Contentment in Solitude

A burnet moth on a milk thistle bloom. Though this pic was taken last year, there are a lot of burnets active and mating now and the milk thistles are blooming- mostly purple but almost every stand has at least one perfectly white bloom.


Today my husband was with my youngest son on a school gaming tournament trip, playing the regionals so I was alone for our walk, which is fine by me once in a while. I enjoy the quiet solitude, doing things my own way. I love to just take a seat on the dry stone wall under the pines, near look-out corner and simply wait and listen for things to happen. I also like to linger past sunset and walk through the forest in the near dark, watching for owls and bats and simply absorbing the essence of the air. Husband loves to forge ahead.. which is one way we make discoveries, but sometimes the discoveries come to you.. there's not always a rush to meet them.
The sky was totally clear and the air cool/mild and pleasant, about 18 degrees C and falling, humidity was about 30% but rising rapidly. Winds westerly, about 12 kt.

I noticed the hawthorn Crataegus trees were now in white bloom across the fields.. we must get pictures of those soon. Almonds in full leaf, the acacias almost glowing bright yellow with pompoms. There was a gecko in the bunker ruins, I heard his 'tek tek' call.

Some hooded crows came over to the cistern for a drink and bee-eaters hawked for flying insects over the eucalyptus grove immediately east of me. I heard plenty coos and flight calls of collared doves, calls of Eurasian jays in the pines, the song of a blackbird. I scanned the fields and hillslopes repeatedly for gazelle but none seemed to be about. Stone curlew called from the distance and greenfinches twittered not far off in the pines. A Syrian woodpecker called behind me somewhere. At about sunset a black eared wheatear sang a few melodious notes beyond the cistern. An excited chatter in the Eucalyptus trees alerted me ... sounded like an upset sparrowhawk. The hobbies are due back from Africa soon, and I can't help wondering how that will affect the sparrowhawk's activities. Last summer he seemed to keep a very low profile while the hobbies ruled the area.. perhaps he'd moved off temporarily. Their calls are very similar, though the hobby's sounds a little higher and sharper. While looking for the sparrowhawk I also checked the east field and the stand of (about 25) olive trees over there for gazelle but no sign.

Even though I didn't see much I heard plenty and sensed a great deal.. enough to utterly fill me with contentment at the beauty and peace of the area, and I took my time returning home under the pines and the first stars.

At the house I'd heard a sunbird in the garden much of the day, calling in the Bauhinia, and house sparrows and laughing doves were vocal. Jackdaws also heard.

The hidden olive glade

wild gladeolus. A. Atwood CC

Today husband wanted to hike north to check out a mysterious field we could see on the hillside just down from A Ram. We figured it would take us two hours to get out there, have a good look round and get back by dark so we took a bottle of water and headed off about 5 p.m.

The sky was totally clear, weather pleasant ~18 degrees C, winds light, shifting to and fro much of the afternoon, humidity also low, between 30-40% which helped visibility a lot.

We crossed north valley, headed straight up the opposite bank to the first crest and headed toward the little secret valley. There we found a very nice stand of more mature 'bear's breeches' (Acanthus) already putting out the white florets. We also surprised a patched white bitch feral dog, which evidently had a den somewhere in the gully. She burst out of cover, climbed the opposite bank, turned and barked back at us. Her mate, a dhole coloured dog watched us silently from higher up the slope. She was clearly nursing and we didn't want to disturb her pups so we circled around that part of the gully, crossed and made our way up the slope to to the summit. Immediately to the north west was the wall between us and A Ram. Ahead and slightly below was the field that was the object of our quest. We decided to circle to the north and east to get the highest vantage point, and to see what was beyond, between our position and Adam, and then descend to the field.

On our way we surprised the bachelor herd of gazelle and this time counted 8 individuals, three of them headed down and across the field, the rest stayed on highest ground, one group heading off north east. Only the most impressive individual stayed his ground and stared back at us. He was more magnificent than the male that has been seen around the females lately.. perhaps this one is too old to breed? A veritable grandfather of a gazelle, beautifully marked and horned. After regarding us for a while he headed off away.

Up there we finally had lark sightings, looked like crested lark Galerida cristata conveniently perched on top of a boulder at the summit, as well as numerous sightings and calls of black eared wheatears. We heard song of both wheatears and larks as well as a few bee-eaters.

Up at the top was a rough amphitheatre like bay of limestone, tiered white rock with much scrub, garigue type vegetation, all stepping down from the summit. We found and photographed a very nice Gundelia... a thistle like relative of the sunflower with a head a spiky ball of yellow florets, as well as a few arum types that I was quite surprised to find so out in the open.

To the north east we had an awesome view of the rumpled tawny desert hills between Jerusalem and Jericho, and our own valley system continuing down into it. Already by the fourth bend the rock walls were rising significantly each side. This was the beginning of the canyon of Wadi Qelt. Due to the relative clarity of the air we could see the dramatic backdrop of the Jordanian escarpment miles off to the east, unfortunately one of those vistas best visited personally as our photographs would not do the whole panorama justice.

Turning south it was time to head down towards the mysterious field and try to figure out what was grown there. We were none the wiser.. the crop was obvious, dense ranks of an unfamiliar dicotyledonous plant, leaves paired and opposite, leaves much longer than wide, and smooth edged. We took pics to send our botanical acquaintances. Growing in the midst of them we found a gorgeous wild gladeolus.

Just down from the field was a glade, totally hidden from view from gazelle north field because of the hill between. In this glade were upwards of 100 olive trees we had not known existed! It amazes me how much we had to discover just within an hours walk of our home.

From the lowest (eastern) end of the olive glade we merely had to walk round the eastern end of the hill cross country to get back to the north east corner of 'gazelle field' . Along this stretch we surprised several small game bird types.. consulting the guide book husband believes they were quail, Coturnix coturnix which is a possibility.. they are common passage migrants and would occasionally breed in such habitat. My first impression was snipe but they were darn fast and we didn't see the long bill. A pair in the glade itself between the mystery field and the olives, and another one ascending the hill. The olives were also the haunt of collared doves, and we saw a pair of sparrowhawks passing over low. We also heard and glimpsed stone curlews at the east end.

White storks

I found this nice aerial shot in creative commons, taken by Raffa over Ethiopia.

8 -15 degrees C today, Time we were out, humidity ~70% and rising, winds westerly and about 9 kt
Sky mostly clear, some cumulus coming in towards dusk.

White storks about an hour or so before sunset. Amazing good fortune and very happy since I thought we'd missed our chance this season, I'd noticed flock of feral pigeons coming over north ridge flying south, was following them with binoculars when they flew right in front of a stork flock, what a sweet stroke of luck, you can imagine my eyes widening! They were just over/beyond north ridge, I'd probably have missed them with the naked eye, it was so far and high but birds clear in binoculars, black and strong white, crisscrossing.
We both took turns looking. Due to distance and the way they crisscrossed it was hard to estimate numbers but between 100 and 150 birds. I was surprised to see them apparently using a thermal so late in the day but no doubt they just had time, and were in perfect position, to glide into a roost somewhere in the Jordan valley for the night.

Adult buck gazelle just beyond dry stone wall in east field, just a little south of the olive grove. I'd already scanned north field and hillside a few times but found none.

Passed by the hyrax colonies but none out today

Group of bee-eaters, heard periodically on our walk (as yesterday), didn't see more than 6 or so together

White spectacled bulbul, a number of locations on our walk

Collared dove, coos, some flight calls, plenty activity

Eurasian sparrowhawk - (Cap'n Jack) approaching sunset, over valley road heading south heading toward neighbourhood centre.

Chukar partridges, chuckling up on the hillside to east near the pumping station

Blackbirds, song about an hour before sunset

Great tits, activity near where the stream bed approaches the security fence, I'd have thought the scrub a touch low for them but apparently enough cover for possible breeding there soon.

Black eared wheatear, male, hunting same area as above, and some melodious calls.

Lark song, somewhere up on the northern hillside, couldn't actually see it. Crested larks Galerida cristata common in Israel (I've seen them many times) but could be one of the others.

Greenfinches, 'chaw' calls and twitters about sunset

Hooded crows, activity and calls

Eurasian jays, activity

Syrian woodpeckers, activity and some calls

Graceful warbler, calls, Swift calls about sunset

Laughing dove and house sparrows in the garden, cooing and noisemaking respectively, as usual, many sunbird and white spectacled bulbul calls esp as it started to grow dark.

Bear's Breeches and Martins

'Bear's Breeches' (A.Atwood. CC)

Temp range today, ~8-16 degrees C, at about 6 p.m. (start of walk) just under 12 degrees, cool WNW breeze blowing nearly 16 kt and 75% humidity. (though wind blowing from SW earlier in the day)

Bird of the Day is a hirundine, a group of at least a dozen martins, relatives of swallows, moving together as a group and hunting flying insects over east valley. Due to their height and the lighting it was hard to see which they were, and of course I was kicking myself that I didn't get more detail on them. Contrast was not high enough for a house martin, though underparts clearly very pale to white, upper parts much darker and I didn't make out a chest band (which would make it sand martin), but could not be certain with the slight silhouette effect, lighting and distance. Hopefully we'll see them again, not the first time I've seen martins in the area. One of the Ptonoprogne martins is a possibility, such as P. fuligula.

Plant of the day, spotted by husband in the saplings field, was a cool, fearsome looking purple spike of curious blooms surrounded by a wide rosette of large spiny thistle like leaves. Looking it up it seems to be Acanthus syriacus, (or similar) also known as 'Bear's breeches'

At the orchard we spotted some interesting catkin type growths and tiny (developing?_ fruits on a couple of the larger trees at the side which we photographed for further I.D. There was also a heavy infestation of galls on many of the leaves. (galls are often caused by tiny wasps that trick the tree into producing small nutritious growths for their larvae) One of my readers, (Honeybee) as well as one of our neighbours, a professional gardener, thinks these trees may be a kind of pistaccio.

We also saw a couple of swifts up with the martins, heard white spectacled bulbuls, laughing doves and sunbird in the garden. Hooded crows and jays around as usual. Around the orchard saw and heard Syrian woodpecker. Greenfinches also about twittering though collared doves quieter today. We're also listening out for turtle doves that should be returning soon, though none heard yet. Enthusiastic graceful warbler calling and some blackbird song.

Captain Jack, Wattle trees and a lost spider

A kind of mallow.. (Alcea?) the blooms are flush the the ground and the leaves splay out and up from the centre.


Wattle tree 'pompoms' by the western edge of gazelle field. The pompoms were much denser on the tree by valley road but I like the cascade perspective effect on this one.

Winds westerly, wnwesterly bringing in patchy cumulus. At midday a brief shower with thunder, lightning and some hail.

In the garden most of the day plenty house sparrow chatter, I'm sure they're setting up a nest very close to my window. A sunbird was calling in the Bauhinia much of the day, played hide and seek with me amongst the leaves but did get glimpses, nice male. White spectacled bulbuls calling around dusk and Senegal doves cooing much of the day.

Our clocks have changed now, sunset just after 7 p.m. our walk now leaves at about 6 p.m. At that time temp. was 15.7 degrees C (just over 60 degrees F), humidity ~75%, wind~ 16 kt

We got some nice shots of wattle trees, (an acacia) of the two growing at the west side of gazelle field and the gorgeous dense tree by the corner of valley road. On our short cut down to valley road we also took some nice pics of purple milk thistle flowers a handsome mallow plant and a campion like deep purple flower very similar to but darker than the British Ragged robin, Lychnis. Looking at the sepals it actually looks like a composite but with relatively few petals, like a very small cornflower type bloom. Two of these struck our interest for different reasons, one, because it appeared to have not one but two stigmata and the other, because it had a small brilliant yellow crab spider on the underside of the bloom. It was amusing because there was a yellow composite not far away and it seemed if the spider wanted camouflage it had wondered onto the wrong flower!

Gazelles: adult male grazing not far from a female part way up the hill slope to the north of gazelle field.

Bee-eaters: 'dainty dozen' hunting pretty much as yesterday, same area, assumed same birds.

'Captain Jack' (Eurasian) Sparrowhawk, two nice sightings, swept in from hunting over the north ridge somewhere at about 10 minutes before sunset, returning towards east valley at a nice glide. As we returned that way we saw 'him' airborne again for a brief sweep over the south end of gazelle field.

Just after that time betw 20-30 hooded crows were also returning from northern forage to roost, seemed that the dispersed breeding pairs were calling to them, exchanging 'news' , lots of cawings and 'grrokings' around sunset. Graceful warblers, swifts calling about sunset

More calls and twitters of greenfinches, much jay activity and calls, calls of Syrian woodpeckers, alarm calls and some blackbird song about dusk in various parts of the pinewoods, coos and calls of collared doves most of the time we were there.

Return of the Bee-eaters

The beautiful bee-eater, courtesy of Ruthie Schueler. The Jerusalem Bird Observatory rings such birds, weighs and measures them, guaging state of health, and releases them back to the wild.

Pleasant spring day, altocumulus coming in late afternoon. Early afternoon winds veered from southerlies to westerly, 6-12 kt.

In the garden this morning, laughing doves, white spectacled bulbuls, sunbird.
Also, early, about 6 a.m. a distinct 'oop oop oop' that persisted some time, typical of a hoopoe, sounded very close, our garden, next door's garden or on the building itself. Soundly vaguely doving or owlish.

Highlight of the day was the appearance of a group of European bee-eaters, Merops apiaster first of the season! We heard their pleasant contact calls before we saw them as we approached from the south along the stream trail. There were 12 hunting as a group the whole time we were down there. They shifted around from over the eucalyptus grove, the orchard, part of lower gazelle field, look-out corner. Though they constantly changed positions within the group they moved as a group, no bird straying more than a few dozen feet from the others at most.

I found three gazelle grazing in a grassy spot on the hillside way north of us, in line with the top of the pylons. There were probably more in the vicinity that I was unable to see due to the distance and the camouflage effect. Couldn't even be sure if it had horns.

Other birds around, Hooded crows, Eurasian jays, Syrian woodpeckers, greenfinches, collared doves, latter cooing and flight calling. Blackbird calls and some song about sunset, on a small tree just above the drain outlet by the north section of valley road.
Chukar partridges heard down in north valley.

Acacias in glorious flower, thickly covered rows of little yellow 'pompoms'

Hidden valley and the bachelor herd

Small wild Iris, the bloom is barely 5,6 cm across

Today for a change we decided to strike out north for the ridge beyond the north valley to see what we could find. Naturally as often happens when walking up hills there's another ridge beyond the ridge that wasn't visible before. We still had plenty light so we pushed on by lichen patched limestone, aromatic scrub, mole rat mounds and a large variety of vegetation, much of it with tiny spines and prickles that worked their way into my shoes, not exactly a new experience. Always best to stick to goat trails or flat limestone when possible. Still, on the way we came upon a few pairs of chukar partridges amongst the rocks as well as (later)a nice pair of hoopoe flying back toward north valley.

Then we made three very nice discoveries pretty much at once. The first was a small group of gazelle, 5 females and immatures followed by a grown adult male heading in the general direction of gazelle valley. (later it seemed they looped around to the north west as we saw an almost identical group heading up that way and running. Husband believes it was the same group but since we lost sight of them for a stretch we can't be 100% sure. )

The second, slightly more glorious in a sense, was a hidden valley I had no idea existed, a whole mini canyon/wadi system between the north ridge and the security wall. I'd plainly underestimated how much land there was up here and was delighted. A lark was singing somewhere but we couldn't find it in the expansive landscape. We also kept our eyes open for stone curlew's nests because I didn't want to step on the eggs.. and also of course, because I wanted to photograph one! We also kept a look-out for venomous snakes. Carpet and common vipers and similar reptiles are very possible up there, and very camouflaged on those rocks.
The known potential for wildlife habitat (in our records) rose by a quantum leap by the discovery of that valley since such systems are lush with vegetation and breeding possibilities. It was so beautiful! The photographs we took really did not do justice to its charms as well as the fact that light was beginning to fade and we had to get back to the central trail at least before dark set in but I just drank in the wild tumbled green landscape and tried to picture how enchanting the course would look right after rain.

The third and most glorious discovery was a bachelor herd.. finally! Way up on the highest ridge to the north right up by the security wall in that direction was a group of at least five (visible) gazelle, ALL males! Two had fully grown horns, the others well grown. Two of the medium sized horns were head butting and definitely a more serious contest than those we saw recently between the immature males with the tiny pointy horns. Still, these were still practice matches, not an earnest 'win the harem' match you'd see between the largest bucks. That apparently had already been settled because we'd just seen the winner down with the females heading west.
Over all our observations we now have confirmed at least 15 individuals comprising 9 females and immatures, 6 males, and there are probably more females and immatures in the area that we couldn't determine as separate without colour marking or ear tagging them in some way.

Another discovery on the north facing slope of north valley was a beautiful miniature iris, first I've noticed this season. Cyclamen are pretty much finished already as are most asphodel.

Today we also noticed sunbirds, white spectacled bulbuls, laughing doves and house sparrows around the buildings, Jackdaws, Hooded crows, jays round and about. Great tits, blackbirds in the woods. Brief burst of song in north valley sounded like a blackcap Sylvia atricapilla but we didn't hear it again and didn't find it.

Yesterday we also noticed swifts, syrian woodpeckers, greenfinches (including male in full song by the bunker), as well as a very nice mallow, and a gorgeous iridescent green beetle with bronze highlights on a thistle head. (now blooming everywhere, milk thistle and others, purple and white) Nearest I can find in my insect ref book is Potosia cuprea , one of the Scarab beetles,

We also noticed quite a few mating burnet moths, bright scarlet with black markings.