I then headed back to Eilat along the drainage canal, seeing plenty of immature gulls I couldn't identify as well as Black Stork and Caspian Tern, before heading up into the hills and Wadi Shachamon. This wadi contains typical desert habitat right on the edge of town and used to be a regular wintering site for Pallid Scops Owl. There have been no reports so far this winter but Noam was confident they should be back already and told me how to look for them so I was pretty confident I would find one if it was there. It wasn't, of course, but I thoroughly enjoyed my first taste of desert birding in seven years, with White-crowned Black-Wheatear singing within sight of Eilat's last apartment blocks, Blackstart (above), one of my absolute favourites, everywhere, Palestine Sunbird, two Desert Larks feeding at my feet, and a pair of Scrub Warblers showing exceptionally well.
There was also a flowering bush covered in butterflies but, in my rush to check every acacia tree for the owl, I only took pictures of one species. It turns out to be an African species which is rapidly colonising the eastern Mediterranean and has the wonderful name of Pomegranate Playboy (Deudorix livia).
