Eyn Geddi outing

Eyn Geddi, ~1p.m. -4 p.m. Here freshwater streams run out of the Judean desert toward the Dead Sea. Wonderful place, one of my favourites in the country for beauty and special wildlife. Impossible to do justice to this canyon oasis in one blog entry but I hope to give you a taste. Temperatures were about 100 degrees F, humidity high and since we had to be there in the heat of the afternoon we took it easy and kept cool, and of course, drank plenty.

We saw a number of Nubian Ibexes up the face of the canyon including a family picking its way down the south wall, mother and couple of kids grouped close making their way down south wall. We marvelled at how their hoofs could grip the treacherous sandstone trail. Some way back male, possibly the father, and then more males spaced pretty evenly about 30 m from each other. If one male paused the one behind it would wait till it moved on before it moved on. In this way they kept the distance pretty constant.

Plenty hyrax live in this wadi but we did not notice any on this visit. We noticed the old leopard warning signs were gone. This saddened me.. it seems any desert leopards must stay far from the trails we used.

Blackstarts Cercomela melamura, a small thrush like bird, was quite common as we approached Shulamit waterfall. They are not so afraid of people and flitted through the giant reeds, alighting on boulder tops just over the heads of passing hikers.

Lower parts of the wadi were less frequented by people since they lacked the attractive pools and here the birds were most active in wadi side trees, particularly Acacia and Moringa. There were plenty of our familiar yellow vented bulbuls and senegal doves, and of course, house sparrows but I was also happy to notice an Arabian babbler Turdoides squamiceps, and if there's one there are no doubt others around since they tend to live in small communities. No sign of the Little Green Bee-eaters special to the area though we kept constant lookout, no doubt the local flock/s were using a different area at that time. I also heard the loud harsh call of a kingfisher but sadly did not see it. I believe it was a Pied kingfisher, Ceryle rudis.

At the car park we noticed a lot of tufts of cotton like material flying on the breeze - I recognized them as the hairy seeds of the Sodom apple Calotropis procera a tree with a green fruit which look deceptively fleshy but when opened reveal empty space and seeds like dandelion. Why so much flying through in the air ? That mystery was soon solved. A turtle dove was sitting on top of one of the trees, intently and methodically pulling out the fluff. I found it interesting that these doves would find these seeds nutritious.. they are tiny and the dove must go through an awful lot of fluff to get enough nutrition from them.

The airspace over the wadi and upper canyon was clearly 'owned' by the fantailed ravens Corvus rhipidurus

They soared on updraughts and thermals in small groups and at one time in a loose flock of at least 60 individuals. Beautiful to watch. My son was delighted he found a primary feather. Most of the rest of the airspace through the canyon was dominated by Tristram's starlings, scores of them, coming and going and whistling about their business, and settling in cool underhangs along the sides of the cliffs. Many of these underhangs were dripping with moisture, mossy and decorated with maidenhair fern and the occasional rough stalactite.

The starlings will approach people quite closely and at the picnic area just outside the gates of the reserve the boys and I had fun luring the local birds to us with crumbs of our sandwiches. The house sparrows were most aggressive of course. These birds are quite bold here, sometimes alighting on people's laps to get food, or entering kitchens. A rock pigeon tried its best but had difficulty competing with the faster sparrows, and finally, as I had hoped and expected, a Tristram's starling joined the melee and managed to get some of the goodies. Rock pigeons here may not be entirely feral. They're the same species as town pigeons but rock doves are native have been nesting in the wild in the Judean hills back to prehistory. At any rate, now they are quite tame wherever man lives. Wild rock doves here have the same grey wings with black striping and iridescent neck as European rock doves but have grey rather than white rump.