Wet May Day

Sunbird Nectarinia Osea (photographed in Nahal Amud)
copyright Dan Roberson, used with permission

May 12
Wet May day



The freaky weather continues.. rain most of the day, sometimes almost as heavy as hail. Jackdaws, sparrows and doves still active and a couple of noisy sunbirds vocal in the cape honeysuckle which shades the approach to our front door.

Late afternoon right after the rain eased off we walked down into the valley and the stream bed was frothing with water, a tributary tumbling down the hillside to join it. Bird life quickly became more active. On the hillslope by the valley road a colony of hyraxes was out and about and active, the older individuals with shaggy almost blonde fur, kits of various sizes with deeper chocolate brown velvety fur, so cute, almost like miniature teddy bears. They love the cypresses and were all licking and nibbling at the branches with cones and communicating with a variety of barks, chirps and squeaks. The kits made very high pitched 'tzveet' calls, almost like birds.

Down by the ruined bunker we heard a hobby call, collared doves, jackdaws and hoodies were all bedraggled by the rain and turtle doves were silent. Great tits, Blackbirds and Syrian woodpeckers were active though and one rather silly senegal dove sitting out on a line in the midst of the heaviest rain. he must have been in some kind of denial.

I wanted to check out a couple of the trees at the edge of the field.. I'd spotted some orange blossoms on them, and as I'd suspected they were pomegranate trees.. good trees to check for birdlife when their fruits are fully ripe, and the sunbirds would probably like the flowers for nectar.

Then we saw a stone curlew fly toward us, low all down the east side of the field, I had him in view the whole time in the field glasses, which was nice. We don't often see them as they are so camouflaged and usually active at night. We tend to hear them after dark but several were quite active and vocal late afternoon. This one looked pretty bedraggeld from the rain too.. he headed toward the far end of the orchard and disappeared from view. No gazelles today, all under the trees no doubt.

On the way back under the pines by the road we spotted one of the most peculiar birds of the region, a hoopoe. Orange/salmon bodies, zebra striped wings and heads like pickaxes.. the bill is long and decurved and the crest heads off in the exact opposite direction.. hence the pickaxe look. Quite amusing, especially when they walk along the ground like chickens, probing the earth for insects and larvae.