Israel: Birding the Northern Negev Desert

Before coming to Israel I looked for someone (with a car) who could take us on a couple of birding days. There weren't any lay birders who were going to be in town. But my favorite travel website, Birdingpal, had a professional guide who was relatively inexpensive and extremely responsive via email: Carmel Zitronblat.

We made arrangements and went birding in the Northern Negev desert with him. Of course, because of the heat in August added to the two-hours it would take us to drive there, we woke at 3:00 a.m. and were picked up a half hour later.

By the time we got to the Desert the sun was beginning to rise.

We spent the first while scanning the rocks and shrubs trying to find a Macqueen's Bustard. Carmel had seen it a couple of days earlier when he was scouting the area for our trip. We had no such luck, dipping on this particular species.

Our first new species of the day was a Mourning Wheatear, a very pretty black and white bird which was fairly ubiquitous throughout the rocky terrain.

After spending a good amount of time scanning the area, we got back in the car and drove to some fish ponds. Life is dependent on the availability of water. In the desert, manmade water sources allow for incredible concentrations of life. Our main focus here was to see the four species of Sandgrouse that come throughout the morning, and we were not disappointed.

First, a view of the habitat, with some of the species visible in the photos:

This is a Little Egret among the reeds growing in this particular pond. There were also many Little Stints, Wood Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers,

Spur-winged Lapwing:

White Stork, and Black-winged Stilt:

We saw all four species of Sandgrouse (see bird list). We even managed to get close enough to these Crowned Sandgrouse (using the car as a blind) to get a decent few photos. This is the best one:

Check out their gorgeous markings! Each species was equally striking. Carmel was also good at pointing out their size differences.

We were also lucky enough to see a herd of Desert Gazelle off in the distance. But they use the ponds as well, evidenced by Dan's excitement over Gazelle scat on the ground nearby.

Israel's ecotourism infrastructure is in its infancy, despite the incredible numbers of birds passing through here in both spring and fall, during Eurasian migration. But accommodations are springing up in a few kibbutzes, as well as these lovely little cottages we passed in the middle of nowhere.

I would love to see more birders from all over start coming here, wearing their birding shirts and binoculars, and spending money in the towns, cities, and kibbutzes. Showing people birding can provide an influx of money might move the ecotourism movement along. My son even came up with a good slogan for the campaign: "Israel: It's Safer Than Detroit!" (Sorry Detroit!)

Carmel took us to a lovely treed area for a field breakfast of fresh vegetables, fruit, cheese, cold cuts, and pita bread (and regular sliced bread as well). He even brought a field stove, in case we wanted Turkish coffee.

While we ate we added Arabian Babbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin, and European Bee Eater to our growing list of birds.

After breakfast, we drove to a park with a disappearing wetlands. Carmel told us about a birder who's trying to convince the government to try and reestablish it by bringing in water. One can only hope he has success.

Walking down to the wetlands, we saw a large herd of long-haired goats (Angora?). As we walked down, we saw they were tended by a Bedouin woman and her son, accompanied by a dog and this camel. 

Driving through the desert we saw many Bedouin towns, both small and large. These were not the tents set up for tourists who want to have some coffee and a camel ride. They were shanty towns which reminded me of Native American reservations in the U.S. southwest. The difference was these had camels. I was able to get a photo of one of the larger ones as we drove on the highway back to Tel Aviv.

All in all, it was an incredible birding morning. And now I'll leave you with another vista of the Northern Negev desert.

The bird list:

We Have Travel Packets!

Yesterday (Thursday, Feb. 17), a week and a half before we’re scheduled to fly from Miami to Havana, we received emails from Marazul (the travel “agents”) asking us to confirm the use of our pre-authorized credit cards and our mailing address. A second email notified us our travel packets were going out that evening.
Well, it’s just before 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 18 and they’ve arrived. My level of anxiety regarding the unknown travel factor has disappeared.

A photo of my portion of the packet is below. Avi received identical papers, except with his name on everything.



It contained:

1. Our tickets for our flight booked by Marazul, chartered by Gulfstream Air, and provided by Sky King. The guessing game we’ve been playing these past few days about the type of aircraft we’d be on has been resolved as well. We’ll be flying a Boeing 737 with an allowance of 44 lbs. each. I’m anticipating we’ll be at 44 lbs. combined, since we prefer to travel light. ($349 each R/T)

2. A travel contract between us and Gulfstream Air, which we have to sign and hand in at the Miami airport.

3. Our Cuban Tourist Card, which cost $50 each.

4. A paper giving us information regarding our Cuban health insurance, which we are required to purchase in order to visit Cuba. Apparently we have $25,000 worth of coverage each, with $7,000 more for transportation home in the event of injury or death. All this for $3/day.

5. Our license from the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, making this a legal trip for humanitarian purposes.

6. Information on Cuban money exchange. Between the exchange rate and the exchange “premium” (thanks to the U.S. embargo discouraging U.S. dollars from entering Cuba), there’s a 20% loss when exchanging dollars for CUC’s. We could exchange our dollars into Euros here and then into CUC’s. But it all seems too complicated, and I’m not sure there would be that much in savings. We’ll see what we decide when we read this a bit more carefully.

7. A 17 page booklet from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control titled Cuba: What You Need to Know About U.S. Sanctions Against Cuba. A pretty dry read. Most of the material doesn’t apply to us. It just speaks about who may or may not travel to Cuba and what we may and may not purchase there. At least it looks as though Avi can bring back some music.

This weekend we’ll be getting things out and in order for packing. It seems particularly important we not forget anything we need, since we’re not allowed to buy much in Cuba.

Next Stop: Cuba!

Many, many months ago, just after our return from our birding trip to Ecuador (Galapagos), Andy Griswold from the Ct. Audubon Society's Ecotravel decided to try and tempt us into booking another trip. First he sent us information on their trip to Trinidad and Tobago -- it look interesting, but we decided it was a bit too rich for our blood. But Andy is a smart man. The next offer hooked us and reeled us in. It was a two-week birding survey of Cuba in conjunction with the Caribbean Conservation Trust.

Perhaps a little bit of backstory would be in order here. I used to have family in Cuba. My grandmother had two aunts who lived there and ran a, um, er, "business" in Cienfuegos or Matanzas. (Both areas came up when she would tell the story.) My grandmother visited her aunts there before Batista was deposed and frequently told us it was the most beautiful place she had ever been. I have several photos from her time there, but will post just one, since I think it's the most historically significant (check out the poster to my grandmother's right).

Basically, the poster says:

Workers
We march on May 1st
United front to the divisionists (?) and against anti-union attacks!















We signed up. The process hasn't been an easy one.

We're flying in and out of Miami through a Cuban charter company called Marazul. We ARE traveling legally, with a license from the U.S. Treasury Dept. since this is considered a scientific trip which falls under humanitarian travel. As of now, I'm still not sure everything is in order, since we have yet to receive our travel packet: airline tickets, Treasury license, proof of Cuban health insurance (required of all foreign visitors at a cost of $3/day per person), and who knows what else. With only two weeks before our trip, I must say I'm a bit nervous.

I guess our target bird should be Cuba's most famous, the Bee Hummingbird -- about the size of a quarter. But I'd really like to see the Cuban Tody, a very cute, brightly colored piece of feathery fluff (and probably one we're much more likely to see).

Our trip to and from Florida will also include a visit with our daughter, who is living in Hollywood and will be our means of transportation to the Miami airport on March 1. We'll probably get in a bit of birding there as well, though not as concentrated an effort as the two weeks which will follow.

So, stay tuned. I'm pretty sure there won't be much Internet access during our time on the island. But I'll be keeping my journal and logging the photos each day so I can post gradually once we arrive back in the U.S. For now, I'll leave you with one more photo with my grandmother and her cousin (the daughter of one of the Cuban aunts who was raised as her sister in the U.S.) with some Cuban friends.