Thurs-Sat Jan 3-5

Thurs 3 Jan:

House sparrows, Feral pigeons, white spectacled bulbuls, sunbird, hooded crows, jackdaws, sparrowhawk, blackbird, black redstarts, stonechats, great tits, graceful warbler. Husband also saw a Tristram's starling on top of a building by the main road in our neighbourhood. He mentioned he'd also heard one a few days ago, their clear whistle is hard to miss.

Fri 4th Jan: garden: House sparrows, White spectacled bulbuls, Senegal doves cooing, sunbirds quite vocal in the garden, great tits quite vocal, white wagtail along the street

Raining friday night and most of saturday morning. Late afternoon walk the sky was partly cloudy with cumulus, gloriously lit by the falling sun and birds were out and about to use the opportunity for forage.

Sat 5th Jan:

Range 5-11 degrees C. ~ 4 p.m. ~9 degrees C. Humidity: 75-80%, wind: west, 10 kt falling

Valley road was alive and hopping with great tits, white spectacled bulbuls, blackbirds, graceful warblers. Stonechats and black redstarts heard and hooded crows returning singly from forage in the north. Jackdaws heard. A pair of Eurasian jays lurking quietly in an acacia by valley road. A falcon of some kind flew across the valley to the west and a little later a hoopoe! First we've seen in a while. Hoopoes are resident in Israel but they must have been keeping a very low profile, I was wondering if there had been a local short distance migration so good to see that they're still about. This one was flying quite high over the valley westward to our neighbourhood, bill and awkward seeming wide wings quite obvious in flight.
Rock Hyrax active, foraging and on sentry duty and alarm shriek heard.