Sky quite quite clear today though a couple of days ago appeared overcast with a kind of light dusty mist. Some of that today and on and off over the past week or so.
Temp: range 17-26 degrees C. For our ~5 p.m. walk it was 22 degrees C and falling. (~71.5 degrees F) Humidity: 70% and rising, wind, west veering north west, ~ 6 kt. No rain yet.
We noticed 1 gazelle, (no horns) walking into the north valley woods from the field. Only one around though we scanned every likely place visible on our walk over an hour. I suspect the group retreated further west along north valley.
Blackbird alarm calls approaching dusk, after which the stone curlews voiced their beautiful mournful calls. Some hooded crows were about, Feral pigeon winging over the valley, a hobby heading up over north valley against the wind, a shrike, (probably masked) calling in the eucalyptus grove but by then light too dim to find it. Graceful warbler calls from the orchard area.
We're looking out for winter arrivals now, particularly white wagtail and European robin but none noticed yet. Any day now..
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Just a little background on my experience. I've been interested in birds since I was a kid and first noticed pied wagtails picking for bugs and flies in the school yard. My teacher then (Mr. James Fearick) was always very supportive and encouraged me to join the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, in particular the Young Ornithologists' Club- that started a lifelong interest in conservation and wildlife in general.
Most of my early birdwatching was in the U.K. of course, more in South Wales than in England. I was a volunteer reserve warden at the Ouse Washes, a great experience and enjoyed many great trips with Cardiff Ornithologists' Society. The members were fantastic and showed me my first Slavonian and Black necked grebes amongst other delights. In college I majored in zoology, doing my third year project on winter birds of a park in South Wales. No lab work for me, I was out spotted redwing and fieldfare over the winter months including blizzards and freezing temperatures. Loved it of course. I also did a few years of Common Bird Census work for the British Trust for Ornithology which mainly involved plotting birds' territories on maps of my favourite haunts, a stretch of the river Taff and surrounding habitat.
After college I moved to Israel, first volunteering on kibbutz where I spent as much spare time as possible learning the local birds. I was very fortunate to meet the elderly and saintly Mrs. Keti Levi, both my spiritual mentor there and my local guide since she knew the birds well. Over a year and a half I was finding my first short toed eagle, stone curlew, bluethroats and white breasted kingfisher amongst others. I'll never forget a saturday (Sabbath) afternoon listening to Keti expound on the Torah. I heard an interesting distant bird call which I knew but didn't want to interrupt her. An hour or so later she finished and then turned to me and said in Hebrew, 'did you hear the redshank?' We shared a smile over that. She was amazing, and a wonderful teacher.
Later in Jerusalem I finally discovered the Jerusalem Bird Observatory and learned much from them as they organize trips and have a ringing station on site where I observed many local birds in the hand as the people there. The wonderfully enthusiastic Amir Balaban and excellent teacher Gideon Perlman explained everything to us as they worked and Alen Kakal gave us walks around the site and the Wohl Rose gardens 'next door' teaching us about the local birds: the resident raven of that area (Linda) and other locals. She is a teacher who has shown and taught me and many others much to see about Jerusalem. A birdwatcher can find much on his own but there is a lot to be said for the old 'apprentice system' . With a good teacher one makes quantum leaps.
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