2023-08

27th August 2023

At the moment, of course, flowers in Israel are few and far between. But during our recent trip to Jerusalem, we had a coffee at the café at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, overlooking a large pond. We were treated to a magnificent display of lotus flowers (Nelumbo nucifera) at different stages of their development - it brought to mind Tennyson’s poem the Lotos Eaters. I must say that though they look attractive, I’m not sure they’d taste so great – I think I’d prefer to eat Lotus biscuits.

I also photographed an American Pekin duck. They are normally raised for their meat – but this was definitely not on the menu at the café. And I photographed a night heron, also not on the menu.

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24th August 2023

In England we used to see curlews (the Eurasian curlew) from time to time – and we would hear their distinctive curl-oo call frequently when out in the countryside. Curlews are quite uncommon visitors to Israel, and I haven’t seen them here. But I have seen the closely related whimbrel and the not so closely related, but similarly named, stone-curlew.

The whimbrel looks quite like a curlew with its long-down-curving beak. I photographed this one in the ancient harbour at Caesarea. It’s called a whimbrel because some people think its call sounds like whimbrel – but I’d describe it as more of a whimsical whimper!

The stone-curlew, that I photographed in a field near Netanya, isn’t closely related to curlews at all. It is honoured with the name curlew as its call sounds similar to that of the curlew. It has a couple of alternative names - dikkops (which means thick head in Afrikaans) or thick-knees. This latter name, of course, is a reference to the bird’s ‘knobbly knees’, but is actually a bit of a misnomer, as this joint that looks like a knee, halfway up the leg, is actually the ankle.

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22nd August 2023

As you know I’m not one who likes getting wet, and so the thought of a swim in the Kinneret/Sea of Galilee (our local lake) doesn’t appeal even slightly. In Friday’s Jerusalem Post there was a report that some people have recently been suffering from irritable and inflamed eyes, caused by a parasite in the Kinneret. So, as far as I’m concerned, the Kinneret is good for swimming for fish and birds but not for me. That said, the fish in these photos, at the Kinneret, might not agree but the little egrets would, I’m sure.

In a previous post (12^th July) I wrote about the Kinneret “Though frequently referred to as a Sea, I think calling it a lake is more correct, at least according to modern English usage.” My thanks to my friend Jonathan C who wrote to me explaining that in Biblical Hebrew the Kinneret is called ‘Yam Kinneret’, literally Kinneret Sea – and Yam in Biblical Hebrew always refers to an enclosed body of water, like ‘Yam shel Shlomo’ Solomon’s basin, in the Temple, and ‘Yam Hagadol’ the Mediterranean Sea, which is the largest enclosed sea on the planet.

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20th August 2023

As we walk in the woods, we quite often see porcupine quills (or spines), but never porcupines. That’s not such a surprise, as they’re nocturnal animals and rarely show their faces during the day. That said, one day last year at Tel Dan I did see a porcupine, for a second or two, during the day but in a very dark wooded area. Of course, it scooted off pretty quickly when it saw me. They’re prickly characters and the subject of the well-known dilemma, the porcupine dilemma. This is not scientifically strictly true, but the story we’re told is that on very cold days porcupines have to stay close to each other to share body-heat to avoid dying from hypothermia. If they get too close to each other they will stab each other to death, if they’re not close to each other they die anyway – quite a dilemma!

Last week the Jerusalem Post reported that a black whip snake tried to eat a porcupine. It clearly bit off more than it could chew, and sadly, the two died. Thank you, Anya, for telling me about this.

I’ve not yet managed to photograph porcupines, but I have photographed black whip snakes, though not with complete success. They’re Israel’s biggest/longest snake – about 8ft (almost 2.5 meters) long. They’re not venomous but if you corner them, they will give you a rather nasty bite. They move ever so quickly and resemble a whip as they snake across your path. I photographed this whip snake in Netanya in the woods – the first photo I took wasn’t perfectly in focus, by the time I could focus and shoot again it had reached the other side of the path.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-754109

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15th August 2023

Moorhens are not so-called because they’re found on moors – they’re not. They’re waterbirds and are called moorhens because moor is an old word for marsh – and they are to be found in marshes. They have a very distinctive bright red beak with yellow tip, which extends to become a forehead shield. The shield is used for competitor assessment.

They’re closely related to coots, both being ‘rails’ – the coot’s shield, though, is white. As crossword solvers will tell you the coot is an eccentric old bird. And by the way, the expression bald as a coot, relates to the featherless forehead of the coot.

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13^th August 2023

Last week, in Gazelle Valley, as well as gazelles and woodpeckers we saw chukars. They’re birds in the pheasant family, related to partridges as well. They’re ungainly game birds that run along the ground, beating a hasty retreat as soon as they see us, and sometimes fly but always close to the ground. They have a distinctive chuk-ar, chuk-ar, chuk-ar call, hence their name.

These birds are lucky, in that they’re not hunted, here in Israel. In the United Kingdom, starting from yesterday, the glorious twelfth (12^th of August), or in the opinion of many, the inglorious twelfth, the bird hunting season opened. For the next four months partridges are fair game for the rifles of ‘sportsmen’.

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Friday’s Jerusalem Post reported that 30 flamingos arrived this week at Agamon HaHula – we hope to visit soon.

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10th August 2023

Earlier this week, I encountered a very placid jay at Ramat Hanadiv. Usually, when I get to within ten meters or so, they quickly fly away. This particular jay seemed to be taking an afternoon rest in an oak tree. I was able to get to about a meter and a half away and there it remained, not in the slightest bit concerned about my presence. Eventually, I had to fly away. But first I was able to watch it at very close quarters.

It opened its beak wide, showing its tongue and lack of teeth. Birds swallow their food whole and grind it (so that it can be digested) in their gizzard (part of the stomach – and one of my favourite words). They use their tongues to guide their food in the right direction and also for sound production. The jay’s tongue being relatively small and immobile, limits its ‘talking’ ability.

I was also able to look at it directly in the eye, and it responded likewise. Just like we do, birds have upper and lower eyelids, but unlike us, they have an extra eyelid which is known as the nicitating (another good word) membrane. It is transparent/translucent enabling the bird to see while it blinks.

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7th August 2023

You may recall that some time ago (31^st January 2023) I posted about the white floss-silk tree (see https://natureofisrael.blogspot.com/2023/01/). This tree is not a case of the bark being worse than the bite – here the bark can give quite a bite. The silk floss tree is covered in prickly spines to deter animals (and children) from climbing up to scrump the fruit. Back in January, I wrote “The flowers are rather glorious too – but for photos of the flowers we’ll have to wait until July/August, the flowering season.”

Well, here we are in August, so here are some pictures of the flowers and also of the prickly spines on the bark and the fruit.

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3rd August 2023

Today is the turn of the tern!

Its scientific name (as the Pope would say) is Sterna hirundo, but its common term is the common tern.

The common tern is a common summer visitor to Israel (mid-April to August). I love watching them – they’re agile flyers, quick on the turn, and fly just above the lake as they hunt for fish. I photographed these birds on recent trips to the Hula Valley.

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1st August 2023

At the North-Eastern corner of the Kinneret is the Majrase Nature Reserve, which attracts adults and children who enjoy a water walk through streams. Not wishing to get our feet (and clothes) wet, Miriam and I walked along the banks of the stream, ‘escorted’ by sunbirds, which was just as enjoyable. There was a field of very old olive trees – I do like the way they wood of the trunk twists and turns. By the edge of the stream were some mushrooms (Lentinus tigrinus – tigrinus means tiger like), which a mushroom expert told me are quite common by riverbanks in Northern Israel (but not elsewhere in Israel). Apparently, they’re crunchy and nutty, but we left them be. They’re not indigenous to Israel, so I’m not sure how they got here – maybe they came in someone’s picnic basket.

Believe it or not, mushrooms are more closely related to humans and animals than they are to plants. For example, when exposed to sunlight they produce Vitamin D, just as we do.