Early spring in the Birds Sanctuary

Spring is in the air! Rising from the relative stagnancy of winter, some new birds are showing up in the bird sanctuary. The first to arrive were the Pallid Swifts and solitary Steppe Eagles. Following them were the Black Storks in small groups, and some passerines like Blackcaps and Northern Wheatears. On the last few days we had some Whitethroats singing in the bird sanctuary and the numbers of Steppe Eagles rose to 15 a day. But our greatest surprise is the wave of migrating Euroasian Scops Owls who flooded the town, many of them finding refuge from the cold inside houses!

Enjoy the pictures.

Swinhoe's Storm-petrel in Eilat!

 Following a minor southern storm that had brought the first drops of rain to our area, a weak Swinhoe's Storm-petrel was collected in the town. Unfortunately, it died just after its arrival to our bird's rehabilitation center. This is only the forth record of this rare bird to Israel and to Eilat, all involving weak or dead birds, between September and April.

The Swinhoe's Storm petrel is an enigmatic, migratory species only known to breed on islands of Japan and Korea. It is known to migrate September to April to the northeast Indian Ocean. Since the 80's there have been a few records from the north Atlantic. These Storm petrels are highly pelagic, usually solitary and nocturnal.