Yaarbiriah's Nature Walks

Late afternoon sun on clouds in the north east.

A white wagtail goose-steps on the grass at Sacher Park. 

Not quite sure what this is though I figured one of the cotoneasters.  I checked in the native flowers list and only cotoneaster has much rounder leaves.  Growing at Jerusalem Bird Observatory. 

Tuesday, Nov 4: Rain on and off all day and cool.

Much water in east valley watercourse , spilling into the L shaped channel across the fore part of gazelle fields, part of it surging across the field itself between the channels and the bunker rubble and another stream alongside the dirt road towards the cistern. The cistern itself is full up to the level of the drainage hole (less than a foot from the top edge) and at least one green toad was noticed swimming in the water.

Gazelle noticed, adult male, other side of owl glade.. taking the north watercourse dirt road east.

laughing dove coos in the garden again, house sparrows, jackdaw calls heard, hooded crows.
Interesting hooded call sound coming from up the slope to the east as we walked along the east watercourse dirt road. Sounded agitated, several coarse grrok type calls and seconds after we saw Eurasian sparrowhawk fly over. Sparrowhawk sightings have increased notably lately.. probably some wintering birds involved. Husband saw two fly together earlier.
He also noticed two Tristram's starlings earlier perched on roof of building at corner of Elias/Shadiker, the one with the date palm house sparrow roost.
Collared doves, a few seen flying about between lines and eucalyptus.
Syrian woodpeckers and white spectacled bulbuls heard but no stonechats and black redstart still not back. .

Wednesday Nov. 5th

Good start to the day.. clear ticking noises outside my window not long before 5.20 a.m. (still dark) such as those typically made by European Robin. I still want a decent sighting though!

Next excitement came at 2 p.m. when Moshe called me to the garden .. a group of black kite Milvus migrans were soaring on thermals high over the valley. Moshe told me he counted 14 individuals.

On our walk I found at least two gazelle grazing on the hillside a little east and up from the bat cave. Could have been more but hard to make them out at that distance (from north valley dirt road ) amongst the rocks and with their camouflage.

Apart from that, laughing doves cooing again in the garden, Eurasian jays (amongst the pines) , jackdaws (returning over the neighbourhood from foraging somewhere north west) calling and active, a few hooded crows winging their way home solitarily, calls of blackbirds and white spectacled bulbuls.

Thursday:  Trip to Sacher Park,  naturally the boys were thrilled.  They went to the skateboard park as usual while we checked out the JBO.  The lawns of the park are frequented by many foraging hooded crows, now joined by droves of white wagtails everywhere,  foraging through the grass or flying about in small groups, uttering their sharp twitters.   European robin like calls heard several times in suitable habitat at the edge of the park but not glimpsed. Blackbirds about,  Eurasian jays and a Great Tit  Parus major actually in SONG. First this season. 

Around the house:  Both melodious and harsh calls of white spectacled bulbuls and more cooing of laughing doves, though more toned down than their spring cooing.

Image from Wiki of Stonechat, Saxicola rubicola - now just returned to the patch.. see below.

Grasshoppers still abound in the fields.  This is a Pyrgomorphella again, a very common though strange looking type with its elongated eyes and knobbly antennae type. A second grasshopper was nearby, more typical, green and pale brown longitudinal stripes and a fraction of the size, but was apparently camera shy... 

'Everything comes down to poo..'  We found several mounds of scat like that on the left, far more elongated than regular gazelle poop (and much too small in proportions to be porcupine poop, similar in shape) and here we found both kinds side by side. Why the change in form? More moisture due to the rains? If so, why does other gazelle scat stay spherical? One grazing near the watercourse, the other up on the hill?  Perhaps that on the left is a female's and the male deliberately deposited his right next to hers?

Tuesday 27 Oct: Lots of hyrax on valley road, variety of ages.

Wednesday 28 Oct: Two large flocks of jackdaws at least one hundred individuals each returning from forage in the north towards sunset, shortly after followed by about 40 hooded crows.
Syrian woodpecker calls, blackbird chak chak calls at dusk, bats?

Thursday 29 Oct: Gazelle, lone male buck north field/lower slopes just east of bat cave about sunset. No other gazelles seen today.

feral pigeons about, house sparrows, sunbird in the garden singing early afternoon briefly. Eurasian jays, some hooded crows and jackdaws flying home to roost but not in numbers as yesterday

Some rain today, cooler but still mild.

Saturday 31st Oct: Most significant.. the return of the stonechats! Numerous individuals heard by bunker rubble, around cistern, around dry stone walls and almond row in general.. one spotted in fading light perched on top of thorny burnet.. just after sunset they call to each other from every direction.

Gazelles: Mother and quite well grown young lower north slopes of windsurfer hill. We walked up shepherds hill, over part of the lower slopes and surprised a female that had been behind some boulders just off the path.. she ran down towards the olive grove where she then caught the attention of an adult male who was grazing there. That caught his interest and he chased her southward alongside the fence. Poor girl, from one thing to another! So 4 gazelle in all, all in east field. None spotted in north field though didn't scan lower hillslopes extensively. certainly none in gazelle fields.

Hyraxes by roadside. Jackdaw, flock of at least 110 with small group of hoodies amongst them, flying from north west over neighbourhood, heading towards windsurfer hill. From house main birds heard today house sparrows, hoodies and jackdaws) Rain on and off.
Eurasian jays, Syrian woodpeckers, graceful warblers, active and vocal.

Sunday 1 Nov: Laughing dove coo joined the house sparrows early morning. Chaffinch calls late afternoon in the trees near Shadiker colony? Birds in flight seen were some kind of finch..
Four gazelle on slopes of hill to the north, one young, rest females/well grown young.
Eurasian sparrowhawk over hill ridge to north briefly. Otherwise, blackbirds, white spectacled bulbuls, jackdaws, hooded crows, Eurasian jays, graceful warblers, Syrian woodpeckers.

Monday 2 Nov: Not much time for much of a walk, the skies opened again as we approached the pumping station along valley road. We did see a mature hyrax scamper across the road earlier. It has rained non stop since then and it was raining on and off during the afternoon. In the intervals when the sun peeked through the local birds hurried to forage, the sparrows, jays, bulbuls and such and various more furtive passerines.

Temps today: 9.5 (now) to 15 degrees C (early afternoon) ( 49-59 degrees F)   as you see, quite a drop since Mid October!

seedhead of Sharp varthemia also known as 'goldilocks', Chiliadenus iphionoides . Below, anothe rkind of seedhead growing in clover sized patches by north valley dirtroad.


Saturday:

Nice flock of feral pigeons over our street, up, swirling about, alighting on rooftops.. almost 100 members, they've been doing well lately! White wagtail distinctly heard, one glimpsed? Flying up onto a rooftop on Shadiker near the house sparrow date palm roost (which was already gathering members) . Syrian woodpecker seen flying over valley road into pines, blackbird and white spectacled bulbul calls in the pines. Sunbird song in the Bauhinia earlier today.
Jackdaws and hooded crows heading to roost. Eurasian Jay calls.

Forgot to mention late last week jays noisy in pines, a clamour that sounded suspiciously like mobbing behaviour. This was confirmed shortly after as husband glimpsed a large bird take off from that area but did not get detail, if some kind of buzzard, long eared owl or something else.

Keeping an eye and ear out now for any winter arrivals.. stonechats, black redstarts, starlings, robins, chaffinches. Leaf warblers are already about but others no sign yet. Occasional stone curlew calls but brief.

Weather today: 16.5- 24 degrees C (61.7- 75.2), still mild, and despite some cumulus rain not fallen, not that I noticed.

38%-88% winds variable 0-5 knots, NE-E-SE

Sunday: In east field, two gazelle running towards pine grove, two adult females or female and very well grown young. Hyrax high pitch alarm call at pumphouse colony as darkness fell.

Monday: Sunbird singing and calling in Bauhinia again today and lately. White spectacled bulbul heard melodious calls before dawn out there as well as house sparrows, hooded crows and jackdaws.

Jays, blackbirds, Syrian woodpecker heard but where have chukar been? Very low profile lately, haven't heard them in a while. A variety of butterflies and moths about and still grasshoppers.

Four gazelle on hillside across north watercourse, mothers and young including one very small young, a couple of months/few weeks old at most.  Farther to the east a lone adult male not far from bat cave. 

Heavy though brief shower in the afternoon.

Below, a caterpillar found on a caper leaf on monday,  north banks of north watercourse.  On the leaf you can see damage by the caper bugs earlier in the season.

Cast off skin by some kind of cricket.. found clutched in middle of a clump of Inula by upper part of valley road.  Four short wings.

Middle ground on the left, bank part of the Shadiker hyrax colony territory which continues down below and around the hillside  facing north, many square metres and possibly a larger colony than the cypress slum colony.  A minute after taking this picture a number of hyraxes of various ages scrambled down the bank (they had possibly been raiding gardens up the hill) 

Pic taken from north west corner of loop of valley road. Below.. valley road continues before turning again roughly southward. Here grows a little Ailanthus (tree of heaven) surrounded by Inula,  Aleppo pines behind nd farther down. Pines and cypress on the hillside beyond. 

Vandalism (?) on lower slopes of windsurfer hill. It's possible these thorny burnets were burned just because some kids like the snap, crackle pop sounds .. we've seen this behaviour. Apparently whoever did it got bored after about a dozen bushes. Not to worry, this is all finished growth. they will likely start up again next year from the base.

Tuesday: Heatwave conditions still prevail

Glimpse of Sparrowhawk over north valley. Yes, we're seeing them more again now the hobbies are not competing with them directly. Eurasian jays also about and vocal. Hooded crows heading for roost and jackdaw calls. Blackbird chakking calls at dusk. Syrian woodpecker?
In the gardens, house sparrows and white spectacled bulbuls more active and vocal.

Wednesday: Weather took a definite turn for the cooler. Max about 26 degrees C today and cumulus clouds drifting over fast by dusk but not bringing immediate rain.

Gazelle? Not that I remember check with Akiva.

Large flock of jackdaws returning home to roost from north towards Pisgat Zeev.. over 100 birds.. much smaller group of hoodies in the rear and some ahead.

Akiva heard whistle of Tristram's starling earlier in the day. Syrian woodpecker heard, Eurasian jays, blackbirds.

Mud dauber wasp found in opened up mud capsule in the garden. (Boys were cleaning up dead leaves before the rain and I am not sure if they broke it accidentally, found it broken or what). There were two wasps, fully formed but seems quite dead. Both ~ 2.3 cm long, with black abdomen and yellow 'neck' connecting thorax to abdomen. Legs are striped yellow and black as you see. I need to get pic from the side. There was also a dark brown pupal case nearby from which it seemed one wasp had emerged. Perhaps they were unable to escape from the concrete additions to the capsule.

Also saw a Bath White (Pontia daplidice ) white butterfly and a small blue type within last couple of days fluttering about north valley.

Thursday:  Similar observations to those all week with exception of buck gazelle sighted alone on hillside just east of the bat cave,  call over the lowest edge of neighbourhood sounded distinctly like white wagtail but we didn't catch sight of the bird.

Temps down another notch to about 16-23 degrees C  and rain forecast but still not fallen.

Pistacio grove:  Leaves now turning red. 

One of the buck gazelles across north valley, eyes reflecting light at many metres

Cones on trees by shortcut down from valley road to north watercourse dirt road 

Channel running west-east across middle of gazelle field, draining east watercourse and taking it past the fields. The channel is so choked with Inula and old thistle you can barely see the old stone walls along the sides but still acts as a conduit after heavy rains.  (view rotating 180 degrees), the channel continues east till it reaches the eastern edge of gazelle field, then drains northish. 

writing saturday night: 18 Oct.

Heatwave today, 26-33.5 degrees C, 79.8-92.1 degrees F , humidity 11-25%, winds north west early morning then turning easterly and very light, no more than 2 knots but for brief veer to the north in the afternoon and rise to 10 km, dropping back to easterlies for the rest of the day.

Sunbird in song outside the window a couple of days ago, melodious calls from bulbuls
Hyraxes out in numbers late afternoon, mostly adults, one 30 feet up in cypress tree, nibbling away, another a few feet farther down, just stared at us as we walked by.

Adult male gazelle across north watercourse walking east just at the edge of the pines, stopped to graze briefly.

Also active and calling: raucous call of white spectacled bulbuls, blackbirds, Eurasian jays, hooded crows,

Sunday: Another hot day, similar conditions to yesterday.

Much activity of the Shadiker hyrax colony, one climbing over 20 feet into a pine down the slope to nibble, plenty active on the bank, all sizes.

Gazelles: 3 bucks moving pretty much together slowly moving westward across north trail, two together, the other lagging behind. One head butted another that came too close.

4 gazelle heading up the hill just east of the bat cave.. two and two.  Looked like two mothers and well grown young.

Bats seen at dusk again.

Sunbird singing in Bauhinia early afternoon. Melodious calls of white spectacled bulbul from about 5.18 a.m. (now clocks have changed, not summer time any more of course) , Eurasian jays,  jackdaws, hooded crows seen and heard. House sparrows going to roost in those date palms again, feral pigeons building tops. Laughing doves low profile lately. Blackbirds noisier in the woods, perhaps they feel freer to be vocal now hobbies gone?

Monday: another day of similar weather conditions.  Low 30s celsius for a few hours middle of day, humidity low but with much in the air, dust, pollen etc. Some high altitude clouds last couple of days, some cumulus rolling in towards dusk. 

3 buck gazelle seen again heading east, this time one came out onto north valley dirt road, others nearby. 

In the woods: Syrian woodpecker calls, Eurasian jays also quite vocal, hooded crows.   Heard laughing dove cooing softly in the garden today.  Brief view of Eurasian sparrowhawk heading from north gazelle fields to pines,  Kestrel up on slopes from near lines, flew quite low towards A Ram.  Bats seen again about dusk. 

Millipedes, grasshoppers, moths, crickets about.