Early winter in the Western Negev – December 2008

All images copyright of Jonathan Meyrav, Saker image copyright Thomas Krumenacker

Winter is creeping in and I could feel the chill when getting in the car in the very early morning. Good friend Thomas Krumenacker is in Israel for a short time and we had a full day of Negev Birding and photography ahead of us. We set up to meet up at first light at Urim Junction. As I was driving just north of the junction I noticed a nice flock of what could only be Pin-tailed Sandgrouse not far from the road, so we decided to start with these.

The Sandgrouse were very mobile and finally settled down, we drove closer and eventually could enjoy the birds at decent range. About 400 of these elegant birds were feeding in the stubble fields. It was an amazing morning, in the nearby field a juvenile E.Imperial Eagle was warming up and a Peregrine raised the thousands of pigeons close by and hunted one before us.

From here we headed to the famous power line area, with Sociable Plovers in mind. As we were searching the fields we located a Saker perched on one of the pylons. We decided to drive closer when suddenly 6 Sociable Plovers flew into view and landed not far away! We immediately started creeping towards the birds. These shy and elegant ground plovers were timid and we took a long time to inch closer. Finally we managed to get some images, but the birds were spooked by a passing Eagleand flew off. It was a thrilling encounter though; a few meters closer would have been perfect.

We spent a few hours in the area, driving alongthe agricultural tracks. It was an excellent morning in the fields. Thousands of Skylarks and small numbers of Calandra Larks were all over, and many raptors were present. Hundreds of Kites, several Common and Long-legged Buzzards, Hen Harriers, 3-4 Peregrines, about 10 Merlins, the Saker and 5 E. Imperial Eagles were around.

In the early afternoon I headed to the area of Wadi Beer-Sheva, a remote nature reserve with a very special landscape. The area is characterized by low hills and shallow plateaus with semi desert vegetation. It is a steppe like terrain and is an important wintering area for several rare and interesting species. I slowly drove around the area just south of Hazerim AF base and finally located a nice flock of about 70-80 Dotterels. I spent some time with these handsome birds and headed deeper into the desert wilderness. In the area I found no less than 7 Finsch's Wheatears, some holding active winter territories. A nice male Pallid Harrier zoomed by and a Little Owl was seen several times.

It was a wonderful day to be out in the Negev and Thomas and I even left with some great pictures of some really rare birds.

Stay posted for more news and images fresh from the field.

Jonathan Meyrav

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