Monday to Wednesday

Wet season growth: Much of the bank between valley road and the buildings, and the open ground around the bunker rubble and similar areas are springy green with a profuse growth of tiny to medium sized wild plants. This was taken a few days ago by valley road approaching the pumping station.

Wednesday 16th Jan

~ 4 p.m. 9.5 degrees C, humidity 17%, wind ENE almost zero

Heard from the house (garden and street) House sparrows, white spectacled bulbuls, hooded crows jackdaws and white wagtail call.

Neighbour and friend, Anna, joined us today for a walk so I was hoping for some good bird representation! Anna did find some quite fresh tracks of the feral dog pack and a gazelle in the soft earth along central trail. However, birds were low profile, probably because of the almost zero wind, though we did hear repeated alarm calls of what I believe to be a chiffchaff in the eucalyptuses behind look-out corner, and some chaffinch calls up there a little later. Black redstart calls were heard but only briefly glimpsed. No birds on the bunker rubble today and none visible in gazelle field though we did hear a brief graceful warbler phrase.

Husband briefly glimpsed Eurasian sparrowhawk in eucalyptus grove area and probably the long eared owl approaching owl glade but tantalizingly teasing glimpses. Male blackbird making a pre roost fuss by central trail on the way back. A couple of hooded crows in flight over gazelle field, heading TO northern foraging grounds.. no fly by return today interestingly.

We were happy though since Anna spotted an adult male gazelle running from north east of north gazelle field, behind pine grove and on through north of east field to rest and graze under the olive grove near the security fence.

We were also very happy to see the feral white puppy my son had found yesterday in the possession of a group of local lads who seemed to be caring for her well. She seemed to recognize me!

Tuesday 15 Jan

Range 1-8 degrees C, just after 4 p.m. 6.8 degrees C, humidity 19% (Jordan rift valley quite visible today) Wind SE and very light, skies clear

From garden: House sparrows, white spectacled bulbul, hooded crows

In street: Feral pigeons perched on roof rail

On bank down to valley road: graceful warbler call.

Around pines by bunker ruin: greenfinches, great tits vocal. Also chaffinches and black redstart calls (?)

Pack of feral dogs down there, 5, two dhole brown colour, the other three patchy white. One of those looked like the exile we saw some weeks ago, evidently integrated back into the pack and if anything it seemed the browns were out of favour today. One of them chased away briefly over by the gazelle grazing place, we saw him making his way back partly accompanied by the other brown.

My sons wanted to adopt a feral puppy they found (dense white furred female, love at first sight) but for many reasons we cannot take another feral pup: She had to stay in the forest. Some decisions can be really tough to make. While they were down there they saw an adult male gazelle.

Monday 14 Jan

Range 0-7 degrees C . Just after 4 p.m 4.3 degrees C humidity 31% wind SSE still, skies clear

Heard from house: Hooded crows, house sparrows, white spectacled bulbuls

feral pigeons on roof rail of an apartment building

stonechat: On rebar on bank on the way down to valley road and foraging in the area.

white wagtail? by school, heard?

Syrian woodpeckers quite active and vocal from east end of north valley and in east valley

Blackbird.. alarm call but no song.

weekend evening.. 30 plus jackdaws flew to Pisgat Zeev, two in aerial battle to the side along the way. They settled on TV aerials on summit.. most warm air there rising from buildings? Quite a number of crows already assembled there

Thurs-Sunday Jan 10-13

This shows the course of the stream through part of east valley and how grassy the area has become over the rainy season. Taken 10th December, midwinter, coldest time of our year.


A few days ago at night both husband and I independently heard stone curlew call from the valley

Thurs: Range 1-9 degrees C. ~ 4 p.m. 7.3 degrees C. Humidity 79% and rising. Wind NNW 3.5kt

House sparrows, white spectacled bulbuls, great tits, blackbirds, hooded crows, jackdaws, feral pigeons, eurasian jay.

Sat: 3 white wagtails running around foraging on an empty (primary ) school playground just down from us. Also hooded crows, jackdaws, white spectacled bulbuls, blackbirds, graceful warblers.

Sun: Range: minus 1-7 . I've never seen figures so low for here.

roof rail top of buildings: row of feral pigeons as usual, a laughing dove.

Heard from the house: house sparrows, white spectacled bulbuls, hooded crows.

Just after 4 p.m. 5.3 degrees C, humidity 47% wind ENE 2.6 kt, sky totally clear.
Going down shortcut to valley road, saw female (or immature) black redstart, and stonechat perching on the ends of some metal posts left down there. Graceful warbler foraging and calling in the scrub.

Syrian woodpecker calls from east valley woods towards pumping station.

At the bunker ruin a european robin heard tic ticking then noticed in nice clear view sitting on blackjack's favourite rebar perch, flicked and then dived down out of view for forage. 'Blackjack' (male black redstart) noticed on a boulder off to the side, perhaps feeling a touch peeved that his favourite spot had been temporarily commandeered by his fiery chested relative. Another stonechat on an old thistle head just beyond the bunker ruins. They have such similar niches I wonder about the competition. Is there any? Are robins unfazed by it and just overlap territories with them where they wish? So it seems. I have not yet heard one defend a winter territory by singing on my patch as I did in Afula, other places in Israel or in the U.K.

Blackbird in song about 5 p.m. near pumping station.
Otherwise quiet and cold, no sign of any gazelles today. Husband noticed a white wagtail running about in the street this morning.

European robin

European robin (Erithacus rubecula) , courtesy of Ruti Schueler.

Heard from the house: Hooded crows, jackdaws, sunbird, white spectacled bulbuls, white wagtails.

Temp range: 7-10 degrees C. 4.20 p.m. 8.2 degrees C, 91%, wind ENE 1.7 kt

Shortly after we left we saw about 20 hooded crows in a broad rather scattered flock heading south to roost from foraging for the day.

A few acacias on the bank between the buildings and valley road were hopping with small bird activity including white spectacled bulbuls, blackbirds, great tits, I'm not sure what else but was delighted to get a nice view of a European robin perched on a twig facing valley road. Happy to see they weren't totally driven out of their niche by all the black redstarts and other insect eaters but are definitely around.

Kestrel seen flying over the valley and heading up to the top of the hill to the west.
Glimpse of a Eurasian sparrowhawk over valley road.
A row of feral pigeons in a high sheltered groove in a partially contructed building.
A pair of collared doves on top of a cypress tree on the bank near the pumping station.
Blackbird song in the pines in east valley toward dusk.
4 feral dogs running into the trees of north valley, seemed to be another pack quarrel.

The bank itself is spongy and green with a very low but dense, profuse growth of small leaves of several kinds of wild herbs, not grasses though the alluvial ground along the banks of the stream are almost glowing green with grass right now. The stream itself has only the tiniest trickle of water at the moment with many small pools along its course. Yesterday a little more flow and the previous night was audible from valley road.

The old cisterns by gazelle field, now full.

Mon 7th Jan:

Beautiful blackbird song at dawn barely light, it was in the Bauhinia or the willow. Near.
Also heard from indoors, from garden and street: house sparrows, hooded crows, jackdaws, white wagtails, laughing doves (cooing, full but quiet), white spectacled bulbuls.
Temp range 5-11 degrees C. ~4.30 p.m. 8 degrees C and falling. Humidity 80% and rising. Wind WSW 11 + kt

Two hooded crows seemed very interested in something on the bank between valley road and the buildings. One alighted in a cypress tree there, another on a post at the top. One flew down briefly and seemed to be trying to get something, fluttering, almost hovering, but appeared to give up and retreat to the tree. Looking, we noticed two pretty feral cats of a variety common here.. black/grey mackerel striped upper body, pure white underbody. They rubbed their glands against the scrub and played a little, then both retreated up the slope, looking back. We went to the boulders under the cypress to see if there was, as we strongly suspected, a den of kittens there. The crows were still watching and both cats paused at the top of the bank and watched us. They seemed too young to have their own kittens. Older siblings or just precocious? At any rate the jumble of boulders around those cypresses was too extensive for us to search with the fading light and other things to see, we decided to leave them in peace.

Tues 8th Jan:

Temp range 7-12 degrees C. Just after 4 p.m. 8.7 degrees C, humidity 99%, wind westerly 6+ kt

From the house: House sparrows, white spectacled bulbuls, sunbird, great tit, hooded crows, a brief twitter, sounded like a greenfinch. Two fighting sunbirds flying fast and with agitated twittering from the buildings over the bank and valley road to the pines. Territorial dispute no doubt. Row of feral pigeons hunched the length of a roof rail, a laughing dove not far away.

4 gazelle grazing in the east valley pines just north of the saplings field, several hundred metres south of gazelle field. They bounded toward the east, across the valley trail and up the hill slope to the east. They appeared to be young individuals though pretty much fully grown.

The stream has a light trickle of water, which was handy since my boots were getting quite caked with reddish mud, and the trail at the bottom of the valley was heavy, humid and laden with the aroma of eucalyptus and pine. Who needs a humidifier, anyone with chest complaints should just take that walk there a few times a day, it wasn't too cold to be beneficial at that time.

We heard black redstarts but 'Blackjack' was not around the rubble, perhaps had already retired for the day.

Flowers and Birds

Savyon flower (Senecio or similar), one of the composites, blooming on one of our shortcuts down to valley road. Taken this afternoon just after 4 p.m.

Range today 5-12 degrees C. When we went out it was just under 8 degrees C and falling and already nipping at my fingers! No rain now though. Winds WNW 7.8 kt, humidity 66% & rising.

Blackbird in full and beautiful song in our garden early afternoon and in the north valley about 5 p.m.

Gazelle field. Gazelles no show though I did noticed some hooftracks. Black redstart on a treestump looking hunched and cold, another on the bunker rubble. Stonechat noticed in the scrub just by the rubble. Graceful warblers heard calling. A couple of Eurasian jays in the top of the pine by the cistern, flew over to north valley pines, soon after were screeching and fussing about something over there. 4.45 p.m. adult Eurasian sparrowhawk flew over the length of gazelle field fromthe north, winging it for the east valley pines probably to roost, nice view! Great tits calling in the pines.

House sparrows and white spectacled bulbuls heard in the garden as usual, feral pigeons and laughing doves hunched in rows on roof railings. Hooded crows heard calling on and off all day and seen returning from northern forage singly and in small groups approaching sunset.

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.

Pigeons vs Sparrowhawk

part of north valley looking north west. A Ram on the hill top.


Weather: range 6-12 degrees C. ~ 4 p.m. ~10.5 degrees C, humidity >70% and rising,
wind SW ~8kt, partially cloudy.

Neat observation my husband made today (Wednesday 2nd Jan) just coming onto our street. An adult Eurasian sparrowhawk passing over was seen off by the local feral pigeons! A group of 10 or so pigeons got up from the rooftops and started harrying the sparrowhawk. As it moved away from them toward east valley, two more groups of pigeons, a dozen birds and about another ten birds from further rooftops joined the fray till the sparrowhawk headed to the pines.

Black redstart active foraging at the bunker ruins today and yesterday. Perches on the blocks of concrete and dives down into the scrub like a shrike though with a little more deft wing action. Stonechats and black redstarts foraging in gazelle field, stonechat also seen on the edge of valley road as we came down a shortcut. Blackbirds chakking toward dusk in the pines. Syrian woodpecker call near the pumping station.

A group of chaffinches in the tops of cypresses and pines at the centre trail crossroads.

Heard from the house- much house sparrow activity early afternoon as well as Hooded crow and Jackdaw calls. White wagtail heard from the street and white spectacled bulbuls and laughing doves vocal in the garden, latter cooing.

I noticed a 'savyon' in bloom yesterday. It's a small relative of a dandelion that grows here. One of the local pet donkeys seems to like me! I was busy watching out for stonechats and black redstarts in gazelle field when suddenly felt rough fur on one side.. he'd walked right into me, though gently. Two boys were riding their donkeys but this one headed to us, no doubt sensing people who love animals. I petted his head briefly, such beautiful large lashed eyes they have.