Winter warbler wonderland

The rest of my week in Eilat was much less productive, partly since I was exhausted from my long hike through the desert, but also because I spent a lot of time trying in vain to spot the Swinhoe's Storm-Petrels, which had been frequenting the Gulf of Eilat, from shore.  I thus ended the trip with zero lifers and just three new additions to my Israeli list; the Wigeon, a Great Crested Grebe on the sea off North Beach, and my 4th ever Hume's Warbler twitched in a city park.

Earlier this week, I then went and saw another Hume's Warbler in a park in Ghent, where it seems to be overwintering.  Amazingly, though, birders looking for the Hume's Warbler also discovered a Pallas's Warbler, which seems to be overwintering in the same city park.  It took me a long time to see anything, the first bird I found being a very vocal, female Firecrest, but I then heard the distant calls of the Hume's Warbler and managed to locate it.  It was very mobile so I followed it to another section of the park, where a small group of birders were already watching the spritely Pallas's Warbler.  This was only my third observation of this species and my first in Belgium, and it put on a great show, at times hovering so close to me I couldn't even use my binoculars.  As I was enjoying that, a Goldcrest also appeared and, although I know the 'crests are no longer officially considered as warblers, I still think of them as such, thus making it a 4-warbler day in Belgian city park in late December!

Frosted raspberries

For my second day in Eilat, I got a taxi to drop me off at the entrance road to Amram's Pillars, another site I'd never managed to reach before.  Having seen no wheatears whatsoever the previous day, my first birds were Hooded and Mourning Wheatears, with several singing White-crowned Black Wheatears later on.  I took a good couple of hours to reach the campground, where some other birders who were on their way out had told me they'd seen my target species.  Once there, though, all I found was a large group of Trumpeter Finches, so I continued further along the road to the junction with the next hiking trail.  Here, I started to hear faint calls coming from the cliffs and began scanning.  Suddenly, I found a big, fat, frosted raspberry of a male Sinai Rosefinch just sitting there on the cliff-face.  I then noticed some females/immatures hiding in the crevices and eventually had five of them come down and feed.

This was my most wanted bird of the trip since I'd only ever had a brief, distant glimpse of a small group way back in 2009, so I was relieved to finally remove the unwanted bvd-label from this species.  After that, it was time for the long slog back through the desert to the nearest bus-stop, although I did break it up by having a look at the km20 saltpans, where three male Wigeon were a bit of a surprise since I didn't realise they migrate all the way down into Africa.

Eilat again

I flew back to Eilat earlier this month for a week of winter sun and birding which got off to a great start when I finally managed to visit Holland Park, on the outskirts of the city.  Some of the first birds I saw were Arabian Green Bee-Eaters, which are fairly common but always such a joy to behold.

I had intended on just having a quick look around before heading down to the IBRCE reserve but the park was much bigger than I expected and I ended up spending all morning there.  Having already flushed one Sand Partridge, I fully expected the next three birds I flushed to be the same but, thankfully, one of them landed under a bush just a little further along the trail and I couldn't believe my eyes.

My first Liechtenstein's Sandgrouse since 2003 sitting there in the middle of the day!  I admired it for the longest time just blending in with the vegetation and being ever so difficult to locate with my camera, the yellow, black and white eye markings being the only give-away.  I felt guilty walking away from such a rare opportunity and even turned round and walked a different route so as not to disturb it again.  This resulted in me discovering a bush which was full of African Babul Blues, not the prettiest of blues but a real challenge to photograph since they are so tiny.

Having also seen a lone Arabian Babbler, a small flock of Indian Silverbills and another group of five Liechtenstein's Sandgrouse in flight, I eventually made my way to IBRCE, where Bittern, Spotted Eagle, 3 Steppe Eagles, a hunting Black-winged Kite and an Oriental Honey-Buzzard rounded off an excellent first day with a total of 61 species.

African advent Day 24

And finally, by no means the rarest bird of the trip, these nesting Chestnut-and-black Weavers at Hans Cottage did provide my favourite photograph when I noticed a new nest that was essentially just the doorway and waited for its owner to return.  Happy holidays!

African advent Day 23

Exclamatory Paradise-Whydah in full breeding plumage was another bird I was very pleased to find, especially after seeing a tailless, immature male.

African advent Day 22

Red-throated Bee-Eaters were very common at Mole but I couldn't take my eyes off their bright colours.

African advent Day 21

The beautiful Forbes's Plover is one of the main target birds in Mole and we got to see three of them really well.

African advent Day 20

With it being the end of the rainy season, I didn't get to see or photograph many butterflies other than a few common species such as this Western Joker (Byblia anvatara crameri).  In Atewa Forest, however, we did see a few, small puddle parties reminiscent of those in the Amazon.

African advent Day 19

Greyish Eagle-Owls were very common at Mole NP.  Driving back after dark we encountered at least five of them hunting along the road.

African advent Day 18

Long-tailed Glossy Starlings were common at Mole NP and we even located an active nest.

African advent Day 17

Mole National Park had plenty of mammals with Northern Bushbuck regularly feeding around the accommodation, and my first elephant, a single, young, male Savannah Elephant, encountered during one of the drives.

African advent Day 16

Indigobirds are notoriously difficult to identify but we saw Wilson's Indigobird in both the south and the north of the country.

African advent Day 15

At Bobiri butterfly sanctuary, some Swiss researchers had set up a moth light.  Here are what seem to be Balacra flavimacula and Caryatis phileta.

African advent Day 14

In the south, the brightly coloured Yellow-crowned Gonolek was rather skulky and difficult to see whereas at Mole, I had this pair feeding on the grass outside my room early every morning.

African advent Day 13

Heading further north and crossing into the savannah belt, we started to see more and more of these traditional houses.  Having arrived at Mole NP, the local warthogs made sure we knew what we had to do!

African advent Day 12

 

Visiting during the rainy season meant that the bishops and widowbirds were resplendent in full breeding plumage.  This is a male Black-winged Bishop.

African advent Day 11

On our way north to visit the picathartes, we encounted this large flock of Preuss's Cliff Swallow.

African advent Day 10

For today's post, here is a selection of dragonflies photographed during my trip.

African adventure Day 9

As mentioned in my trip write-up, I got to see all four malimbes but, them being mainly canopy-dwellers, I only got a photo of this Blue-billed Malimbe.

African advent Day 8

Having settled into my room at Frenchman Lodge, my guide came rushing back with this Graceful Chameleon he'd spotted crossing the entrance road.

African advent Day 7

Next, we headed west towards the Ivory Coast and the lovely, but rustic (no hot water!) Frenchman Lodge adjacent to Ankasa Forest.  The lodge grounds were good for birds with Pin-tailed Whydah feeding outside my room, Reichenbach's Sunbird and plenty of African Pied Hornbills.

African advent Day 6

Hans Cottage actually has three species of weaver nesting.  Whilst trying to photograph this Orange Weaver, I almost stepped on this guy!

African advent Day 5

Our two mornings spent on the rope bridges of the famous Kakum Canopy Walkway provided my favourite birding of the trip being very much like birding the observations towers at Cristalino Jungle Lodge.  We picked one platform as a base and just stood there waiting for birds to pass by, which yielded a ridiculous 35 new species the first morning, plus difficult birds such as Black-casqued Hornbill and Violet-backed Hyliota on our second visit.

African advent Day 4

Our next destination was Hans Cottage, where there is a mixed breeding colony of Cattle Egrets, Long-tailed Cormorants and Village Weavers.

African advent Day 3

The biggest bird of the first day, in terms of rarity rather than size, was this African Barred Owlet, which gave us the run-around for a good couple of hours before finally showing itself properly.