Left: Bill Junior , Right: Bob Junior (one each of 'em) (Black-eared wheatears Oenanthe hispanica melanoleuca)



Hyrax juniors

June 19th 5.30 p.m. 25.9 falling, 15.7 kt W and rising, humidity 53%

Gazelles- no show

Turtle doves: coos near look-out corner

Bee-eaters: At least half a dozen in the grove, flying for winged insects and perching.

Swifts.. Hubby saw common swifts yesterday over built up areas of neighbourhood so they're still here but not in our usual haunts.

Black-eared Wheatears: Watched Bob's territory by the saplings for at least quarter of an hour and only saw 'other Bob', the spring plumage male.. no sign of Bob's family

Bill's family however were thriving. I was using binos watching individuals, (Mrs Bill still feeds her young occasionally but they're pretty much self feeding now.. mainly hunting up anything small, dark and juicy that moves on or near the ground) They've almost lost their downy earlier plumage.. still some soft grey feathers on head and neck but wings and rest neatly plumaged now) Mrs Bill and junior Bills .. no sign of dad- could be he prefers to forage alone further out in the fields so as not to bring attention to his family, being so conspicuous)

Hubby was eyeballing and taking 'panoramic' counts of all wheatears visible at once.. he was sure he got at least half a dozen birds in view at once which I find amazing.. and would indicate pretty much 100% success for Bill's family unless more than one wheatear family was sharing the territory. All using area around the bunker ruins, south east end of gazelle field up to cistern, west portion of the grove, north west corner of the orchard and end of creek path by the orchard. Where did they nest? We'd noticed wheatear movement around the boulders at the far east end of the gazelle field but rocks near the bunker and at edge of the orchard are also candidates.. unless of course we're talking about more than one wheatear family sharing good pickings. .

Seems unlikely Mrs. Bob and her juniors came over and joined them, her territory is much farther up the creek trail several hundred metres to the south with woods between.. not usual wheatear territory though the trail does provide an artery of sorts.

Chukar partridges.. two families foraging under stand of trees immediately to south of the sapling field and near 'the loop' (see below), one larger, (10 plus chicks) one slightly smaller (6,7 chicks)- this is the third time we've seen two families of size that match this in this area and we can assume they are the same two families that seem to like to forage in fairly close association.. possible that two of the respective parents are siblings. They take wing and move as two separate groups but practically next to each other.

Stone curlews: calls from north of north valley/north gazelle field.

Sunbird, vocal, active Bauhinia in garden, range of calls, eucalyptus on creek trail where heard before and near the pumping station where valley road trails off into path and bridge over creek. That's a good corner for birds, most variety of small trees including acacias, eucalypts and others. Shrikes, bulbuls, great tits, blackbirds and other birds seem to favour that corner which I call the 'loop' because our route loops around from southward to northward at the creek path. The creek path continues southward (upstream) but we rarely go that way since the northward trail leads to the rich 'hunting grounds' of the gazelle field, cistern etcetera.

House sparrows, Collared doves, Graceful warblers, Syrian woodpeckers, Bulbuls, Great tits, Senegal doves:Hooded crows:Jays:Feral pigeons:Greenfinches:Blackbirds: activity as usual as of late. 5 collared doves around cistern

Hyraxes - we spent some time enjoying the sight of at least ten junior hyraxes foraging at the forest edge of the valley road. At least two adults were in attendance and occasionally youngsters would scamper across the road from the cypress slum side to join the little creche. A grizzled old grandpa of a hyrax was sitting out on a large boulder watching. The breeding adults tend to have short neat hair but when the hyraxes get older it starts to look shaggy like wool and the colour lightens to almost blonde.

June 20th Just about half an hour 5.30 ish-6 pm ish v tired today.. temps.. upper 20s C 39% SW 5.2kt clear skies

Can almost tell the temperature by the cicadas.. they were just starting to shut up as we approached the cistern.. it seems they start to shrill when the temperature approaches 30 degrees C and the temperature was just dropping below that as we arrived at look-out corner.

Hoopoe flew to cypress near the cistern and landed on the trunk (I wonder if there's a hole up there? A couple is regular in that area). Another one was seen in the pinewood by the central forest path to look-out corner.

We saw a great spotted cuckoo fly west across gazelle field.

Black- eared wheatears, at least 2 Bob jr near the cistern, ..2 Jays flew into the cistern and a bedgraggled hooded crow was preening himself in a desultory fashion on the ground in the field.. looked like he'd just had a bath. collared doves.