Flycatcher, buzzard plus

Spotted Flycatcher- Muscicapa striata

Tuesday: 5-6 p.m. Gazelle seen in the far end of the orchard running south to shelter of trees. Full grown but without horns. Last night at about 10 p.m. husband spotted one retreating into the shadow of the pines just down from valley road.

We also noticed a small bat darting to and fro around a tall street lamp by our street. I'm sure they have been there to see much of the summer, we don't always look for them. There are about thirty species of insect eating bat in Israel, most can only be told from each other in the hand. (There's also the Egyptian fruit bat but not in our neighbourhood. I saw them on a kibbutz not far from Tel Aviv years ago as they roosted in the trees outside our lodgings )

Hyrax activity was up today around 'cypress slum' , plenty adults and quite well grown young around crossing the road to the pines, one sentinel gave a shrill call as we walked by. This may actually have been a cat alert as we soon saw a nice black cat in the middle of 'cypress slum'. He was not hunting hyrax but was fascinated by the small grey job hunting from a near horizontal cypress branch.. a bird I haven't seen in ages.

Husband spotted it first of course.. he can see a hobby at a distance of a kilometre.. which he did a few minutes later, but first we delighted in this small grey job's hunting technique. It was a spotted flycatcher, Muscicapa striata though to my eyes a little less striated than spotted flycatchers I've seen in the past and with a slightly darker crown.. (husband noticed very pale underwing as it alighted) still the jizz was his and we enjoyed watching him take off from the branch, flutter around artfully grabbing insects in the air and returning to his perch, totally oblivious of 'Sylvester' gazing up at him about three feet below. This bird was probably on passage migration.

After admiring a hobby swooping and gliding over the south part of east valley we noticed a flock of hooded crows rise from windsurfer hill. A couple of people up there had clearly spooked them and at least sixty crows were soon milling in the air over the hill. The hobby wheeled around to fly a pass over the hill as if to investigate the disturbance.

Up the dry creek path we noticed a group of about half a dozen Eurasian jays fly noisily over the path - something had upset them and we soon saw what. A large raptor with magnificent long and broad wings was canopy hopping just up the hill. Probably another honey buzzard looking for a good place to roost.

At look-out corner we heard, as yesterday evening (which I didn't record separately) , at least four shrikes calling from the pines by the bunker, the eucalyptus grove, the orchard and some other pines near behind look-out corner. Probably Lanius nubicus again but with the fading light and their choice of perches we didn't manage to see even one of them. Again we heard a blackbird call its pre roost alarm under the pines and some Syrian woodpeckers were vocal. The greenfinches were not seen or heard, I wonder if they are checking out some other location for food? Collared doves were about but quiet but for wing clatter when they moved from tree to tree.