Loud hobbies, caves

Yellow low broom like plant STILL blooming by valley road.. I'm beginning to wonder if it's season ends.. I don't remember! The spiny and spanish broom have a much shorter season.

Groundsel like composite also blooming by valley road. Blue tuft and yellow thistles still going strong.

Sunday:

The boys wanted to explore a pit in the rocks, in the hillside between the villas of Pisgat Zeev and the east valley dirt road, south of the pumping station. They brought with them good rope and flashlights.. the rope they tied around the trunk of a nearby pine and let themselves down inside. They took a number of pics and a video. I don't have the pics yet but will post any of natural interest later. Part of the inside had been excavated and there was a side passage that had caved in .. the boys wisely decided not to push their luck in that direction.

Hobbies noisy and active today just south of the pumping station.. one in the top of a tall thin cypress across the watercourse just west from us calling loud and repeatedly giving great views to Avremi who was with us.

Eurasian jays about, as were Syrian woodpeckers and stone curlews heard calling not long after sunset, somewhere off north east. Blackbird alarm calls around roosting time, husband glimpsed what sounded from his description like a long eared owl, over the dirt road near the bridge. (masked?) Shrike heard from direction of watercourse about sunset. Collared dove flight call heard.

Street: laughing dove coos in the garden, sunbird squeaks, white spectacled bulbul calls including some melodious calls shortly after 6 a.m. Hooded crows and jackdaws heard, feral pigeons about the houses, house sparrows chirping in the gardens.

Weather: 18-25 (+) degrees C (64.4-77 degrees C). Now it looks like temps are gradually falling towards the fall though we may have at least one more heatwave yet.. it often happens around yom kippur. It has been quite a mild summer here! More and more cumulus arriving lately, almost feels like rain not long coming. Winds pretty much westerly all day. Humidity varied from ~55% early afternoon to over 95% at night.