and White Storks, 2 SOMBRE TITS, 3 SYRIAN SERINS, good numbers of migrating LESSER SPOTTED EAGLES in the North, Wild Mongeese, Water Buffaloes, White-tailed Sea Eagles, EASTERN IMPERIAL EAGLE, 15 PYGMY CORMORANTS, 7 BLACK FRANCOLINS and 600+ Common Cranes at the Hula, large flocks of migrating European Bee-eaters and 20+ LITTLE GREEN BEE-EATERS, 6 FAN-TAILED RAVENS, STRIATED HOUSE BUNTINGS and several SAND PARTRIDGES at En Gedi, some excellent passage PALLID HARRIERS, up to 8 GREAT BLACK-HEADED GULLS, Sooty Shearwater, Greater Sand Plover, Striated Heron, Western Reef Egret, Little Gull and WHITE-EYED GULLS on North Beach, huge flocks of northbound wildfowl, especially Garganey, 6 OLIVE-BACKED PIPITS amongst large numbers of Tree and Red-throated Pipits, many Common Quail, male NAMAQUA DOVE, male RUPPELL’S WARBLER, 13 BIMACULATED LARKS, WHITE-TAILED PLOVER, male HOODED WHEATEAR, 17 TEMMINCK’S HORNED LARKS, 5 LICHTENSTEIN’S SANDGROUSE, Richard’s Pipit, 3-4 ARABIAN WARBLERS, WHITE-CHEEKED TERN, 3 EASTERN MOURNING WHEATEARS, large numbers of CREAM-COLOURED COURSERS, STREAKED SCRUB WARBLER and a displaying male McQUEEN’S BUSTARD at Nizzana and a singing male LONG-BILLED PIPIT near Bet Shean.
Although forthcoming trips to Corsica, Kuwait, Italy and Eastern Turkey are now completely full, I do have limited availability on trips to Spain, Madeira, Majorca, Sicily, Cyprus, Scandinavia, Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauretania. Email me for information
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