Israel,
April 1998

A hot and migrant-packed trip to the south-east of the Western Palearctic: lots of exciting birds passing through, notably huge numbers of raptors, but also numerous passerines (including such extreme rarities as Grey Hypocolius and Basra Reed Warbler) and waders. Resident birds also featured heavily, including Egyptian and Nubian Nightjars, and the very hard-to-see Desert Owl (formerly Hume's Tawny Owl), shown to us by the man after whom it is named (scientifically), Hadoram Shirihai!