Kingfisher

White Breasted Kingfisher (copyright Ruth Schueler)

Thursday:

Everything changes after a good rain. The air along the creek path was heavy with eucalyptus oil aroma, the earth was soft and sticky, the stream had already stopped flowing but had many little pools along its length and qualified as 'The damp creek' rather than 'the dry creek' . Redstarts called throughout the woods and small bands of finches roved the canopies though visible only in silhouette and flight.

From the house, Senegal doves could be heard cooing softly, bulbuls and sunbirds also quite vocal though latter not singing today.

Evidence of the force of last night's water was found where the stream intersects central path on the way to look-out corner. The scrap metal merchants had left a fridge, temporarily we hope, when they loaded up that abandonned vehicle. I assume there was not enough room on their truck for both. Some kids ( I assume) had shoved the fridge down the bank onto the stream bed and now it was lodged about 40 feet downstream! The current must have caught on the door and shoved it along last night. Now it's more accessible to the scrap metal guys again but if they don't come back for it soon it will be well on its way to Wadi Qelt! I couldn't help seeing the humour in it:

"this is the fridge's five year mission, to boldly go down to Jericho to cool the Jordan valley"

In addition, a huge bite of earth had been taken out of the side of the bank in one place. Perhaps kids hadn't pushed it down after all, perhaps the erosion had caused it to tumble down in the previous rain.

First thing we heard walking along the valley road toward the pumping station was a harsh repeating call that I first thought might be a ring necked parakeet until it flew up into clear view on a post. "What?!" It was a white breasted kingfisher! Halcyon smyrnensis and the first I've ever seen in the valley. I have seen them in other locations around Israel, a wild one was haunting the crocodile habitat at the Ramat Gan zoo, they were regulars on the kibbutz I lived at near Tel Aviv for a year and a half about 25 years ago, one of the first birds Keti Levi showed me. I have also seen them across Jerusalem perched in the trees by the little lake at the Wohl Rose Gardens near the Knesset. This is the first time I've ever seen one in our neighbourhood so I was very pleased. Frogs and toads are on the move because of the rains and these would attract these magnificent birds, almost a foot in length.

We admired him for a few minutes, each time taking high vantage points, very convenient for viewing, till he finally flew off out of view to the south.

No gazelle today but we did their find hoof marks in the softened ground on the path right by the orchard.

We also heard blackbird, graceful warbler, Syrian woodpecker.