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United has a nonstop flight from San Francisco to Tel Aviv, but only on certain days of the week. Alas, we wanted to arrive a day before the scheduled start of the tour, so we connected in Frankfurt and found out that business class on some European flights means that the middle seat is left vacant. If you read the review I wrote on Trip Advisor, you'll see what I thought of that.
We took the nonstop on the return. It was better, but United still has a lot of catching up to do.
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We met up with the Cloudmans in the hotel in Tel Aviv, fairly close to the airport, and set out to explore the area. We quickly found our first lifer of the trip, White-spectacled Bulbul. We saw one every day of the trip.
Then we set off to explore the Negev, wending our way to Eilat, on the Red Sea at the southern end of Israel, fabulous spot. The Birding Center, a fairly small preserve with two hides on the shore of a pond, is a magnet for migrants. Andy Whittaker, one of our guides, had spent time there years ago, banding birds.
Spring Migration in Israel is a big event as thousands (millions?) of birds travel from Africa to Europe and Asia. Not wanting to fly across the Mediterranean, they detour around the east end. This year the weather spoiled the party somewhat: numbers of migrants were below normal, probably just delayed, but... Still, it was amazing. We saw thousands of storks and raptors flying past.
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I love this photo of a Marsh Sandpiper taken at Eilat. Notice how the ripples in the water reflect onto the bird's chest.
Of course, on a visit to this area, you have to visit the historical sites, and we did. Jim, naturally, took a skeptical view of some of the history, but that's a story for another time. We visited the Dead Sea, along with many other psoriasis sufferers. The Dead Sea Cure has been known for millenia. (See 2 Kings 5, and read between the lines.) Many of the people we met with psoriasis preferred soaking in the super-saturated water to using chemicals created by genetically modified bacteria. Jim has a different view. We tried to go into the sea, but it was too cold. The pool in the hotel, filled with Dead Sea water, was better.
We also went to Masada, where we were happy to see cable cars to take us to the top. It's interesting monument to religious fanaticism. We finished in Jerusalem, which turned out to have some nice bird life in addition to old rock walls.
Serious birders can review our list of the birds we saw: