Jerusalem, Israel.
~6-~13 degrees C today, at about 5 p.m. ~12 degrees C, wind 2.6 kt SE. Sky pretty clear but somewhat hazy. Humidity 69%
House sparrows and white spectacled bulbuls vocal in the garden, bulbul, the harsh grating call and the three tone call. Hooded crows calls from farther off.
Taking off down the valley road, no hyrax out but 2 chukar partridges foraging in the cypress slum area. A feral cat alarmed them and they took flight, joined up with three more chukar farther along the bank, Presently all five headed off in the direction of the pumping station. Calls of graceful warbler and black redstarts heard along there. Husband spotted Cap'n Jack (Eurasian sparrowhawk) flying north a few dozen feet over the canopy of east valley. Nice continuous view of the bird for most of his flight.
We were a bit late today and light already too dim for flower photos, indeed most of the smaller birds had turned into roost by the time we got to look-out corner, and struck out on gazelle as well but stopped to admire some gorgeous song of duelling blackbirds by central path near the owl glade. One bird in particular was putting on almost an excessive virtuoso performance we both couldn't resist doing our Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell impersonations. 'Well check it out! Some pitch problems in the higher registers but all in all a very nice vocal performance!' 'I don't know what you're hearing, sounded a bit oversung to me with a hint of desperation..'
Swift scream heard about sunset. Brief Eurasian jay appearance by orchard and Eucalyptus grove.
In Somerset, England today temperatures about the same as yesterday though wind veered to easterlies.
The feeders were as usual super busy with greenfinches, chaffinches, bluetits, great tits, nuthatch, coal tit, long tailed tits, female great spotted woodpecker yet again, marsh tit and a hen pheasant, perched by the squirrel feeder this time. A grey squirrel also came by. I took a few images but have not yet decided which to share.
Meanwhile in South California, James Reserve,
Today the sun is shining, at just after 8 a.m. temp was 37 degrees F, wind 3 kt WNW and a white breasted nuthatch was already on the tray feeder. Those little chaps look quite lethal to be around, with their extraordinary slender stiletto like bill. If I were another bird I'd keep out of swiping distance! Purple finches, mountain tits, pygmy nuthatches and a steller's jay showed up soon after. I see the seed tubes have been refilled but the fat block has not yet been replaced and no sign of those brown creepers again :(
I'm sure if these feeders are watched for much longer than I can spare, the species yield would be much better. I've noticed about 15 species here in all lately and I'm sure there are more.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
After the Rain
Foliage of a common and prolific local thistle, distinct white veining on green leaves, apparently milk thistle, Silybum marianum, or similar. This is a plant that is being researched for its medicinal benefits. Purple (and some white) flowers will appear late spring. Many illustrations of thistles only show the flowering head but both leaves and flower are essential for proper ID, there are over 200 spp here. Most thistles in Israel are purple or white, some yellow.
Jerusalem, Israel
Temp range today ~4-10 degrees C,
4.45 p.m. ~9 degrees C, humidity 77% and rising, wind fluctuating 3-12 kt
Mostly blue skies, some small to medium cumulus
In the gardens, house sparrows, white spectacled bulbuls, sunbird squeaky call in the cape honeysuckle. Also active: jackdaws, feral pigeons, hooded crows, great tits vocal in the pines, Eurasian jay foraging in cypresses, graceful warblers calling, black redstart on the bunker ruins rubble.
Two flowering plants not in the guide in the field by the saplings.. a small bright orange composite with dark centre and complex filamentous leaves and another low lying plant with small purple flowers, almost bell shaped, ~ 5 petals, with complex leaves.. must get photos tomorrow when better light.
p.s. forgot to mention brief sighting of long eared owl flying parallel to and just east of valley road two nights ago ~ 10 p.m.
SW England
Site does not have its own weather report so I used the BBC SW England weather webpage.
Temp" ~6 degrees C, winds westerly, mostly fine and sunny with occasional cloud & rain.
Female great spotted woodpecker several visits, probably same individual as yesterday. Plenty blue tits, great tits, greenfinches, chaffinches, housesparrows, occasional coal tit, robin and nuthatch. Male and female pheasants strolling around in the background through the afternoon. 2 grey squirrels visited the feeder. We're working on figuring out a way to get clear screenshots of this site, direct copying not an option. I tried photographing with e camera but not clear enough.
P.S. We found a way with a program called 'fraps' so hopefully I'll be posting Denbury farm images in future! I tested it when a badger came out to the badger feeding station some time after 11 p.m. and was satisfied with the image.
Meanwhile in Southern California:
Temps at the James reserve up a few degrees on yesterday and the sun is shining. Since 8 a.m. local time so far I've only seen purple finches, pygmy nuthatches and mountain tits, & oregon junco, mourning dove
Monday, February 25, 2008
Rained out
Jerusalem, Israel. Despite being rained out today there's still enough to report.
Temps were ~6 degrees C to ~12.5 degrees C, winds fluctuating and westerly, averaging about 7 kt with intermittent thunder and quite heavy rain to drizzle most of the day.
Tragedy today at Eyn Geddi, a canyon system draining into the Dead Sea from the Judean Desert about 70 km south of here. (subject of a couple of entries in this blog last August) Na'hal David flash-flooded and a tourist was killed. His girlfriend survived and was found some time later after a search. About 30 other visitors had to be rescued. I wonder what Eyn Geddi could do to upgrade flood warning systems- they had not expected it otherwise they'd have closed the park, but several hikers were killed there last summer too.
The local birds have finally found our bird table (located between the willow and Bauhinia tree) and today during a brief dry period it was practically mobbed by the local house sparrow convention and a pair of laughing doves peck-pecking away and barely tolerating the sparrows. I now want to rig some hanging feeders suitable for the local greenfinches and great tits etc.
Laughing doves also heard cooing a little, sunbird's squeaky call heard as well as blackbird 'tzeeet' and 'chak chak', white spectacled bulbuls, and also jackdaw flock and white wagtail from farther off. Saw some hooded crows winging home south after forage. Rosemary beds in the public gardens are in full bloom and smelling lovely after the rain, and blackbird singing toward dusk.
Somerset, England: Shortly before noon our usual crowd was working the feeders. Multiple great tits and greenfinches, several blue tits, chaffinches, brief visits by coal tit and robin. A great spotted woodpecker pair appeared.. the male briefly perched on the squirrel box then left, the female (which lacks red on the head) stayed to work at the right feeder.
Meanwhile at James Reserve, California temperatures below freezing for first half of the morning but bright and sunny though humidity high. When I first looked in - 6.39 a.m. local time, mountain chickadees were already at work, a gang of 4 steller's jays showed up and soon after that two pairs of mourning doves, visiting feeders, ground under feeders and the water dish (always a good place to look if you have the time, especially over the hot summer months, because this also gets species that don't come to grain feeders. Camera used to be on a nice stone water dish.. this has lately been changed to a metal dish attached to the side of a pine about two feet above the ground.
Soon oregon junco and purple finches arrived for breakfast followed some time later by American crow, white breasted nuthatch (8.38 a.m) and pygmy nuthatch.
The best surprise early afternoon yesterday was a nice white headed woodpecker on the pine below the fat block (which is of course entirely consumed now)
The other main woodpecker on the reserve is the acorn woodpecker but so far I've only seen this visit the water bowl.
I tend to keep James in another window when I'm messing around on the P.C. and check back there every so often to see what's happening. I'm sure that way I miss some stuff but catch the most frequent flyers so to speak. Today I went in earlier due to weather conditions here.
Here's a screen shot I just took of a pair of pygmy nuthatches.
Temps were ~6 degrees C to ~12.5 degrees C, winds fluctuating and westerly, averaging about 7 kt with intermittent thunder and quite heavy rain to drizzle most of the day.
Tragedy today at Eyn Geddi, a canyon system draining into the Dead Sea from the Judean Desert about 70 km south of here. (subject of a couple of entries in this blog last August) Na'hal David flash-flooded and a tourist was killed. His girlfriend survived and was found some time later after a search. About 30 other visitors had to be rescued. I wonder what Eyn Geddi could do to upgrade flood warning systems- they had not expected it otherwise they'd have closed the park, but several hikers were killed there last summer too.
The local birds have finally found our bird table (located between the willow and Bauhinia tree) and today during a brief dry period it was practically mobbed by the local house sparrow convention and a pair of laughing doves peck-pecking away and barely tolerating the sparrows. I now want to rig some hanging feeders suitable for the local greenfinches and great tits etc.
Laughing doves also heard cooing a little, sunbird's squeaky call heard as well as blackbird 'tzeeet' and 'chak chak', white spectacled bulbuls, and also jackdaw flock and white wagtail from farther off. Saw some hooded crows winging home south after forage. Rosemary beds in the public gardens are in full bloom and smelling lovely after the rain, and blackbird singing toward dusk.
Somerset, England: Shortly before noon our usual crowd was working the feeders. Multiple great tits and greenfinches, several blue tits, chaffinches, brief visits by coal tit and robin. A great spotted woodpecker pair appeared.. the male briefly perched on the squirrel box then left, the female (which lacks red on the head) stayed to work at the right feeder.
Meanwhile at James Reserve, California temperatures below freezing for first half of the morning but bright and sunny though humidity high. When I first looked in - 6.39 a.m. local time, mountain chickadees were already at work, a gang of 4 steller's jays showed up and soon after that two pairs of mourning doves, visiting feeders, ground under feeders and the water dish (always a good place to look if you have the time, especially over the hot summer months, because this also gets species that don't come to grain feeders. Camera used to be on a nice stone water dish.. this has lately been changed to a metal dish attached to the side of a pine about two feet above the ground.
Soon oregon junco and purple finches arrived for breakfast followed some time later by American crow, white breasted nuthatch (8.38 a.m) and pygmy nuthatch.
The best surprise early afternoon yesterday was a nice white headed woodpecker on the pine below the fat block (which is of course entirely consumed now)
The other main woodpecker on the reserve is the acorn woodpecker but so far I've only seen this visit the water bowl.
I tend to keep James in another window when I'm messing around on the P.C. and check back there every so often to see what's happening. I'm sure that way I miss some stuff but catch the most frequent flyers so to speak. Today I went in earlier due to weather conditions here.
Here's a screen shot I just took of a pair of pygmy nuthatches.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Blooming almonds and others
Large pic: almond blossom
Small blue flower: alkanet type
4 petalled flower: Malcolmia
White spike: Bellevalia
Sky is covered with cloud ripples like white coral sand on the shore, high altocumulus.
10-16 degrees C, 13 degrees C at about 4.30 p.m. humidity ~60% fluctuating, wind W 3-8 kt
House sparrows, laughing dove cooing softly in the gardens, we watched female or immature sunbird forage in some garden creeper. Into the woods and Eurasian jays active and vocal, much high pitched peeping from elusive softbills, probably black redstarts. There were quite a few chaffinches around, calling their distinctive 'pink!' contact call from the tops of cypress trees. Brief greenfinch twitter and a high pitched call from the pine grove over beyond the cistern which I believe is another goldcrest. Graceful warblers, great tits,white spectacled bulbuls and blackbirds also quite vocal today. Hooded crows around as usual, some heading north to roost.
Due to a loud barbecue in progress near the bunker ruins there was no use checking out the usual residents so we swung north into gazelle field.
We found some new and interesting flora which we photographed. My prime objective was to get shots of the largest almond tree which just started to bloom within the last couple of days but on the open field were other little gems of life. Comparison of our shots at home with Azaria Alon's guide easily identified two of the commonest, a white four petalled flower turned out to be Malcolmia crenulata (one of the crucifers) and a white spiked flower found in quantities was Bellevalia flexuosa, a member of the onion family. I also found a charming small blue 5 petalled flower up against a rock which seems to be one of the alkanets, part of the borage family, but haven't yet narrowed it down beyond that.
Still plenty red anemones around, I found a nice katydid on one of them.. (also known as bush cricket) and there were also a number of hairy brown caterpillars feeding and getting quite large, likely their eggs had overwintered.
Two gazelle grazing north end of the field, one had short thin horns. Some 'sproinging' up the slope.
Brief visit to South West England.. Denbury farm just before noon local time:
A whole little gang of greenfinches, several chaffinches and the 'tit tag team' , i.e. great tits, blue tits, briefly coal tits and marsh tit. Robin also visited. I signed off when a couple of people decided to hang around right there.
The U.K. is only 2000 miles west of Israel and so many species are found in both places where habitats are suitable, at the western and eastern edges of their range respectively. As you see we 'share' great tits, greenfinches, house sparrows and blackbirds as well as chaffinches and robins seasonally. Listening to recordings of UK blackbirds I notice subtle differences in 'dialect'. The UK birds tend to have more long lower pitched tones and the Israeli birds more shorter higher pitched embellishments but both are recognizably blackbirds.
Meanwhile in Southern Calfornia: Over at James reserve the air was misty, snow still on more open ground and temperature just 42 degrees F at 8 a.m. Mountain tits and purple finches already visiting the feeder as well as oregon juncos and a white breasted nuthatch. A Steller's Jay has just arrived and of course he's making for the fat block... a second jay, and they're also using the grain and seed food from the feeders and the plate beneath. Visibility is awful right now in the main feeder cam so I flick from that to the side view of feeders and seed block and the view further back which also includes the ground below. Two more jays have arrived, one down below foraging for dropped seed. Pair of pygmy nuthatches
This camera has a refresh every five seconds which is helpful because each bird is frozen for a short while to enable easy IDs. The Denbury farm cam is continuous, almost like a movie, which makes gives better appreciation of movement but requires a quicker eye for IDs.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
First Swift
Common swift, Apus apus
Jerusalem, Israel
First swift Apus apus of the season seen today at about 4.45 p.m. 23 Feb. A lone individual over north valley. (silent, probably because he had no mates around to scream with)
The graceful archer's bow wing shape was most welcome! I'd just been saying to husband a second before that they should show up ANY time now and he simply said 'up there'. I love it when that happens. These birds winter in Africa and usually return about now.
Temperatures very mild today, 9.5 to 17 degrees C, clear skies for the most part. Winds light and pretty much easterly all day, humidity mostly under 25%. Temps just coming down from peak when we went out for our walk.
First thing I heard today shortly after dawn apart from distant hooded crows was the strident squeaky toy call of a sunbird in the Bauhinia outside my window. Later around noon male sunbird launched into a long and elaborate song in there, trying to pack in more notes per minute than Mozart. He was definitely in good spirits after surviving being almost frozen last week.
House sparrows, jackdaws, feral pigeons and laughing doves also around, some light coos of the latter. White spectacled bulbuls also quite vocal today.
In the woods great tits very vocal and some Eurasian jays seen about and active. Much high pitched peeping in the woods by elusive redstarts, not one black redstart let us see it today but they were there in force as were graceful warblers and a brief greenfinch twitter. Others, such as woodpeckers, robins and stonechats, silent. Very nice view of a fine adult Eurasian sparrowhawk returning from direction of NE gazelle field toward east valley.
Adult male gazelle grazing over at the foot of the pylons, north gazelle field, he made his way to field in the NE end of the field not far behind the cistern and grazed there for a while. Our sons found 2 agama lizards and a brownish yellow scorpion.
S.W. England, Denbury farm.
On friday midday a great spotted woodpecker and for the first time a male blackbird was on the left feeder. These are softbills and in the past I've only seen the female on that feeder though robins visit frequently as did one today a few times. A couple of chaffinches and greenfinches also visited as well as a male house sparrow. Blue tits seem to be the least shy as they returned to the feeder seconds after a boy with his two gorgeous German shepherds walked by, encouraging the other birds to follow.
Meanwhile at James Reserve, California it's still morning over there and already lively. Most of the snow under the feeder has gone though it seems it has snowed again very lightly since, farther off snow still blankets the ground. James (33 degrees N) is similar latitude to Jerusalem (31 degrees N) and actually lower altitude by a couple of hundred metres but the area is much more exposed being on the side of the San Jacinta range as opposed to Mir tucked in a valley as up here.
2 nice glossy American crows came by as well as a pair of mourning doves, using both the feeder, the water bowl and checking out the ground under the feeder for dropped food. Of course the usual purple finches and mountain tits have been coming in and out as well as a pygmy nuthatch and a pair of very handsome band tailed pigeons. A gang of 6 Steller's jays came by, it's amazing there's any of the fat block left after that, they seem to love it as well as everything else the feeding tray has to offer.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Back over the hill
Jerusalem, Israel
Gorgeous day today, mild (7 -14 degrees C) and totally clear skies. Winds light and in the east in the afternoon. House sparrows and jackdaws heard from the house. We had to deal with the chore of taking a trip to the next neighbourhood to sign some bank documents and make clothes purchases for the boys. Happily the compensation is walking back NW cross-country over windsurfer hill, east field and Mir Forest.
We saw plenty laughing doves & feral pigeons on the way through the built- up areas (mainly residential 5-10 storey apt. buildings) and my 12 yr old son was excited to see a falcon fly right over him when he went off for a walk - along the main street there. He saw the light underparts and swept back wings and recognized it as clearly a raptor but he also described a very dark face mask not found on the most likely falcon of the area (kestrel, Falco tinnunculus). This leaves hobby and peregrine falcon as the next likely possibilities (which he didn't know) and it does seem very early in the season for hobbies to be back already. White wagtails around.
Still no swifts.
Heading over the hill we saw a nice group of gazelle in east field, 9 individuals, no sign of an adult male. One of them seemed definitely heavy in the abdomen. They moved on down to graze near the olive grove.
Apart from putting up the usual flock of 50 + hooded crows we didn't see much as light was already fading by then. A small flock of ~20 blackbird sized brownish grey birds took off from the open scrub lower south east side of the hill, frustratingly we didn't get much detail on them but short tail and no obviously long bill or any other clear features, but some quite melodious high pitched contact calls unlike those of fieldfares. Always frustrating not to get enough info for an ID but that's how it can go. Redwing? Seemed too plump.. hard to tell.
Blackbirds were singing in the pines as we made our way back home via central trail and shortly after our arrival home, already dark, some very nice stone curlew calls came to our ears from somewhere down in the valley.
At Denbury farm, Somerset, England:
Late morning their time.. the camera was on a pair of feeders next to a tree branch today and guess what was intently pecking seed after seed? A hen pheasant, comfortably perched (a lot more comfortably than she was yesterday!) on a narrow branch. She was joined by another hen a few minutes later. Great tits, chaffinches, coal tit, blue tits, house sparrows and a robin also seen.
Meanwhile, at James Reserve in California
American crow, purple finches, mountain chickadees, steller's jay, oregon junco so far today. It's late morning there now and temperature just above freezing, air somewhat misty and a fresh fall of snow on the ground. A gang of three jays are using the feeder.
signing off on this one for the day, if anything else shows up at James, I'll report it tomorrow.
Gorgeous day today, mild (7 -14 degrees C) and totally clear skies. Winds light and in the east in the afternoon. House sparrows and jackdaws heard from the house. We had to deal with the chore of taking a trip to the next neighbourhood to sign some bank documents and make clothes purchases for the boys. Happily the compensation is walking back NW cross-country over windsurfer hill, east field and Mir Forest.
We saw plenty laughing doves & feral pigeons on the way through the built- up areas (mainly residential 5-10 storey apt. buildings) and my 12 yr old son was excited to see a falcon fly right over him when he went off for a walk - along the main street there. He saw the light underparts and swept back wings and recognized it as clearly a raptor but he also described a very dark face mask not found on the most likely falcon of the area (kestrel, Falco tinnunculus). This leaves hobby and peregrine falcon as the next likely possibilities (which he didn't know) and it does seem very early in the season for hobbies to be back already. White wagtails around.
Still no swifts.
Heading over the hill we saw a nice group of gazelle in east field, 9 individuals, no sign of an adult male. One of them seemed definitely heavy in the abdomen. They moved on down to graze near the olive grove.
Apart from putting up the usual flock of 50 + hooded crows we didn't see much as light was already fading by then. A small flock of ~20 blackbird sized brownish grey birds took off from the open scrub lower south east side of the hill, frustratingly we didn't get much detail on them but short tail and no obviously long bill or any other clear features, but some quite melodious high pitched contact calls unlike those of fieldfares. Always frustrating not to get enough info for an ID but that's how it can go. Redwing? Seemed too plump.. hard to tell.
Blackbirds were singing in the pines as we made our way back home via central trail and shortly after our arrival home, already dark, some very nice stone curlew calls came to our ears from somewhere down in the valley.
At Denbury farm, Somerset, England:
Late morning their time.. the camera was on a pair of feeders next to a tree branch today and guess what was intently pecking seed after seed? A hen pheasant, comfortably perched (a lot more comfortably than she was yesterday!) on a narrow branch. She was joined by another hen a few minutes later. Great tits, chaffinches, coal tit, blue tits, house sparrows and a robin also seen.
Meanwhile, at James Reserve in California
American crow, purple finches, mountain chickadees, steller's jay, oregon junco so far today. It's late morning there now and temperature just above freezing, air somewhat misty and a fresh fall of snow on the ground. A gang of three jays are using the feeder.
signing off on this one for the day, if anything else shows up at James, I'll report it tomorrow.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Early borage and Balancing pheasant
Podonosma syriaca
Jerusalem, Israel
Temp. range 2-7 degrees C
There seemed to be a convention of house sparrows in our garden this afternoon but this is not unusual lately. Hooded crows, white spectacled bulbuls, a sunbird and a blackbird also heard.
Laughing doves and feral pigeons seen on top edges of nearby apartment buildings (generally 3 storeys our side of the street)
~4.45 p.m. ~7 degrees C, humidity 85%, wind 3.5 kt N
Plenty tracks of gazelle and feral dogs on the various paths in the forest but no mammals spotted today. Hooded crow about and graceful warblers heard. Nice male stonechat out on the scrub in the forepart of gazelle field, visible from quite a distance. Black redstart and European robin calls heard not far from the rubble but neither made an appearance.
Blackbird song and alarm calls, Distant white wagtail calls and probable chiffchaff but still no sign of swifts.
The main scrub bushes all over the fields around the woods and any spot within the woods that is open enough, are in full leaf, tiny double rows of leaves amongst an intricate lacework of spines. The leaves when crushed smell of oregano quite powerfully. They bear blue flowers later in the season, typical flower type of mint family (photographed in an earlier entry)
On the way down to valley road I found a handsome large and unusual plant in full flower against a wall, a hairy borage type plant with rows of small blue tubular bell type flowers with yellow tips. Looking it up after we found it was Podonosma syriaca, a plant which is not supposed to bloom till March but given this plant's very sheltered location by a footpath between wall and building it was able to bloom early.
S.W. England
The feeders were super busy early afternoon with greenfinches, chaffinches, some house sparrows, plenty great tit, some bluetits and brief visits by coal tits and marsh tits, also a male great spotted woodpecker visited for a while. Nuthatch and robin also visited and a male pheasant strolled behind but the star of today's show was a hen pheasant, as follows:
I posted the following note to the site's comment board.
Here's something I've never seen at the feeder before. Pheasants often stroll behind but today at about 2.18 p.m. a female pheasant was perched on TOP of the middle feeder at camera 1, perched precariously and turning around very carefully,like a competitor in the immune challenge on 'Survivor', and leaning over to take seeds from the feeder. It was hilarious to watch.. she seemed quite successful.
We're talking about a bird over two feet long perched on top of a feeder no more than two inches or so in diameter.
Meanwhile at James' reserve in California: a few degrees colder, and damper than Israel today.
It was about 8.30 a.m. in the morning over there when I tuned in. Purple finches and a mourning dove were using the feeder, soon the usual mountain chickadees and pygmy nuthatches arrived and a little later, oregon juncoes and a steller's jay which surprisingly did not intimidate a mourning dove into leaving. If anything else shows up I'll report it tomorrow.
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