Mid June

A couple of moths found on the house walls. Above, A Silver Y, 18th April, below a geometrid, 25th March, yes more discovered in the files, unused as yet.


Sunday 13th, Monday 14th, Tuesday 15th June.

Gazelle: Sun: 2 north gazelle field, mother and well grown young young, Mon: 3 windsurfer hill western slopes, young adult male, two others, mother and well grown young. Tues: female north gazelle hill, making its way up the hill

Hyraxes :Tues: heard low bark call at Shadiker colony.
lls in the garden starting 4.55 a.m. all days. Tues calls near bridge

Bee-eaters: all 3 days, mostly cistern to Pistacia orchard area
Hobby: good view tues before sunset wheeling to and fro over pine/gazelle field edge.

Blackbirds: calls, song and activity various parts of the pine woods all 3 days..

Collared doves: vocal, active all 3, cooing, flight calls esp. cistern area, low pine woods.
Turtle dove : coos Mon and Tues and seen active, between trees, on line
Eurasian jays : Sun, Tues esp Tues active, foraging gazelle field and woods.
Tristram's starling: Akiva heard call tuesday from direction of bipass road
Stone curlews, very active and vocal from direction of shaft area before sunset, starting from flight passes of the hobby, then on and off for next half hour or so.
(prob black eared) Wheatear calls tues from same area as stone curlew calls. On Mon from lower north slopes windsurfer hill.
Hoopoes: Mon: near cistern, by path , flew into pines east of cistern. Tues north bank of north watercourse, foraged on ground for a while, then headed into trees. Both lone birds.

Greenfinches: evening twitter as usual in eucalyptus behind look out corner and general area.
Syrian woodpeckers: calls esp around bunker rubble area, seen up in eucalyptus.

Graceful warblers, calls by valley road.

Hooded crows. active, vocal on and off throughout day, flying singly over the valley

House sparrows: chirps in garden much of day, foraging lower north slopes windsurfer hill
sunbirds relatively quiet in gardens these 3 days, laughing doves low profile in gardens these 3 days

Wednesday 16th June:

Early morning: shortly before 5 a.m. white spectacled bulbul started up, around 5 a.m. a sunbird began to call insistently, the sharp call, not the squeak call. Soon after, house sparrows were heard.

Our walk had to be earlier today because we had an event in town later (school play), so we left shortly after 5 p.m.
Gazelle: 10 today. As we walked east along north watercourse dirt road we saw ahead of us three gazelle run across the path out of the shade of the pines from direction of owl glade and then down to north watercourse, across, through the eucalyptus grove there and onto the pines on the northern slopes. The second two were both adult males but we did not see if the first have horns. Are these the two males we have often seen in that area? Brothers? Were they chasing a female? At any rate the trailing male gave up the chase and lingered in the eucalyptus grove, occasionally looking back at us.
The other gazelle were in north gazelle field not far from the open watercourse, grazing in a loose group, females and well grown young.

Bee-eaters: calls heard over valleys and area many times.
Blackbirds: calls, song, calls and activity various parts of the pine woods

Collared doves: vocal and active about pine woods, gazelle field, on line but no turtle dove coos
Eurasian jays : active and vocal various parts of the woods.
Stone curlews, very active and vocal from direction of shaft area before sunset, starting from flight passes of the hobby, then on and off for next half hour or so.

(black eared) Wheatear young male perched on sapling tube near hawthorn by open north valley water course near shaft
Hoopoes: One near bunker rubble, foraged briefly on the ground, gazelle field, headed over into pines across field.

Greenfinches: Too early for the evening twitter in our area though this we heard plentifully in Rahavia, a suburb in Western Jerusalem, when we got there. We did hear one give insistent alarm call in the pines west of gazelle field.
Syrian woodpeckers: calls, chukars, a couple over by bat cave.

Graceful warblers, some calls, foraging by valley road by the east turn.

Hooded crows. active, vocal on and off throughout day, flying singly over the valley .
White spectacled bulbuls early morning, about 4.55 a.m. Sunbird started up about 5 a.m.
Laughing doves, several around crumb corner by street, . Also a pair near look out corner flew up into eucs by Pistacio orchard.

Rahavia, in west Jerusalem, is an old suburb with many small gardens bursting with vegetation, pine and ailanthus in the upper tier, phlox, myrtle, oleander, buddleia and many other ornamental plants at person height. I heard a distinct squawk as soon as I left the taxi and a minute later a flock of ring neck parakeets flew over us, at least 20 individuals.