I went out with Itai Shanni to survey the birds that are out there today. We started at Qa es-Sa'eddin, (so-called Km 76), and saw very little. The highlights were two Asian Desert Warblers, eight Trumpeter Finches, a few Stonechats, two or three Sardinian Warblers, an Isabelline Wheatear and little else. No Sandgrouse to be heard or seen.
After spending a boring two hours there, we continued on to Yotvata, and there the story was different. The northern circular field held the Little Bunting that Lirron Ziv had discovered a few weeks back, mixed in with a flock of about 50 Red-throated Pipits. We were lucky to see it on the irrigation pipes because in previous transects it was hopping in between the alfalfa, so invisible.
Two Isabelline Wheatears, a Desert Wheatear, and quite a few Crested Larks could be seen.
Aside from that there was little else going on.
From there we proceeded to the southern circular field, and here the story was completely different. Half of the field has wheat that is almost fully grown and should be harvested at some time in the near future. The sights here were incredible. No pictures could adequately describe what was going on there. There were easily over a 1000 Common Swifts, 300 Pallid Swifts, House Martins, Rock Martins, some Barn Swallows and over a 100 Red-throated Pipits. We also saw about 15 Skylarks, but did not see the four Oriental Skylarks that had been seen here more than a week ago. I am including a picture that very poorly portrays the swift mayhem going on there...
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