A weekend in the sun.... if only !

As usual the weather has been a bit dull and wet here in Clevedon for far too long. So plans were hatched for a friend and I to spend a long weekend birding somewhere warmer and drier. We picked the Negev desert with it's promise of strong sunlight, arid stony ground and especially the presence of both Pharaohs eagle owl and Egyptian nightjar in the  last few days.

Both of us had missed the owl in several countries and I had now dipped the nightjar at least three times....this time would be different, we told ourselves.

To cut a long story short we dipped again .... at two sites.... on two nights. Some birds just seem to evade some people and become what are called bogey birds.

What made matters worse, of course was the cold, wind and rain ! A combination of conditions that are perhaps best described as uncommon given the sites we visited. At one point the drizzle was whipped along by a howling gale in a midday temperature of just 5 degrees C. This could be described as unlucky, but equally could be described as targeted, aggressively unpleasant and uncalled for. It was of course none of the above but just one of those things. Anyway we had already decided that, regardless of conditions we would treat the visit as an opportunity to see birds that we could not encounter in England and , with luck see a tick or two.

Without making this a trip report (which will turn up on bird forum at some stage) here are my highlights.

No overseas trip would be complete without straying into some mildly hazardous area. In this case a live firing zone ! We were confident that no activity would take place on the Sabbath and so it proved. Our main reason for visiting this particular spot was to see Thick-billed Larks and we were wildly successful. Eventually (after an hour long search and several miles of walking) we were able to find a flock, work out its likely movement and then simply sit down in the middle of a vast plain and let them walk past us.

I had only ever seen one of these before, in Western Sahara, so being surrounded by at least 50 was magical.

Only two other experiences came close to this over the weekend. Sitting in the car watching 30 plus Sinai Rosefinches at Amram's pillars  where I had consistently dipped the species on several previous trips;

and seeing 5 separate bluethroats (one of my all time favourite birds) in two hours.

Other great birds included:   Ararbian Babbler

                                   
                                          Green Bee eater

                                          Tristrams Grackles

                                       Hooded Wheatears

                                     And of course Spur-winged Plovers

On the final afternoon, before our flight we spent some time in a park in Tel Aviv where I had easily my best views ever of Golden Jackals

So, despite the weather being a "bit-under-par" it was a great trip.

And now it is back to reality and Dowlais again, where this afternoon there was,.. wait for it ..... a pair of mute swans