Snapdragons and Mystery Crop ID

Above : Wild snapdragon Antirrhinum majus , by watercourse east edge gazelle field

The 'mystery crop' revealed: a purple variety of Jerusalem sage. (Phlomis )  both pics: A. Atwood CC
Temps today: 10.5-20.5 degrees C, still ~19.5 degrees when we headed out at 5.20 p.m. Humidity was just 36% , wind was westerly, ~12 kt. We left early

Today we headed north east along the dry watercourse, then skirting the first hill to the north round its east end near the fence, finally reaching the lower end of the hidden olive grove. There were about a dozen fig trees also not far from the fence, some of the fruits already turning purple. From there we climbed the next hill to its crest to get a really great view over the bipass road across to Adam, and beyond that, the desert hills and the Jordan rift valley just visible through the haze in the distance and 1100 m below.

Flower of the day was a small but glorious stand of snapdragon, Antirrhinum majus growing by the eastern watercourse in gazelle field. Usually wild flowers are smaller and daintier than the garden cultivars but these gorgeous purple pink blooms were considerably bigger, standing something over a foot tall.. we really have to measure them next time. They are native to the Galilean hills farther north and introduced by man in these hills some time back.

The other plant mystery was the ID of the field growing up the slope east from the olive grove, (clearly visible in the landscape shot two entries ago). Our visit today revealed flowers and showed that these are another Phlomis! They're not the same species as the bright yellow jobs we photographed by the north valley watercourse but have smaller, partly purple blooms. Why would a whole field be planted with this variety of Jerusalem sage? They don't have the same fragrance as regular sage but probably do have some local culinary value and are drought resistant. The only other theory we had is that the field was originally used for something else and these took over, except that I didn't find another wild Phlomis quite like it.. there is another purple one.. (P. pungens) but its flower is a deeper purple than these.

Birds today: A gorgeous adult masked shrike on the security fence where the watercourse turns north east and exits, a juvenile shrike farther along where there was also a beautiful male black eared wheatear in full song. A female wheatear up the slope on a boulder, no doubt near her nest. Others heard about.The tumbled rocks and shrubs up on top of the hill is prime (crested?) lark real estate and we noticed several in the area, one female flew on top of a line, alarm calling and scolding at us. Chukar partridge up on top of the hill by the wall, swallows about, as well as common swifts. Bee-eaters heard. Great tit in song.

In the woods, blackbirds, (song about sunset), graceful warbler, great spotted cuckoo, turtle dove (cooing softly about sunset), collared dove, plenty activity. Jackdaws and Hooded crows busy foraging on hillslopes hear and there. Eurasian jays about, stone curlews vocal towards dusk.

In the garden, plenty sunbird activity in the cape honeysuckle as well as the usual white spectacled bulbuls, crowd of house sparrows especially noisy in the dark before the dawn.

I can't believe I almost forgot! We had good sightings of several gazelle on those hillsides, saw very nice sproinging, as if they have springs in their hooves. Amazingly fleet footed on rough country where we could only move slowly. Five individuals, unless we saw one twice. At least one adult male but views towards sun made horns hard to make out. One east end of hills had tiny horns and one we saw in J sage field appeared to have no horns.

Back to the Bat Cave

The 'Bat cave' partly lit by the late afternoon sun. Pale Ballotia grows before the cave and Podonosma like eyebrows.

This maidenhair fern (Adantium capillus-veneris) was growing in the back of the cave, about 20 feet in at least. The back is lit by the camera flash. The cave mouth faces south, allowing enough sunlight to penetrate to the back for growth.

Range today: 10-just over 20 degrees C, Just over 15 degrees C when we headed out a short time after 6 p.m. Humidity was 69% and rising, winds WNW just over 18 kt.

Today I decided we should go back to the 'bat cave' to get photos of the maidenhair fern. We called it that because the first time I put my head in there a small bat flew around it a couple of times and then flew out- perhaps it had been hibernating in there, we haven't seen it since. It lies just to the east of the cypresses and pines on the north bank of north valley. There are many other little caves in the area, it being a limestone region. The largest one we know of is up near the top of 'Windsurfer Hill' . This one appears to have the beginning of a passage way in the back and possibly goes way back into the hill if some sediment and accumulated debris is removed. The mouth of the cave is ringed with Ballotia and the strange yellow rimmed, blue bells of Podonosma.

I wanted to check out an unfamiliar plant near the pumping station which is beginning to bud yellow blooms. (turned out they were still not out yet). On the way we kept a watch out for birds. We had a nice view of a great spotted cuckoo which called and flew from somewhere in the north valley into the new pine grove at the east end of the south bank of that valley, no doubt prospecting for crow's nests. Hooded crows were intent on guarding their nesting territories, including the air space above them and particularly from raptors. Several Buteo types were flying about quite low, some alighting on the taller trees from the eucalyptus grove and along the eastern slopes of the east valley, and causing quite a bit of upset amongst the raptors. We watched one of them take off somewhat heavily, the gusty westerlies were not so easy to fly across today, though once aloft they were able to ride them with more ease.

My favourite bird today was a masked shrike Lanius nubicus that we found in the Pistaccio orchard right by the path. Husband saw it first and I knew it was a shrike as soon as it called. When I had it in my binocular field we confirmed its ID. I've always liked this character, he looks like a little magpie with ginger trimmings and a bandit mask. Very handsome.

Other birds today included all the doves.. Feral pigeons and laughing doves around the buildings, plenty collared doves and turtle dove cooing in the eucalyptus by the orchard. Bee-eaters were heard, blackbirds were busy and vocal as were greenfinches, graceful warblers, white spectacled bulbuls, Eurasian Jays and jackdaws. Bulbuls and sunbirds active in the garden.. sunbirds especially about that cape honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis) and more alarm calls heard, probably a cat alert again. Swifts were heard over valley road as we returned home about sunset but no hyrax out today as far as we saw. Gazelles also not about, (btw some spoor found in the bed of secret valley while we were up there)

My boys went out this evening to watch the Independence Day fireworks and came back with ... a hedgehog! (cradled in his upturned teashirt) These are quite common though not so often seen because they trundle around after dark after slugs and worms. They're not worried about being quiet since their spines give very nice protection. I had the boys put him in the garden where I'm sure he'll find adequate food and our dog will not dare to bite him, and I could hear him just a minute ago foraging under the Bauhinia.

First Anniversary!

Landscape view from 'north ridge' looking south: The dark area is the east valley of Mir forest, our neighbourhood on the right (west). Part of the city of Jerusalem in the distance.

Wow, today is the first anniversary of this blog. How the year has flown! The year has come full circle. This time last year I was commenting about the heat opening the pine cones and a flock of bee-eaters over the garden.

Temps ranged from 11.5 -20 degrees C, about 17 degrees on our walk. Winds westerly, 9-12 kt and humidity betw. 60-70 %

Today some observations are similar, others different. We've noticed that the pine flowers have spent most of their pollen and new green growth has sprouted from the same sprigs apparently.

Other news in the pine woods is not so good. Another fire was started in east woods near the crossroads. The firetruck came and took action, also issuing smoke masks and beaters to a bunch of local youths that were eager to help, including our sons.. who came home stinking of charcoal yet again. I'm proud of them, though! Thanks to all their efforts the fire did not spread far. Sadly,they also found a scorched clutch of chukar partridge eggs that had been caught in fire, at least ten eggs. These birds are prolific, they'll no doubt lay another clutch elsewhere, hopefully safer. My son told me the police had taken a few suspects back to the station.
I also wonder about the fate of nests in trees above the smoking ground.. all the collared doves, great tits, blackbirds and others trying to breed.. would they abandon? Seems likely.

Still, turtle doves were cooing in their regular eucalyptus nest site by the orchard and collared doves quite active. Many Eurasian jays about, foraging and some calling. Stone curlews heard about sunset in surrounding fields, both east and north. Nice surprise, a Tristram's grackle whistle heard from somewhere along the Ramallah bipass road. Come to think of it, that road with its (probably) artificially cut 'cliff' in the hillside immediately east of it is like a wadi for them.. the road is like a dry watercourse, no surprise we've heard them along that stretch so many times.

What else? A group of bee-eaters heard and partially seen over the Pistaccio orchard, a raptor seen briefly flying south.. didn't get a good view of it. Larger than falcon or sparrowhawk.. smallish Buteo type. Jackdaws and Hooded crows active today. Syrian woodpeckers and graceful warblers heard as well as blackbirds and greenfinches in song.

White spectacled bulbuls, sunbirds, house sparrows, laughing doves active in the gardens as usual. At the moment plants in bloom include myrtle, bougainvillea as well as Bauhinia, common honeysuckle and morning glory.

Chukar partridge eggs that got caught in the fire. A. Atwood.

Pleasant day

Leaves of the delicate tree by the 'secret valley' , Acacia tortilis or similar. Some of the fire damage is visible behind. Most of the leaves have turned yellowish brown , these were some of the few we found still green.

Detail of a larger acacia growing by the dry watercourse of 'secret valley'

Range today: 15-26 degrees C. When we headed down to the valley, a little after 6.30 p.m., temp was just under 25 degrees C, nice and pleasant. Wind under 3 kt, westerly. Skeins of detached small fleecy clouds heading across the sky towards sunset.

A number of common swifts were catching flying insects over valley road, some flying very close to us and wheeling around like bats. As we headed down central trail we heard plenty activity: Eurasian jays foraging, some vocal, Syrian woodpeckers, collared doves. A shrill broken call of some raptor sounded a little to the north and we saw three falcons take flight, hobbies as far as we could tell. No doubt the breeding pair was having an interloper in the territory.

Another fire had been set under the pines in east valley, many square metres charred. A fire truck was there and some local boys were assisting, including two of our sons. (We have already instructed our boys about the necessity to avoid smoke inhalation.) Thankfully it was already well under control, just smoking in places. I should add these stupid fires happen every season and the next year there's barely a sign of them. There's a scorched patch near the cistern about three weeks old and already grass shoots are popping up through the charcoal even though growing season is pretty much over. Life will not be suppressed.

Greenfinches sang lustily in the pines over our heads as we stopped for a 'cistern watch' . We saw Turtle doves, collared doves and Eurasian jays visited for a drink and a hoopoe was seen up in a tall cypress just across the trail from the cistern. Turtle doves and collared doves were also heard cooing and blackbird song towards dusk. Stone curlew was heard and another one seen in flight over gazelle field. No gazelles today though. Bee-eaters were in flight over north valley quite high and calling, hard to tell how many at the distance they flew.

Feral pigeons, house sparrows, laughing doves, hooded crows active around as usual, Jackdaws were quite vocal today, heard from the house as well as white spectacled bulbul and sunbird- quite distracting when I'm at the P.C. and there's a gorgeous iridescent male sunbird barely four feet to my left, calling as if he wants me to look at him.

Fire and Phlomis

Phlomis: Jerusalem Sage. Akiva Atwood

Today temperature ranged from 14-23 degrees C. For much of the day winds were westerly, averaging 8 knots- but for a few hours in the morning they came from the east and dropped. By the time of our walk they were back westerlies, veering somewhat northerly, temp. ~21 degrees C, humidity 27%.

The garden was busy with white spectacled bulbuls and sunbirds.. this time I saw for myself that the sunbirds repeated 'toy squeak' coincided with the passage of a Garfield like cat.

Today local boys were scouring the woods for dead wood for the Lag Be'Omer bonfires. (In another three weeks or so) Those fires will be well tended and supervised but it was clear that some other boys have different ideas .. some mischievous youngsters, not from our immediate neighbourhood, have been setting fires at random here and there for the sheer fun of it, and though police and others have been trying to catch them, so far they have not prevented the burning of a number of patches of ground here and there, wood and hill. It is good that most of the growing season is over and most of the land remains undamaged , and these patches will themselves act as fire brakes for other fires later in the season. Still, the loss of any valuable grazing land is painful to see and it's hard to know how deep the damage goes. It is good that the land does recover from fire surprisingly well even though such wanton destruction is so saddening.

Our first discovery was a number of a newly blooming stands of gorgeous Jerusalem sage, Phlomis, close to the dry watercourse of north valley. The plants are about as tall as I am and the blooms as big as my thumb. Honeybees were visiting them and a number of clouded whites and brown satyrid butterflies were on the wing. We also had nice views of great spotted cuckoos calling to each other between eucalyptus and acacias along the watercourse, a low churring call back and forth, not as grating or shrill as other calls they use.

We headed up the hill on the other side of the valley to cross the low ridge and check out 'hidden valley' just beyond. On the way we passed the 'bat cave' .. a very small cave which at least one bat used/uses as a roost. At the back of the cave I found a patch of the only maidenhair fern (Adantium capillus-veneris or similar) I've noticed in Jerusalem. There's a lot of it at Eyn Geddi in the wadis to the south and I've also seen plenty in the upper tributaries of the Jordan (especially Nahal Dan) but this is the first time I've seen it growing here.. and fittingly, right at the back of a damp cave)

Plenty flowering Ballotia were growing right outside the cave so we took that photo-op, then went on our way. Up in the rocks we found a gorgeous purple thistle type quite unlike the milk thistle in form, (season mostly over for them) and heard quite a few musical notes from black eared wheatears calling in the boulders round about, now and again one would hop out on a rock and give us a view. I watched a nice female individual for a short while. They must do quite well here. Husband also noticed chukar partridge on the hillside and we saw and heard a group of at least 20 bee-eaters fly together over the hill like miniature Chinese kites.

The 'secret valley' enchanted me as it did before.. it was fun clambering up the dry watercourse and picturing the tumble of water on the rocks in the rainy season. Up here pretty much on top of the watershed we were in no danger of flash floods but generally walking up such courses is inadvisable! The rocks were stuffed with cushions of the familiar spiny aromatic labiate scrub that grows everywhere, its berries pretty much at their end now, as well as finished oats, Ballotia and more Phlomis, as well as many black millipedes. Finally we reached the place where a handsome acacia grows.. not saligna but some other I think, perhaps a native this time. This one looks like the acacias that grow down in Eyn Geddi. The ground all around there had been fired and was char for dozens of metres around. Just up the southern bank from that one was a mimosa ( Acacia tortilis) but most of its leaves had turned brown.. it was hard to know if they were simply spent or if the earlier fire had damaged them.

As saddening as the charring may be it is localized and each did not spread far.. and we were delighted to find the Jerusalem sage and maidenhair fern in particular.

A purple Centaurea type thistle up in the boulders on the north ridge

Temperature upswing, nice turn out today.

A beautifully coloured Scabiosa rhizantha (?) or similar A. Atwood.

Pleasant upswing in the temperatures today, perhaps partly to do with the warmer easterlies that blew much of the morning. Range:13-23 and up to about 19 degrees C when we went out for our walk. Humidity was down to 47%, winds westerly and about 8 knots. Sky clear

First birds I heard through my window this morning were house sparrows, very melodious white spectacled bulbul, very vocal sunbird, more distant hooded crow, laughing dove and then some greenfinch song, perhaps from the cypresses next door. I noticed when the bulbuls set into a repetitive grating call the sunbird did its repetitive 'toy' squeak at about the same time. Probably both alarm calls due to a cat where they were both breeding.

Heading down to the valley, husband noticed a ring necked parakeet fly into an Ailanthus at the north east tip of our lower neighbourhood, overlooking north valley. We both noticed two more parakeets down in the eucalyptus behind look-out corner. Hooded crows appeared to be nesting two trees over, I hope that didn't put off the pair of turtle doves which usually nest very close to there and we haven't heard them in the last few days. Collared doves were cooing and active as usual. A group of bee-eaters were heard and made a brief appearance over the eucalyptus trees, then dipped down out of view.. we only saw nine of them so we don't know the size of the group today. A hobby headed up east valley over the Pistaccio orchard.

We were delighted to see the local alpha male gazelle grazing over just beyond one of the smaller almond trees at the north end of gazelle field. He picked up his head and looked over at us, then returned to his grazing, unconcerned. We hadn't seen any of the gazelle for days so we were happy to see any again.

Stone curlew are very vocal and active all along the open margins just beyond the forest. We had a nice sighting of one flying across gazelle field as far as the pines, then wheeled around, crossed the field again behind the cistern pine and settled down somewhere over by the fence. We hear them almost every day but don't see them unless they fly because their camouflage is so perfect. The small gazelle can melt into the landscape very effectively. The curlew, a fraction of the size, is pretty much invisible on the ground especially when there's so much to look over, one's eyes would be tired out long before spotting one! Most of our sightings on the ground have been pure luck, and if they hadn't been moving to forage we still would not have seen them. When sitting on a nest they simply vanish. When they take wing however they're unmistakable, their long pale striped wings mark them.

Other birds noted active today were Syrian woodpeckers, graceful warblers, great tits, Eurasian jays and feral pigeons. Melodious calls from the field were probably black eared wheatears but we didn't get good sightings of them.

Rock hyrax were very active around sunset today.. looked like all of 'slum cypress' colony were out foraging on the bank and there was much chittering and barking. As we approach many lower down the bank scampered across the road towards their dens but others higher up the bank stayed and continued their activities there. We noticed a 'face off' on a boulder between two mature individuals just a few feet from where we stood. One barked a squeaky two note bark (long/ short) repeatedly in the other one's face till the silent one decided to turn aside and go another way. Possibly the hyrax version of 'None shall pass!' . The shaggy hyrax probably had a den just behind and below and didn't feel like sharing it with the other. Others made more elaborate barking calls on the bank, no doubt each bark means something - different contact calls and alarm barks.
Red dragonfly at the cistern. A.Atwood,a week or so ago

Blessing on Flowering fruit trees.

Pomegranate blossom. This photo by A. Atwood, was taken last season.

Weather: today's range: Just over 9 degrees C -just over 17 degrees C.
When we went out at about 6.20 p.m. it was about 14 degrees C again, ~ 67% humidity, wind W to NW, 6-9 kt, pretty much same conditions as yesterday. Skies clear.

Today I was determined to make the blessing on flowering fruit trees. It's a custom to do this in the Hebrew month of Nissan and to have in view at least two flowering trees while making the blessing. The two pomegranate trees by the cistern are both in gorgeous orange/red flower now so they were perfect. The pomegranate is also one of the seven species of Israel mentioned in the Bible as plants with which Israel is particularly blessed, and so has special status. (The others are wheat, barley, figs, grapes, olives and dates)

A rough English translation of the blessing:
'Blessed are You, our Lord, our God, sovereign of the world who denies His world nothing and has created good animals and good trees that mankind may enjoy'

This could easily misunderstood as selfishness re the world's resources but is really an expression of gratitude and celebration of life. Also, just as we may enjoy the world's wealth we are responsible to ensure its future in terms of preserving the biodiversity we have, minimizing and reversing pollution etcetera. This all necessarily follows from this gratitude and appreciation. It's also touching that my timing of this blessing coincides with the pagan celebration of May Day which is also an acknowledgment of bounty and fertility in this world. Thus two paradigms find commonality and discover we're not so different.

What else today? Approximately 40 common bee-eaters in flight, hawking for insects over gazelle field, their wings silvered in the light of the late afternoon sun. There were two groups which merged together.

Collared doves were also active, cooing and courting. Syrian woodpecker calls, jackdaw calls over in east field, hooded crows about as usual, Eurasian Jays active, some great tit calls, much greenfinch singing, 'chawing' and twittering in the pines, feral pigeons active, white spectacled bulbuls up before dawn calling musically in the Bauhinia tree and sunbirds active in the cape honeysuckle.
A beautiful spiny member of the pea family, blooming now on much of gazelle field. Likely one of the restharrows, Ononis spinosa or similar