As promised, here’s a second, early-morning look at some critters at the northeast corner of the Dead Sea.
I heard this first beauty and its traveling companions before I saw them, and they helpfully perched together in the top of a tall bare tree. I had only taken a couple of pictures, however, before they all moved on and my heart sank. Thankfully, my disappointment was premature, and they soon settled in a much lower tree so I could get the nicest pictures my gear could muster in the early morning light. It was only then that I could identify them as my very first Indian silverbills (Euodice malabarica).
This next bird actually did manage to take off before I could capture an image, but it too, didn’t go very far, and I could get a picture just good enough to identify it as our first great grey shrike (Lanius excubitor).
Anne and I had chased a couple of birds in vain yesterday morning, as they flitted around inside densely-leaved trees while teasing us with their calls, and this was one of them. Today, for reasons I will never know, this one relented, and now we know what an eastern olivaceous warbler (Iduna pallida) looks like.
When I saw this bird, I thought that maybe our great grey shrike had returned, but my sources claim that the light speckling on this little cutie marks it as a juvenile masked shrike (Lanius nubicus), instead.
Finally, we saw this magnificent bird yesterday, and Anne spotted it first, as I was focused on the sunbird above and behind it, but I was nervous about the identification. If my sources are correct, this is not only our first European honey-buzzard (Pernis apivorus), but also the first honey-buzzard reported at that location, though not in the region.
Anyway, in case you are wondering how they got that name, as I was, it is because they primarily eat the larvae and pupae of bees and wasps. Heck, they aren’t even true buzzards or hawks, but have their own genus of just honey-buzzards.
Lastly, here is the smallest butterfly I may have ever seen, a dark grass blue (Zizeeria karsandra).
After breakfast, we spent the rest of the today driving south to Aqaba, and tomorrow morning we hope to visit the Aqaba Bird Observatory, which bills itself as “an environmental masterpiece that utilizes treated water to create vital habitats for birds to rest during their journey along the second most important bird migration route in the world.” How exciting is that?
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 