Tree planting time!

North facing hillslope of north watercourse showing thorny burnets, red anemones.

One of the early cyclamens, this one out in the open relatively pale for the species.

Above: Saplings waiting to be planted, conifers over on the left, Pistacio left foreground and red gum on the right. Just a corner of the stash waiting by the cistern.

One of the buttercup family already blooming, next to a thorny burnet, also showing plenty new leaves.

Tuesday 26th Jan

Temperatures cool: today 5.6-8 degrees C with intermittant rain, much cumulonimbus but not totally overcast.. plenty opportunities to see Orion, Mars, Venus, and now the waxing half moon.

Windsurfer hill.. at least five gazelle on upper north windsurfer hill slopes.. adult buck not seen.

Medium/small tree on Rchov Elias serves as roost for white wagtails, at least a dozen in there.. it's a very densely leafy tree, one of the few trees that actually has the shape kids draw in pictures, roughly a somewhat flattened ellipse in three dimensions, and as I said, very dense though I don't know what it is, some garden ornamental. One wagtail flew in, caused some disturbance and the whole group emerged twittering, wheeled around and reentered.

Also, jackdaws, hooded crows, Eurasian sparrowhawk, graceful warblers, Syrian woodpecker calls.
Gardens: sunbirds, white spectacled bulbuls,

Wednesday 27th Jan. Trees are being planted! , oaks, conifers and eucalyptus around shaft area.
Gazelle : 1 buck on north ridge skyline.

Husband heard Tristram's starling up at the main shopping forum of the neighbourhood.

Thursday 28th Jan. Found empty crates for several hundred trees near the shaft and several score more by the dry stone wall near the cistern waiting to be planted - checking the labels, Eucalyptus torquata, Tabor Oak and Jerusalem (Aleppo) Pine. I hope they thrive! The Euc is a species not already in the valley, also known as Coral Gum, it has reddish flowers and is quite beautiful, and hopefully will do better than the eucs that have been suffering in the last years.

Blackbird singing and variety of calls in the garden.

7 gazelle including adult male grazing on the mid eastern hillslopes of the hill north of gazelle field.. the other two or three that are usually in that group could have been just over the ridge out of sight beyond them.

Some asphodel fine and already producing 'berries' , green and growing, but others showing mirid bug damage. Roman squill, star of bethlehem, anemones, monkwort many places.

Stone curlew vocal from east field as it got dark, jackdaws, hooded crows, Syrian woodpecker call, chiffchaff calls,

Saturday is officially Arbor Day in Israel, known as Tu BiShvat but since it's also Shabbos, trees will be planted before and after. I expect we shall see plenty activity on Sunday.

Sat 30 Jan: Blackbird calling and singing in and near the garden. Other birds active included Syrian woodpecker, graceful warbler, chiffchaff, and we all heard the loud call of a white breasted kingfisher somewhere in the east valley while we were eating lunch. More stone curlew calls in the evening

Gazelle: Four noticed grazing just beyond the almond row, almonds which are now filling with blossom esp. the large one.