Encrusted end of the shell obscures some of the difference betw. Conus and Conomurex.  As you see, from this angle the opening is quite wide, much wider than it is in a Conus. We have an empty Conus from Eilat, looking at it now the differences become clearer.  I will have to put in a photo of that for comparison later.

Prof. Bella Galil, an expert on our coastal fauna, was kind enough to respond to my enquiry and readily IDd the mollusc as Conomurex persicus, also known as the Persian conch. She told me this was one of at least 300 different species that had reached the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal (at least I got that right!) and had established itself very successfully along the western shores of Israel.  From the dark colour of the toothed radula we can surmise it was a male.

A beautiful photograph can be seen at http://www.gastropods.com/6/Shell_1376.html
I was quite surprised it wasn't a Conus, though in many ways the shells are similar. The whorl end in Conomurex is more peaked and developed (with some variation) whereas Conus is flatter, but take a look at the end of the shell we found on the beach, above. The encrustation obscured this difference a great deal. Of course I certainly defer to Prof Belil's experience and expertise in her field, she seems familiar with this one!

We were relieved that by replacing it in the water we would not endanger future paddlers. However, our alert still stands. If Conomurex can make it up the Suez and establish itself, so can Conus!

What was happening down in Eyn Porat today?  Scores of Bee-eaters up where they were yesterday, north west end of gazelle field, and then moved over east to hunt over the whole field. Hoopoe seen flying into the acacia back there,  stone curlews heard calling.  Syrian woodpeckers also heard.  Flock of about 70 jackdaws foraging on the ground far north end of the field/lower hill slopes, possibly picking around gazelle droppings for bugs as they do with goats.

Several gazelle spotted up on the skyline hilltop to the north, appearing and disappearing quite tantalizingly in ones and twos.

Sunbird singing in the Bauhinia tree today.

Nothing particularly new down in Eyn Porat today (species noted below) so I thought I'd share another couple of pics from the Tel Aviv outing. I sent the cone shell pic and pertinent info to some local oceanography profs. to hear their comments. They might be very interested since its almost definitely an invader from the Red Sea via the Suez. We also sent warnings to some neighbourhood lists to let people know NOT to handle such shells on any of our beaches.


Typical encrustation of life on the pier rocks. The largest conical shells are limpets, the spotted snail like shells next to them are some kind of periwinkle or similar.. haven't found which genus online- both molluscs(mollusks) - both spellings are valid. Up one periwinkle from the central limpet and slightly to the right is a barnacle, you can see it's 'trapdoor' on the top of its little round shell. Though barnacle shells look a lot like those of molluscs they're actually very tiny crustaceans, like teeny shrimps with a home. There also seems to be some kind of marine yellow algae.


This cute li'l crab was found by some youngsters at the end of a short rocky pier. It's perched on Moshe's very water wrinkled finger.

Today's range: 22.5-31 degrees C, ~ 28 when we went out, ~50% humidity and rising. Winds mostly westerly 7-12 knots most of the afternoon.

We went down to the beginning part of the north valley trail today. Lots of bee-eaters around, scores, hard to determine, they were everywhere particularly in the north west end of gazelle field which they seem to favour these days.

Stone curlews also gave us a number of sightings, flying to and fro about the same area and beyond the bat cave toward the secret valley, and very vocal.

Hoopoes seen, Syrian woodpeckers, turtle doves, collared doves heard and seen. Graceful warblers and chukar partridge heard.

Gazelle crossed central trail from the south, continued on to the north valley path, ran across, traversed the flat area by the north watercourse(planted with eucalyptus and acacia) and headed for the pines just north.  Parent and young. parent had very thin horns, probably a female. The adult females of this species are supposed to have very thin horns though we often seem to see individuals with no horns at all. If visibility is at all hampered, (camouflage, late afternoon lighting) they may well have very thin horns that are just not visible. The second time I sighted this one today I could not see the horns at all though first time and final time I could see them clearly. They're nowhere near as developed as those of an adult buck but appear just as very fine sticks between the ears.

Laughing doves,  feral pigeons around the buildings as usual,  single hoodie in flight .

Plenty hyrax were active today near the pumping station, including a lot of the dark coloured youngsters. This one we photographed allowed us to approach within about eight feet and take numerous pics, it was quite unconcerned, and between fixing us with its beady eyes, looked around for something to nibble.

We noticed it appeared to have an almost bald patch (dark area) toward the front of the right flank with what appeared to be a thin white scar. We wondered if this was due to a fighting injury or perhaps to an encounter with heavy duty wire. We've noticed lately quite a few adults with rumpled flanks and when they have territorial encounters they tend to bite in the hind flank. Could that dead one we saw actually have died from such an aggressive encounter? Checking articles on line I found answer to be yes, fights can be fatal. Because population density is so high now it's no surprise there are so many signs of fighting. Amazingly female hyraxes have as much if not more testosterone than males, tend to be more dominant in the colony and are actually more likely to fight.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/05/22/hyrax_ani.html

No gazelle sighted today.

Birds about: Hooded crows, feral pigeons, laughing doves (cooing in the garden), house sparrows, white spectacled bulbuls (repetitive hoarse calls on the bank), sunbirds (in eucalyptus near the pistaccio orchard), a bunch of finches up there too but could not make them out but in silhouette, forked tails, that I could tell. More goldfinches? Didn't sound like greenfinches, sharper calls. Turtle dove coos, stone curlew calls, bee-eater quite large flocksomewhere north west gazelle field area. Syrian woodpecker (male) on a LINE over the middle of east valley pines. first time I've seen one perched for so long, he seemed quite settled there, wiped his bill a few times, looked around, groomed. Farther down was a turtle dove.. also collared doves around, some cooing. Graceful warblers calls. Eurasian jays about.

Night walks lately: another cricket seen, many heard as usual, the usual black millipedes, prolific throughout the summer, many up to around 15 cm (Moshe picked up a nice long one by the bat cave and this one actually nipped him with its mouthparts though not strongly.. he said that had never happened before), another scorpion, thinner tail, much broader pincer base, very dark but not black.

The fruit of the caper Capparis spinosa is pretty much ripe now. These are edible and often pickled though are not as popular as the buds. Look out for those nasty yellow spines, very sharp! . Most of the flowers are spent though there are still a few late flowers around. Mullein flowers also almost spent though Israeli thyme is still blooming cheerfully blue in many places. Grass where the gazelle usually graze is very dried out now and yellowish, but the gazelle may also be using the occasional more green shrub here and there. Tough grazing now.

Spitting cucumber seed pods, almost ready to fire. At least one already had, was already small, hard and shriveled, reminded me of a corpus luteum!

Range today in Jerusalem: 21-33 degrees C, time of our walk: ~28 and falling. Humidity: ~45% and rising, winds westerly, 6-9 kt.

Took shortcut down to north valley, connecting with the dirt road that leads round to the quarry. Soon saw a small group of gazelle, a nice adult buck and two others, one with very thin horns and another not fully grown. The buck was some distance from the other two but not far away. Then the buck emerged into the sunlight between the eucalyptus by the watercourse and the pine and cypress beyond and gave us a gorgeous view for a while. (Moshe had to express his admiration 'his horns are so *curvey*!!') We wondered if this might be the same trio we'd seen in the Pistaccio orchard a few days ago. Some time later I spotted a group of six grazing and making their way slowly up the hillside from the north end of gazelle field. Looks like now the mothers and new young are all joining up again.

Husband spotted mammal up on the skyline, I looked up and saw the dark fox, nice and clear. I saw what I think was it on the skyline for a fraction of a second then it went down and I picked it up again farther down, nice view, could see dark edges of his ears and his long bushy tail his patches blended into the hillside perfectly. He looked so dark and rangy I wondered if he could possibly have any jackal in him but as far as I've seen foxes cannot hybridize w jackals. I gave binocs to Moshe to see, but though he saw it move with naked eye it must have gone between/behind rocks because it was already out of view. I figured it probably went for cover in upper part of secret valley, was unable to find it again when I got binocs back.

The most stone curlew I've seen at once.. two flew from lower end of north valley watercourse over to the hillslopes to north, followed by group of TEN more. From the calls there were still more individuals down to the south east, somewhere over by the young pine grove east end of north valley. Later more calls between the two groups, seemed to be calling and answering. They were quite active around sunset.

Syrian woodpeckers, seen and heard calling, hoopoe seen in that pine grove just around dusk, collared doves heard, chukar partridge heard somewhere to north west along north valley just after sunset and Tristram's grackle also heard from that direction when we first went down there, blackbird alarm calls heard. Bee-eaters over north end of gazelle field, hard to tell how many, dozens, using lines, some landed, some in flight. Great tits calling.

Flocks of jackdaw and hooded crows foraging north end of gazelle field/lower slopes, just up from the pylons, at least 70 of each.

In the last few days also seen and heard in the valley: greenfinches, turtle doves, graceful warblers. Sunbirds in garden and various places in the forest, house sparrows, feral pigeons and laughing doves around the houses,

This spider made its home in a tube of web in one of the aromatic bushes. Moshe enticed it up by tossing an old berry at its web. The spider ran up and caught the berry neatly. (you can zoom a bit further by clicking on the pic till it fills your screen)

Outing to Tel Aviv beach

Lol, look at those eyes! Hermit crab in a cone shell.  Well, umm, nope, after reviewing pics of the proboscis and stinging radula of cone shell mollusc we have come to the stunning realization that this is a live cone shell and we both came very close to being stung though were able to move fingers niftily out of the way of the stinger WHOA!!


remains of a Rhipolema nomadica, side view, one of about a dozen we found washed up. This jellyfish migrates up the Suez from the Red Sea and plagues beaches on the eastern Med.

Tired now, Thursday great day on beach (Tel Aviv) with the boys, Moshe and Avremi aged 12 and 10. Writing now while it's fresh in my mind, will fill in more details later if I think of anything else appropriate to record. Temp: ~30 degrees C, winds light and westerly, humidity, low/moderate

Bird life: sparse by the beach except for town pigeons which scavenged everywhere and a couple of males demonstrated their dominance when they were about by showing off the to females and squabbling over scraps a little. No gulls at all. A few hooded crows on and between tops of high rise buildings, occasionally vocal, some house sparrows, singles, foraging on the rocky areas. Town pigeons think they own Tel Aviv, the tall buildings are an artificial canyon system for them and they made themselves obvious as soon as we rolled into town, showing off their flight speed and such.

Beach life was at first sparse but as we looked along the edge of the waves we found quite a few cockle shells, some light coloured mussels and various simple spiral types. The rocks were more fertile as usual and there we found limpets, barnacles and many tiny periwinkle types, I forget which but very small, mostly dark with ranks of small white spots and pointed spires. We also found quite a few washed up dead jellyfish. Rhopilema nomadica, a species that has come into the Mediterranean from the Indian Sea via the Suez canal. These have become something of a plague on our beaches in June/July especially, and sometimes beaches are closed completely because of invasions. As it was we took shots of a number of stranded individuals and were able to touch them (though NOT on the tentacles)- they look like soft jelly but are hard as rubber. Both boys were stung when in the water, said if felt like a red hot needle, and sting left a red patch a few inches across with a welt in the centre.

Another invader from the Indian ocean was the nicest specimen we found, in effect, a double specimen. Hermit crabs use the old shells of a wide variety of molluscs for their homes. Husband found one living in a cone shell of all things. There is a cone shell native to the Med. but this one was at least twice the size of Conus mediterraneus, we guessed it might be a race of Conus fumigatus from it's beautiful light colouring, originally a native of the Red Sea. Given that cone shells are often quite venomous I asked husband, 'you DID know what kind of shell it was before you picked it up, right?', 'yes , he said, but I was very careful!' Men! Well, there was nothing to fear, apart from reaching out a long elegant claw and trying, unsuccesfully, to nip me a few times. the hermit crab stayed pretty much indoors. 

LOL except that the 'long elegant claw' was the stinger! haha!  Look at pic caption.

Today's range: 21.5-29.5 degrees C. When we went out at about 6.40 p.m.  just under 26.

Humidity ~63% again, winds WNW.

I was scanning the far end of north field when Moshe called our attention.  Beautiful!  3 gazelles, probably a family. Adult male was running after a female in the Pistaccio orchard.  It was really amazing to watch,  they ran from the direction of the north end of east field and into the orchard,  ran across its length a number of times. Following not many paces behind (and just 20 feet from Moshe at one point) was a well grown young, about three quarters the size of the buck.  That one did not run the whole time but sproinged beautifully like an impala for whole sections of its transit.   Then the female, still hotly pursued by the buck,  ran through the eucalyptus behind look-out point,  leaped the dry stream bed about fifty feet from us, and continued across central trail and into the pines beyond,  just to the west of gazelle field.

What else was around today?:  Flock of hooded crows foraging on the hillside far north end of gazelle field.  Plenty bee-eaters, mostly north end of gazelle field, calling incessantly and perching low or skimming over the field between acacias and cistern.  Stone curlew calling now and again from just beyond the bee-eaters,  Calls of Syrian woodpeckers,  small group of greenfinches flying between trees,  collared doves seen but they and turtle doves quiet today.  Blackbirds, song and some alarm calls.  Quite a few sunbird calls in various places, central trail crossroads and other spots in the forest.  Seems the young males of this year are already old enough to make territorial issues with their dads.  Graceful warblers also active and vocal.  Moshe is proving a quick apprentice with all the different calls, knows how to identify most of the usual birds already by sound.

Plenty hyrax active along valley road.  White spectacled bulbuls heard there too.

A cricket (~4 cm long) we found on the valley road sun night, second one we've found within last few days. Note long antennae, (unlike grasshoppers which have very short antennae), and 'horn' tail. This sat quietly for a while, then became agitated and bit my son quite sharply on the palm of his hand when he was carrying it home to photograph, but didn't make him drop it. Just left a little pink mark.

Range: Temp at about 6.40 p.m. ~25.5 degrees C, humidity 63%. I was definitely ready for a shower on return! Wind WNW, not sure of wind speed, seems the station's anemometer broke yesterday in a strong gust.

This morning husband was at Neve Yaakov mercaz, shopping centre of neighbourhood, saw 5 Tristram's grackles moving as group to top of building there. Could this be the family from the quarry, come up to forage? Possible.

Today (Monday) Moshe came with us to the valley. We were delighted to see plenty bee-eaters today also, scores, hard to determine how many, they were quite scattered and many settling on the ground or just above on low scrubs and tree branches. A group settled on the path by the cistern, probably eating ants. Yesterday we saw about 150 birds over the eucalyptus grove and pistaccio orchard area.

hyrax: Plenty active around cypress slum colony. We searched for the carcass in vain, probably a fox took it.

dogs: feral dogs heard, a group of four seen a few days back, forgot to mention.

reptiles: Moshe found a small striped lizard by the saplings, looks like Lacerta laevis.

Just remember you're looking at the lizard, not Moshe's manicure;)
This we photographed right there in the field and released it about where it was found.

Turtle doves, heard cooing along the dry creek trail.

Hobby: 1 seen flying north low over the valley at about sunset

House sparrows: laughing doves, cooing morning, both around street. Feral pigeons on the buildings and flock of them over Hizmeh. Hooded crows: foraging in small flock on ground, north gazelle field.

Eurasian Jays: Quite a number scattered, busy and active, woods and fields. Greenfinches: twittering, singing, pine woods.
Blackbirds: some song in various places. One has territory around the fig tree end of Shadiker.

Chukars: plenty chuckling up the hill just east of the bridge, sounded like a whole covey up there.

Collared doves: Cooing and flight calls, and active. Stone curlews: calling north gazelle field and tracks by the orchard.
Sunbirds: Calls along the dry creek trail. In the garden. We saw two, one in what looked like a threat display in the Bauhinia, fluttering wings like agitated butterfly while calling, warning other off its territory?

Graceful warblers: Plenty calls, Syrian woodpeckers: calls and active, Bulbuls: calls by valley road.

Sat July 12th

Today's range: 20-30 degrees C. , winds mainly westerly.  Humidity range 25% (midday)-75% (night)

Amazing cloud of bee-eaters over gazelle field about sunset.. just beautiful!  At least 100 individuals hawking right over us (we were sitting at the bunker), and later as we headed back along central trail another 20 or so flew to join them from the west or south.  The new flock merged with the larger, seemed welcome. Earlier I'd noticed quite a few of them on the ground at the far end of eucalyptus grove, all facing south,  and pecking at the ground, maybe for ants.

Quite a few hoopoes seen today flying to and fro across the field. (Last thursday we noticed SEVEN hoopoes on the ground, beginning of  the path that leads to north valley, )  probably a family group

2 gazelles, mother and young, north end of gazelle field, just beyond the acacia.

In area also collared doves,  turtle doves cooing, greenfinches betw. the pines, Eurasian jays about,  sunbird from somewhere near the bunker too.  (sunbird also heard in the garden last few days)  Some chukar calls, blackbird song and quite a few stone curlew sightings over hillslopes to north, to and fro.

My son caught a small gecko running up the hallway last night, he showed it to me.  Had a bluish tinge underneath, had never heard of that on a gecko before. It was otherwise pale but for dark eyes.

Senegal doves and house sparrows around the houses as usual.  Plenty hyrax active about sunset.

The upper pine grove, northern slopes of the north valley.  A little under 700 m elevation.  Provides shelter above the valley for the gazelle, they clearly come up here judging by trails, droppings, sightings.

Tues: Gazelles: 4 well grown without horns in far north east corner of gazelle field, grazing on old charred patch.

Bee-eaters: Hawking in group of at least 20 especially over Pistaccio orchard and around.
Turtle doves: heard cooing, Hobbies: chasing something psittacine.. a ring necked? Tail was shortish but could be in moult. Hoopoes seen.

Hooded crows: about, and foraging upper north gazelle field
Jays: Numerous scattered and about, woods, field, foraging.
Feral pigeons: small flock returning to neighbourhood from the north,
Greenfinches: small groups moving about between trees by look-out corner
Blackbirds: quite a few vocal and singing, Collared doves, Stone curlew calls:
Graceful warblers, heard: Syrian woodpeckers & Great tits heard:

House sparrows, laughing doves: street, Sunbirds, heard in the garden

That night a bigger scorpion on valley road, 4cm from head to beginning of tail, tail itself 3-4 cm long, curled over, pincers a bit heavier and each at least 3 cm long. Very dark and legs darker than the one we photographed. A little later we found a pale cricket, back legs crouched high, very long extremely slender antennae hardly visible.

Wed: Temp range ~20-30.5 at about 6.30 p.m. ~27 degrees C. humidity 36%, wind WNW ~9kt

As we were descending into north valley we heard a cacophony of hyraxes, many 'schshhhiu!' sounds, over and over across the hillside. All the sentries were calling the alarm and all other hyraxes were quickly under cover amongst the boulders. We soon saw the trouble. 5 feral dogs had shown up down below. As soon as they arrived at the edge of the colony there was nothing at all to be seen but rocks.. by then all the sentries had also gone down. The dogs stared around for a while, then headed back down to the quarry path, disappointed.

We headed up to the grove of pine trees on the northern slopes of north valley. Truly enchanting up there, great chunks and shelves of limestone with interspersed trees in the late afternoon sun. Lovely!

Gazelles: Several about, 2 handsome bucks with fine horns broke out below us and ran along a trail toward the west, barely 50 feet ahead and below. They looped down to the path to the quarry and then headed up the opposite slope. Their speed and stamina on those treacherous slopes never ceases to amaze me. Several more individuals seen, two more at a gallop eastward down the trail.

Bee-eaters: heard. Hobbies: heard and seen briefly circling over north valley
Hooded crows: about, Eurasian Jays: Numerous active and about.
Greenfinches: heard. Blackbirds: a number about, active and vocal, some song.
Chukars: heard in north valley, Collared doves: heard cooing, some flight calls
Sunbirds: calls in garden, Graceful warblers, Syrian woodpeckers, bulbuls : active and vocal

House sparrows, laughing doves: street

These little 'train-tracks' in the sand are actually the footprints of a millipede!  A double row of lots of tiny prints.  They cross the tracks of a bird which passed by earlier, wandering from top right to lower left. Probably one of the doves- they looked too small for the chukar partridge. 

Gazelles: Today, 2 in east field, adult females? heading up windsurfer hill at a run. Fresh droppings in the pistaccio orchard. Yesterday adult female grazing in the olive orchard by east field. Saturday, adult male on skyline to north.

Hyrax: Lots have been active last few days towards sunset by valley road, including young. One killed, seem to be bites or wounds of some kind on flank but why didn't dog or whatever take it away, did the others gang up and drive it off? At any rate ants, flies, hornets and hooded crows were taking an interest in it. First time we've ever found a dead one. Could have been hit by a vehicle but what would account for the wounds, crows?

Plenty bee-eater activity over gazelle field and eucalyptus grove, at least 40 in flock yesterday. Today they were mostly up north end of gazelle field.

Hoopoes about especially track to north valley. Stone curlews very vocal and active north gazelle field and some sighted.

Today turtle doves heard cooing, also collared doves around and vocal including flight calls lately.

hooded crows (about and windsurfing as usual), jackdaws (to east, no doubt following goats again), blackbirds (some song about sunset), great tits (scolding calls about look-out corner and Pistaccio orchard), greenfinches (large pines by bunker), Eurasian jays (everywhere, and drinking from cistern), Syrian woodpeckers, (calls and spotted between trees),

No swifts this week in our area but a few were seen neighbourhood centre mid last week (beginning of July)

Sunbird in the garden esp. Bauhinia tree today, haven't heard them in a while since cape honeysuckle blooms over (and new family of cats in there)  House sparrow, laughing doves, (around buildings).  Geckoes heard frequently at night and occasionally spotted, crickets. from sunset and on.

Not sure which scorpion this is, in the book looks most like Androctonus crassicauda or another of that genus. It was carrying a dead centipede on its back. We caught this a couple of hours ago live, photographed it and returned it, with the greatest care because it is dangerous.  About 2.5 cm long, tail about as much again.