8. huhtikuuta 2014

Last day, long drive and lots of good memories. 7.4.2014

Came home this morning. We had nice last day in Mitzpe Ramon, Sde Boker and Urim.
Quite early start with Erkki Valsta and we drove to Mitzpe Ramon Fieldschool. Our target species was Lanner Falcon but it did not want us to see it. Anyway we enjoyed maybe best raptor and especially Eagle migration of whole trip. 
First migratoin was little slow with some Buzzards and Black Kites but after sun riced little more we notice flocks of Eagles coming very near us. We had about 500 Buzzards, 50 Black Kites, 20 Lesser-spotted Eagles, 25 Steppe Eagles, Egyptian Vulture, four Short-toed Eagles and two Kestrels. 
Here´s some pics.
Mitzpe Ramon raptor-watch place.

Short-toed Eagle.

Black Kite.


Steppe Eagle.

And another one.

Also some nice local birds around. Northern Raven, Eastern-mourning Wheatear, Desert Larks and White-crowned Wheatear.

Desert Lark.

Northern Raven. I think...

After 3 hour raptor-watch we moved to have some coffee and then we drove to Yeruham Lake to check if Purple Swamphen would be still there. It did not.. Lots of Mallards, Coots, Tristham´s Starlings and Common Mynas around. Erkki also heard some Easter-olivaceous Warblers singing. 
After the lake Erkki left back to Eilat and we were thinking that what a heck we are going to do before we have to go Tel-Aviv. The answer was famous winter birding place called Urim. I had only one day experience there and Jände has been there maybe few times but we found the place. 
Lots of White Storks, Pallid Harrier, Buzzards, Chukars, Great-grey Shike and lots of other birds. 

Pallid Harrier, 2cy bird.

Nice view in Urim.

Same place.

We spend there 1,5 hours and it was great fun. That was our last place before we drove to Tel-Aviv. 
There were not many hours of daylight left so it was nice ending for our trip. 
Later we returned our car and waited our flight in the terminal. 

What a amazing and memorable trip we had. Special thank to Yoav Perlman, Jonathan Meyrav, Dan Alon for making this wonderful Champions of the Flyway even possible. 
Also thanks to Roni Väisänen, Matt Slaymaker, Teresa Montrás Janer, Jim Lawrence, Dale Forbes, Martin Fowlie, Stu Butchart, Roger Riddington, Adam Hutt, Paul French, Ken Billington, Gert Ottens, Martijn Verdoes, Marc Guyt, Noam Weiss, Tim Appleton, David Lindo, Stephen Moss, Jessie Barry, Marshall Iliff, Chris Wood, Colin Shields, Patricia Shields, Stephen Shields, Stu Elsom, Dominic Mitchell, Ian Lycett, Mike Alibone, Morten Bentzon Hansen, Bill Thompson III, Michael O´Brien, George Armistead, Ben Lizdas, Johannes Jansen, Brecht Verhelst, Alexander Rukhaia, Pim Wolf, Dick Newell, Rob Jolliffe, Tim Jones, Yael Lehnardt, Bas Kok, Liri Koplevitch, Yuval Dax,Itai Shanni rest of the IBRC-team, all Finnish birders and all Israeli teams in Champions of the Flyway race. 

Champions of the Flyway Racers, photo by Yuval Dax


Special thanks to Jände, Esko and Erkki Valsta who raced with me. Can´t wait till next time, which is possibly in August. Locals told us that it is insane to go Eilat that time. Some Finnish madness and it is possible.

-Tom-

2 kommenttia:

  1. Nice photos Tom (better than you think!) - it was good to meet you in Eilat. Maybe see you again there next spring!

    VastaaPoista
    Vastaukset
    1. Thanks Dominic! The pleasure was all mine. Hope to see you also there next spring.

      Poista