5th- 7th July

5th- 7th July

6-7 pm ish - W 10 kt, humidity 40-50% and rising temp 26 -25 deg C and falling

Gazelles - 7! 5 north gaz field spread across from pylon to eastern meadow, moms and well grown young, 2 , look like mom and well grown young again olive grove nr sec fence east field. Apparently all females and well grown young.. maybe one or two w small slender horns, hard to tell this distance.

Turtle doves: coos

Bee-eaters: approx half doz to and fro we to east and back over gaz field , some unusual vocalisations in pine grove, social calls, family groups?

Great spotted cuckoos, 1 or 2 nw corner gaz field by north valley trees, 1 foraging on ground then flying into trees other stayed n ground? hard to see

Hoopoes 3 edge of trees east field, three, 1 flew to branch from east, other joined it, 3rd landed between , crest rose, seemed made group uncomfortable to stay, all flew off into trees toward orchard

House sparrows: as usual, Senegal doves: some foraging, on lines, no coos; Hooded crows: foraging , 3 in group on valley road, over in 1s and 2s, field and around

Jackdaws: small flock just beyond fence , foot of hill to east, PA territory. Jays: quite vocal, all over, fields foraging, visit cistern

Feral pigeons: over singles, pairs small gps, buildings as usual; Greenfinches: seems thistle heads done, but busy in trees, chees and twittering as usual

Blackbirds: song esp from the one corner north valley nr valley road

Collared doves: coos, busy foraging on field over, around cistern

Stone curlews: chukars, great tits, bulbuls, graceful warblers no show today

Sunbirds: some calls from Bauhinia various times of day

Syrian woodpeckers: quite vocal here and there, working on eucalyptus trunk

Shabbat, 7th July - late afternoon.

Gazelles - no show

Turtle doves: cooing.

Bee-eaters: Hard to tell.. seems flock was dispersed and hunting over different parts of orchard, grove and field. Could have been whole flock.

Wheatears: juvenile foraging on ground other side of path from orchard, hopping up to twigs and then dropping back to ground to search some more .

Hoopoes: Seen around. Also several feathers found by the bunker that looked like a hoopoe, too many to have been moulted suddenly but no sign of a body nearby.. still does suggest one of the hoopoes may have become a casualty. Possibly a hobby, they sometimes go for hoopoes.

House sparrows: as usual, Senegal doves: some cooing; Hooded crows: activity as normal and ironically as I speak, at 5 a.m. in the morning I just heard a hooded crow call; Jackdaws: Heard to east beyond the fence as we've been hearing them past few days.

Jays: Very active foraging on the field, Feral pigeons: some seen in flight over the valley. Greenfinches: calls, twitters, some seen on other thistles more middle of gazelle field; Blackbirds: picnic corner individual foraging, some song from the individual in north valley down from valley road.

Chukars: none; Collared doves: active in valley, around cistern, in pomegranate trees, one went down into cistern, looked like the male of the pair. A pair arrived there, apparently intimidating a jay that was looking very wary.. I got the impression he was a rather young jay. He was plucking up the courage to hop down into the cistern but flew away when the collared dove pair arrived.

Stone curlews: Very vocal over the far end of the gazelle field but we didn't manage to catch sight of one.. as soon as they land they become pretty much invisible.

Sunbirds: Vocal in garden, a call also from the eucalyptus grove.. bird of the look out corner territory or another territory? Hard to tell unless we see a male fly between.

Graceful warblers, bulbuls, great tits : quiet. Some bulbul calls in garden area earlier.

Syrian woodpeckers: some calls, alarm calls.

It's 5.20 a.m. sunday morning and 'his sapphireness', our garden sunbird, has been calling right outside my window, for last five minutes quite stridently. Now the house sparrows have just started up.

Most puzzling bird earlier was a dark greyish bird which flew from valley road.. body that immediately reminded me of a falcon but flying more erratic, more like a swift, which suggsted nightjar.. however, colouring too smooth dark grey rather than camouflaged brown. I had an idea, showed husband.. European colour, right shape pretty much and husband thought right colouring.. I don't know if they fly like that though. For comparison I showed him the falcons. He thought the head had the orange of a red footed falcon female! He'd commented on that orange colour at the time but I didn't know what to make of it. Now that would be very cool but the least likely, they do pass through in appreciable numbers in migration season but this time of summer not likely. We put it on the shelf for now. We saw it very late afternoon. Was this the bird we saw on two other occasions in the same area.. but then after dark? Then I thought it was a nightjar. Could be a dark greyish colour morph?