MARKUS VARESVUO

EILAT, ISRAEL

There are many bird species along the migration pathways and avian highways of Israel.

For a bird photographer Eilat works best from March to May. Over the years I’ve been there close to 10 times. After a gap of several years, I was there again in 2009: two weeks in March and a week in May. Eilat has seen many changes in the past two decades, but it hasn’t lost its lure as a great bird place. It’s still one of the most exciting locations in the Western Palearctic for photographing birds.

Eilat is in the southern tip of Israel, on the northern edge of the Red Sea, along the main flyways of birds migrating between Europe and Africa. Eilat’s annual spring migration of raptors is unique in the Western Palearctic. Raptors ...

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