A day for Agama Sunbathing May 29th

Agama Lizard, photo courtesy of Ruti Schueler

May 28th evening walk. Gecko on the valley road, busy ants working overtime after 10pm carrying seed heads, Stone curlew calls, crickets

Today: 5.25- just after 6 p.m. 33 degrees C and falling.. (91+ degrees F ) 20% humidity. Nice and hot!

Heading out along valley road.. Hoopoe flew over the road and out over the north valley. Someone below startled a covey of chukar partridges...they went chokking away deeper into the valley.. we caught a glimpse of 7 or 8 individuals gliding low between the pine trees, almost definitely more.

Orchard was buzzing and shrilling with cicadas, some Hobby calls but birds out of view. Looking out for more than two together to confirm successful breeding..

Very delighted to see a pair of Black-eared wheatears Oenanthe hispanica in the orchard!. We first noticed one individual hunting flies at the orchard end of the creek path. Joined mate at a pile of boulders at the edge of the old orchard. I was hoping they'd find another place to breed in the area that we'd find now the other breeding site was dug up and planted over. Unlikely the same pair of course, just glad to see them again.

Heard some harsh churring sounds over by the east side of the gazelle field where there are two enormous lone pines. The second one was quite busy with bird life.. jays, great tits, a pair of collared dove, a hooded crow.. and there sitting near the end of a low branch on the right facing me.. a Great spotted cuckoo! How obliging. When you notice a bird in a place twice in just a few days the chances are almost 100% you'll find it there again soon after, and that grating churr gave them away. From the direction of the churrs I was hearing there were certainly two in the area.. possibly more. That I'd dearly like to see . Their success would be doubly enjoyable since like some other cuckoos they are brood parasites and young are usually raised by the notorious hooded crows in most cases. Not that I have anything against the crows you understand ;))

Agama lizard Laudakia 'sunbathing' on the bunker ruins. I was hoping we'd find him there this hot day. I spoke a little about them in an earlier blog entry way back, last time we saw one in the same area.

Regulars: Turtle doves purring away, Collared doves, some cooing, flight calls and visible here and there. Senegal doves.. cooing and active all over. House sparrows, vocal and active all over. Great tits, foraging in many locations. Hooded crows.. vocal and active many locations.. one chasing a jay silently in the middle of the wood.. possibly the jay had some food it wanted. Eurasian jays, vocal, active and foraging many locations. Blackbirds singing several locations, Greenfinches in full twittering song.

Sunbird calls in the garden.