The Champions of the Flyway is much more than just a Big Day. At the heart of the event is the conservation of migratory birds moving between Africa and Eurasia, a staggering 30 million of which are killed by illegal hunters and trappers across the Mediterranean each year. Funds raised for COTF 2017 were in aid of Doğa Derneği, BirdLife’s Turkish affiliate. Teams from all over the world gather in Eilat, Israel at the peak of spring migration to compete for the titles of Champions (race-day winners), Guardians (fundraising winners), and Knights of the Flyway (raising the most awareness and embracing the COTF spirit). A total of 19 international teams and 19 Israeli teams competed this year on March 28th, including two teams from South Africa: the Birding Ecotours Youth Africa Birders (Andrew de Blocq, Jessleena Suri, John Kinghorn, and Werner van der Walt) and the Birding Africa Black Harriers (Callan Cohen, Faanise Peacock, Ethan Kistler, and Dominic Rollinson). Each team is set a goal of raising €3500 (roughly R50 000), and is asked to use their networks to create awareness around the migrant bird slaughter. Due to the generosity of the South African birding community, my team, the BE YABers, managed to reach our fundraising goal with 5 weeks to spare, and ambitiously doubled our target to €7000. We entered the media space to spread awareness and canvas for funds, including articles in the Cape Times, UCT’s home page, as well as an interview with 567 Cape Talk host and birder, John Maytham. We even took to begging at street lights in dignity-destroying outfits – something which really flourished over social media! We arrived in Israel just over a week before race day, using this time to familiarize ourselves with the species and lay of the land. Luckily, the spirit of the race is cooperative and friendly, with teams helping each other to find birds rather than hiding information. A Whatsapp group was set up including at least one member of each team, and this constant stream of gen kept our phones buzzing for a full 10 days. Using this info and a list of important sites we explored and planned our race day route, driving 4000 km in the process. Come midnight at the start of race day, we were first team off the line! Each team is required to begin in Eilat, but for the daylight hours teams generally choose between a north-south or south-north route. We decided on a north-south route, which involved more driving but included some spots in the extreme north that host species unique to that area of the designated playing field. At sunrise we were in Nizzana, getting off to a good start with MacQueen’s Bustard, Cream-coloured Courser, and Little Owl (of the subspecies lilith which is being proposed as a full species), which are all near-impossible birds elsewhere. We then wasted little time in getting to Yeroham Lake where we ticked some water and forest birds, the highlights being Syrian Woodpecker and Purple Swamphen. Further south near Sde Boker there is a memorial to Israel’s first Prime Minister, Ben Gurion. The beautiful forested garden here is a huge attractant for birds migrating over the desert. We ran into the COTF media team here, who interviewed us and followed us into the valley below to get some race footage. We spent around 40 minutes with them - more than we’d budgeted - but it was important that we contributed to the race’s public output. Highlights here were Long-legged Buzzard, Eurasian Griffon, Egyptian Vulture, and Steppe Eagle. We sped south again and began our trek through the desert. While most of the Negev is sandy hills and plains, old watercourses sometimes blossom into vegetated ‘wadis’. Birds on passage often stop at these oases to rest and feed, and it’s essential on race day to visit a few. Sylvia warblers in particular are drawn to these spots, and at Wadi Niqarot we picked up Blackcap, Lesser and Common Whitethroat, and Rueppell’s, Subalpine, and Sardinian Warblers. We also added the locally rare Trumpeter Finch and Sinai Rosefinch. Yet further south, after 125 kms of non-stop desert, we visited Neot Samader for the local rarity, Hume’s Leaf Warbler, and some other tough birds at the sewage works (Eastern Stonechat, Ortolan Bunting, Desert and Black-eared Wheatear). The Uvda Plains, which in the days leading up had been very productive, were empty. After an hour’s walking we added Spotted Sandgrouse and Northern Wheatear, and then turned back towards Yotvata fields. This was when disaster struck. You can blame it on youthful exuberance or time pressure, but the crux is that we took a shortcut along a sandy track and got stuck. We were not able to push it out alone, but one of the other teams, the Art Birders, answered our SOS and came riding to our rescue after losing an hour of precious daylight. This required us to rethink our remaining route, as we couldn’t visit every site we had planned to. We raced through K19 and K20 sewage pans, the IBRCE (International Birdwatching and Research Center in Eilat) and the adjacent salt pans, and reached Eilat’s North Beach for sunset. We found ourselves at 144 species as dark fell. We reckoned we were at least 15-20 species short, mostly because of the delay. We were physically and emotionally exhausted, and the temptation to head north again for owls and nightjars was not enough to overturn the need for sleep. We handed in our checklist and hit the hay, very happy with our day’s birding but even happier to be counting sheep than birds. Here is a selection of the species we saw on the day and throughout our trip, all captured by John Kinghorn. At the awards ceremony the next morning our immense efforts in fundraising and creating awareness around the cause were rewarded with both the Guardians and Knights of the Flyway titles. We raised €8700 - 250% of our original goal. The Champions of the Flyway were the Artic Redpolls team from Finland with a course record 181 species, following the same route as us but without delays! The Black Harriers, did well to place tied 6th overall with 163 species, and we came in a commendable 11th. Sharing the stage with all the winners and the representatives of Doğa Derneği was an emotional experience, and we all got the feeling that our efforts would make a real difference to the conservation of migratory birds. Jonathan Meyrav, Dan Alon, Itai Shanni, Noam Weiss, et al. - we take our hats off to you for such a well-run, exhilarating and impactful event. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all of you who supported the South African teams, and can only encourage you to open your hearts and wallets to the teams competing again next year. On our way back John, Werner, and I had an 11 hour layover in Cairo. We decided to brave the chaos and make our way to the pyramids to tick that off our bucket lists. Needless to say, none of us will ever complain about South African traffic ever again. In Egypt every single car has scrapes and dents, and for good reason. The lines delineating the traffic lanes are not rules, not even guidelines - they're treated as decoration. At one point on a four-lane highway there were seven cars abreast. One each in a lane and three more on each of the lines, all around a foot from each other, and traveling at 60 kph. Absolutely ridiculous. But the pyramids themselves were awesome to see, even though the whole site is now just a swindling and money-making scam, with one vendor taking you on to the next, and so forth. No historical tours to explain this wonder of the world's significance. But we did indulge in horse and camel rides - and they are a fine platform from which to enjoy the spectacle...
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AuthorI am a birder, biologist, and nature blogger. I post about my trips, informative tidbits, and things I think are interesting. Archives
July 2017
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