Champions of the Flyway Eilat 2016 Mazal tov to Maj. Gen. (Res.) Doron Almog, Chairman of the Hoopoe Foundation who was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for 2016 a day after the event in Eilat

We are very proud of Doron and Didi! Mazal tov to Maj. Gen. (Res.) Doron Almog, Chairman of the Hoopoe Foundation, who came to the Champions of the Flyway with his wife Didi and were highly impressed with the event; with journalist Erez Erlichman from the biggest internet news site in Israel We are very proud of Doron and Didi!

Dan Alon and Jonathan Meyrav are leading Champions of the Flyway for the third year; Yossi and Didi came for a day

Patricia Zurita, Chief Executive of BirdLife International, came for one day to learn about the activities and enjoyed a large variety of birds

Like the flamingos in the salt ponds of Eilat Photo: Aharon Shimshon

Patricia with Noam Weiss, Director of the International Birding & Research Centre in Eilat

With the Spanish SEO team

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority (NPA) wardens are always around

Ohad Hatzofe, the NPA bird ecologist, was a soldier of Doron in the IDF Kingfisher elite unit

The Swiss team from Sempach

Baruch Gian, a well-known photographer in Israel

Yael Lenard and Amir Balaban with a team of kids from a Jerusalem birding club

Amir Balaban and Doron Almog

The young birders play the key role in the Champions of the Flyway event Photo: Yuval Dax

Yossi Eshbol, the leading bird photographer in Israel

About 100 team members funnel to the Northern beach at the end of the first day to identify more species coming from the sea Photo: Yossi Eshbol

Photo: Yossi Eshbol

What a successful partnership! Photo: Baruch Gian

The grandfather of the youngster on the right of Yossi Leshem is Prof The grandfather of the youngster on the right of Yossi Leshem is Prof. Uri Marinov’s grandson; Uri was the first CEO of the Ministry of Environment in Israel Photo: Baruch Gian

Photo: Baruch Gian

Hadas Katz Sdeh Chen (red sweatshirt) with her young team Photo: Yuval Dax

Shlomit Lipshitz, Zahala Brosh and Orna Gemmer – 3 ladies deeply involved in birding in Israel

Moishe Levy with the team from the Agamon Hula Photo: Yuval Dax

You speak about Israel birding in the world and everyone asks you if you know Hadoram Shirihai (right) Hadoram’s fiancée (left) is a Gynecologist

At the Eilat birding park with Zadok Zemach

Doron with Nir Papay, the Deputy CEO of the SPNI and VP Environmental Protection

The Tel Aviv University team

Patricia feels at home with all the teams

The leaders Yoav Perlman, Dan Alon and Jonathan Meyrav

Modern technologies led by Yuval Dax (center)

Photo: Yuval Dax

Photo: Baruch Gian

Photo: Yuval Dax

All the participants at the final breakfast

Photo: Yuval Dax

Bill Thompson (center) with Jonathan and Dan; Bill did outstanding PR for the Champions of the Flyway

Photo: Yuval Dax

Eyal and Tal Bartov documented the four teams sponsored by Zeiss

Dan and Jonathan led the ceremony

The Mayor of Eilat, Meir Yitzhak Halevi, opened the greetings session

Patricia Zurita got everybody excited with her speech

The Finnish winning team, with 174 species Photo: Yuval Dax

Barak Granit speaks on behalf of the Israeli winning team

The Ma’agan Michael team, Guardians of the Flyway and second place with 167 species

Inbal Goldshtein studies terns on the coast, with a big smile of satisfaction

Bill Thompson and his team

A check of $69,000 raised by all the teams for BirdLife Greece

All the children who participated in the competition on the stage Photo: Yuval Dax

Bill Thompson composed and sang the Champions of the Flyway song with all the children

See you at the Champions of the Flyway in 2017! Photo: Roni Livne