Blackbird fuss and other stuff

Late friday afternoon three gazelle grazing under the trees by the dry stone walls in the middle of 'gazelle field', one full grown, the other two smaller. Today we just saw the one adult but it's possible that this time, as well as other times we've just seen the female, the younger ones could be in the dip caused by the course of the dry creek or in some other sheltered place out of view. We watched for a while but saw no others. No sign of the small herd and/or buck lately.

Blackbirds (Turdus merula) have been so much more vocal lately. Today at dusk we heard birds from many territories make their 'chack-chack-chack' alarm call plus one thin 'seeet' and quite a few glimpsed moving around in and between the low pine canopy. It seems their voices have returned only in the last week after a summer (moulting) lull. I'm sure some part of the vocal fuss today was caused by the group of hobbies in the neighbourhood, though they're known to make these calls before settling down to roost as a matter of habit.

Four hobbies around at least, two flying up over windsurfer hill, the hooded crows won't harass them too closely and don't have a hope of catching up with them if they tried. Later the group were hunting over the middle of east valley, one alighted on top of an electric post for a while giving us a really nice view of his black 'flying ace' hood. A collared dove flew up to land nearby, noticed the hobby and abruptly changed its mind and flew down.

Shortly before this we heard a brief shrieking cry and noticed a Eurasian sparrowhawk emerge from the pines up the slope east of the creek path, flying swiftly south and pursued by a couple of hooded crows. The crows followed but were careful not to get too close.

By 6 p.m. it was already dark, the harvest moon was not up yet but Jupiter was again clear in the south. Stone curlews called from over beyond the orchard in east field.

We also heard Great tit and hyrax alarm calls but nothing from shrikes or graceful warblers today. Eurasian Jays active and vocal as usual, some Syrian woodpecker calls and Jackdaw calls coming from windsurfer hill. As the light faded some greenfinches flitted about in the branches of the dense large pines by the bunker ruins but were silent. Several collared doves broke out and headed over to the eucalyptus or pine grove.

Sunbird family busy in the cape honeysuckle and twice in an hour this afternoon, and not the first times, a black kitten with infected eyes fell out and landed in our entranceway. We put her back with her mom in next door's garden again and mean to speak to the neighbours asap about treating that infection. ( They don't officially 'belong' to the neighbours, they're feral cats but those neighbours feed and encourage them.) We've found warm chamomile tea good to remove the gunk and have used tarocidin to good effect in the past. Melodious calls of yellow vented bulbuls in the garden as usual. Bulbuls also calling and seen in the orchard on our walk.

Feral pigeons and House sparrows about as usual. Saturnid butterfly in the garden and plenty wasps. (yellowjackets) This is the season for the latter. I've also noticed a rise in mosquitoes lately.