Down in the Valley

May 6-2007

The valley was so hot today! I checked our local weather station on the net.. 34.6 Celsius, felt like the world was baking. 3 p.m. in the valley close to our home in north Jerusalem. We sat in the shade of the Aleppo pines and debated whether to come back before dusk when birds and other wildlife would be up from their siesta when we heard the most remarkable sound, as if the trees were full of squirrels except for the fact that there weren't any squirrels. Husband noticed that the pine cones were moving slightly. We were actually hearing the sound of hundreds of pine cones cracking open in the heat! We know that the cones open and bare their seeds eventually but only today we realised that this can be a mass dramatic event. Well, dramatic for a plant;)

The hills here are limestone.. the white stones are the most visible in the bed of the stream at the very bottom of the valley.. a stream which only runs for a day or so after each good winter rainfall and will probably not run at all now till October or November. The stream would eventually run down to Wadi Qelt, make its winding way down toward Jericho and the Jordan rift valley.

The valley here is well planted with Eucalyptus, Acacia and Pine and supports a small herd of mountain *gazelle*.. we've seen at most ten at one time running along the hillside. We also frequently see *red foxes*. My 11 year old son found a porcupine den though we haven't seen the porcupines here yet we've found lots of shed quills, long and black striped with white. We leave vegetable peelings for them near their den. Other mammals include several colonies of *rock hyrax* and *hedgehogs* which I'm sure we'll meet in future walks.

I'll talk more about the birds and reptiles in the next post, I don't want to reveal everything at once ;)

Sweet! It's 5.45 p.m. and husband just called me to the garden where he's preparing a barbecue.. a group of some 20 or so bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) were flying over at a leisurely pace, voicing their warbling calls and no doubt feeding. They're colourful summer visitors, wintering in Africa and so graceful and elegant, reminiscent of large swallows. They hunt insects in the air with their long bills and excellent vision. I have seen them hundreds of times but I still enjoy the sight and sound of them.