View of 'east field' on a sunny July day. Eucalyptus middleground left and you can just make out behind them back by the road the little grove of olives and almonds. Ahead is 'windsurfer hill' where the crows like to windsurf.. we need to get a shot of them doing that.

View of eucalyptuses, one of favourite haunts of Syrian woodpeckers (if you look carefully you can see one there) , behind, hills below Hizmeh dappled with limestone boulders and of course, thorny burnet.

For fans of Prince the jay.. here's another shot the boys took. Of course he doesn't like being handled, that's stressful for birds but the boys do that minimally. They're now working on building much bigger quarters for him.

Gazelle: No luck today. Hyrax: same.. though we passed colonies seemed they were all ''indoors"

Bee-eaters: Out in force today all over gazelle field and eucalyptus grove area and settling on the dirt path in small groups by the cistern, and also on the ground between the bunker rubble and the cistern. The rest of the time they were swooping low over the cistern area and gazelle field in general, now and again stopping to perch on the large almond or other convenient trees and shrub over the field. Hard to know how many about, so scattered, but scores.
Also heard from the house early morning today (by husband) and yesterday ( by myself) and also around sunset.

Hobbies: call in pines just north of central trail not long after sunset.

Turtle doves: Much cooing around bunker rubble area.

Pair of hoopoes foraging on the dirt road near the cistern, possibly a third seen earlier, or looped back and was 2nd.

Blackbirds: Some song in the pine woods.

Collared doves: some coos, flight calls, general activity

Eurasian Jays: some calls, various individuals about foraging around bunker rubble and woods in general

Feral pigeons: coos from buildings. I seldom take much notice of these since I never aim binoculars at buildings!

Graceful warblers: Calls from valley road and southern edges of gazelle field, and very vocal in bunker pines today.

Great tits: brief calls by valley road.

Greenfinches: Some twitters, chaws, alarm calls around look out corner, bunker pines.

Jackdaws: call heard from the house early afternoon, otherwise not noticed.

Hooded crows: flying about over valley

House sparrows:about buildings, also seen on bunker rubble rebars.

Laughing doves: heard around buildings, pair foraging in the street.. they are so used to people they often forage on road and sidewalk and let people walk within a few feet of them.

Stone curlews: Some calls heard in the fields.

Sunbirds: some calls heard mid afternoon in the Bauhinia, the tck tck call.

Syrian woodpeckers: some calls.

White spectacled Bulbuls: calls in the garden.

Today's range: 18-25+ degrees C (64.5 degrees F- 77 degrees F +)
Time of walk: ~7 p.m. ~21 degrees C ~70 degrees F )
Humidity: ~75%, wind: W/NW, 8-10 knots