Eurasian Jay, Middle-Eastern race

Copyright Ruti Schueler with permission

Sunny windy day and flash floods

May 12



Despite the rain of a couple of days ago the creek was already dry by yesterday. In limestone hills like these water quickly seeps through the rock and collects in Gollum lair like lakes and channels deep beneath the surface, eventually emerging in Wadi Qelt and other springs at lower altitudes. We're at 800m up here, on the watershed so to speak. Groundwater like this provides at least 40% of Jerusalem's water supply, the rest piped down from the Sea of Galilee.

Wadi Qelt winds down from just north-east of Jerusalem all the way down to the Jordan rift valley near Jericho, a walking distance of over 30 km though much less than that as the crow flies. (It's a fantastic hike for a naturalist and an amazing contrast to the desert above, lush and fascinating vegetation, birds, insects, frogs, reptiles and small fish, and believe it or not, crabs, yes, just like the ones you get in rock pools by the beach. )

Flash floods in the desert are an extreme hazard for hikers .. an out- of- season rainfall like this can suddenly burst into a wadi and sweep away or drown anyone hiking down there.. feeling safe and dry till the last minute.

This recently happened to a team of hikers down in the Judean desert near Qumran (where the Dead Sea scrolls were found). A photographer, aware of the imminent flooding, had gone down there to capture the event on film. He noticed four rapellers in a wadi (deep valley/gorge, canyon) and of course tried his best to warn them of their danger. If they'd listen to him they'd have time to get out. A park ranger also tried to warn them. Despite the fact that the rapellers must have known about the latest weather, they dismissed the warnings with a 'we know what we're doing' . The photographer watched helplessly as a massive wall of mud and water hit them! (the water in the gorge scene in 'The Mummy Returns' comes to mind). The hikers had believed they had done their homework and had been assured much earlier that flooding was not expected in that area. The breakthrough there was unprecedented. It does show that with such freak rainfall one cannot be too careful when attempting such hikes.

Now for our observations of today. Late afternoon, the sky was clear, warm and quite windy. Birds busy feeding young.. We saw a whole family of the local Eurasian jays , Garrulus glandarius parents feeding a group of three slightly scruffy looking young, almost full grown and brattier than Jays are normally, if that could be possible. I like our local jays.. chunky birds a foot long, mainly salmon , black and white but with a gorgeous blue striped section of wing. I have a feather here.. each feather is striped white/blue /indigo/black up to twelve times along its length , on one side.

We saw the hobbies again, first one individual hunting flying over near its nest and later the pair heading up the north/west south east wing of the valley. Otherwise, Greenfinch song and repeated 'chee' calls, great tits feeding young, Collared dove males showing off with their display flights, flight calls and coos, Syrian woodpeckers calling occasionally but quite a bit of knocking and tapping at the pines for grubs, blackbirds and graceful warblers in song and the latter foraging busily in the low scrub and grasses. We can see where theyr'e up to by noticing where the grass suddenly bends unnaturally. Stone curlews vocal around the foot of the northern slopes.

A few adult hyraxes lounging and scampering on the valley road (this road is a simple paved access road to a pumping station along the length of the western slope of the valley, not lit at night) . Another creature that we often see strolling across and along this road has many more legs and generally disgusts everyone. It is a very common shiny black millipede. These are usually at least half a centimetre in diameter and often over 12 cm ( 5 in long) and are just about everywhere. They can invade gardens in plagues but at least they don't bite. I've seen the jays throw them around a bit but I don't think they would eat them as they're quite toxic and unpleasant. I don't pick them up and stroke them myself !