2023-12

26th December 2023

On one of our recent walks along the coast near Netanya I photographed these plants and flowers. The beautiful yellow flower, growing on the sand dunes, is the evening primrose. And the bush with a rosette of large, thick, fleshy leaves is an aloe – American aloe also known as century plant. It sends up hugely long flower stalks, as you can see in one of the photos, reaching up to 8m (26ft). It looks similar to a cactus, but it isn’t a cactus, and despite one of its names it isn’t actually an aloe. It gets its name century plant, because it is semelparous, that is it only flowers once, at the end of its life. It doesn’t actually live to be a hundred years, but still has a good long life of up to thirty years.

I saw on Facebook an amusing post – see the photo. Two elderly British ladies greet each other – “aloe Vera” says one, to which the other replies “evening Primrose”. My version seems to be an American lady and a British lady greeting each other - “aloe American” says the British lady, to which the American replies “evening Primrose”.

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21st December 2023

From time to time when we’re out and about we see (and sometimes we just hear) wild boar – wild pigs. Not so long ago we were lucky enough to watch a large sounder of boars cross the road in front of us – there may have been 20 or more adult females and perhaps 20 or more boarlets. Of course, I stopped the car quickly, got out my camera and headed towards them. Drivers of other cars passing by started honking loudly and the sound o’ their horns was enough of a signal to the boars to run away at quite some speed – leaving me without a single photograph – but I was alive, thanks to the quick-thinking motorists.

So, just how dangerous are wild boar? If they feel threatened or if they think their young are under threat, they will charge and each year a few people lose their lives as a result. If only they knew that in Israel with a Jewish and Muslim population there is no chance, they’re going to end up on someone’s dinner plate, then I would probably be able to photograph them more frequently.

I don’t want to bore you with tales of my heroics but a few years ago, while out on a country walk near Rosh Pinna we came face to face with a boar and her young. The young ran to safety quickly, but the sow stood her ground, snorting and growling, and I (being a bit pig-headed) stood mine, despite Miriam’s near-hysterics. If I had been holding a 12-bore shotgun, the pig would perhaps have been under real danger, but my Canon was considerably less of a threat. After ‘shooting’ the boar, I retreated slowly, and she went off too. Here’s my ‘trophy’.

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18th December 2023

Yesterday, on our way to Netanya to do our grandparenting duty, we stopped for a coffee and a walk in the Nature Park at Ramat Hanadiv. After just a few minutes a truck stopped next to us on one of the tracks and there was Dr Tzach Glasser, the Nature Park manager. Tzach had been kind enough to give Miriam and me a guided tour of the park a few months ago. As we chatted, I recalled our conversation earlier in the year about Griffon vultures.

The Eurasian vulture (Gyps fulvus) known as the Griffon vulture is a large bird of prey with a wingspan of more than 2½ metres. Not so long ago, there were numerous Griffon vultures in Israel, but in recent times they have become scarce. Various programs to help them re-establish themselves in Israel are in place, including at Gamla in the Golan. At Ramat Hanadiv, a few pairs of these vultures have been imported from Europe – they’re not able to survive in the wild, because of injuries they sustained, but they can be used to breed birds that can be released into the wild. Tzach explained that they only produce one egg a year, but if they remove that egg (and incubate it artificially), the vulture will lay another to substitute for the lost egg. In that way they can double the number of chicks born in a year.

We didn’t see vultures at Ramat Hanadiv, though, we did see them on a recent trip to Hai Bar on Mount Carmel, near Haifa.

Yesterday we saw a butterfly that is not nearly as common, as some that we see. It was the Archon apollinus, the false Apollo, with a conservation status of ‘near threatened’. I’m not sure why it deserves the acclaim false Apollo, but I guess it’s because although it is fast, it isn’t really a rocket.

We also saw a beautiful jay and some wild crocuses.

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14th December 2023

We had a very pleasant afternoon in Zichron Yaakov one day last week. We had lunch in the café at Ramat Hanadiv and then a walk in the park/gardens. I found a friendly frog to chat to – it was sitting on a lily pad (not on a toadstool). I also photographed various flowers and at about 15:20 an old and tired lady gazing into space.

Over the last few years Ramat Hanadiv has become one of our favourite places in Israel. Miriam has written a piece of music to accompany some of my photos. If you have 3 minutes 40 seconds you can watch/listen here:

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11th December 2023

Yesterday, Miriam and I spent the day looking after our little grandson (18-months-old) who had the day off kindergarten. We thought he might like to go to a ‘gymboree’ but decided he’d probably prefer a visit to the Viker Lookout (near Netanya) to see the pelicans that flock to the lake there.

Anyway, our grandson enjoyed very much, riding his bimba up and down the ramps at the Viker Lookout. Incidentally bimba is a Hebrew word (I think from Arabic) for a trike without pedals, propelled by a child’s feet. And his Saba (Hebrew for grandfather) enjoyed very much, observing pelicans flying in by the score and landing on the lake.

It was interesting to watch the pelicans glide across the lake, near the surface of the water, benefitting from the ground effect. As any pilot or aeronautical engineer will tell you, when flying near the ground or water surface there is reduced drag and more uplift, so the flyer, be it a bird or a plane (or even Superman) expends less energy.

These two photos are from this week.

You might also like to take a look at a photo essay I wrote last year about pelicans that was published at the Times of Israel – see https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/pelican-migration-a-photo-essay/.

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A week or two ago I wrote about geckos, including the house gecko. When we returned from Netanya late yesterday evening, and walked into our apartment, I saw what I thought was a cockroach scurry under the sideboard. I shone my phone torch under the sideboard and a little 3-inch (7.5 cm) pink Mediterranean gecko (also known as the house gecko) ran quickly to a safer place. So, there are now three of us living in the apartment, Miriam and me and Gary Gecko. I hope it’s as good at catching mosquitos as it’s meant to be.

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7th December 2023

The Turtles and the Mallard

We had a short walk last week at the River Alexander near Netanya. This is one of the best places in Israel to see African softshell turtles. Sometimes they keep a low profile and are hard to spot, but we were lucky on this visit to see a group basking in the warm November sun. We spent quite some time watching one particular turtle which seemed to enjoy retracting its head into its soft shell, to the point that it was barely visible. Turtles and tortoises, (as well as turtoises and tortles as Nash would have it) retract their heads and withdraw into their shells to keep safe from predators. But these softshell turtles are so huge (about a meter long and weighing 40kg) that they’re rarely troubled by anything aside from perhaps crocodiles, which are not found in Israel other than in zoos. It’s thought that some turtles hide their heads, so they’re not noticed by the fish and crustaceans on which they feed, then they surprise them by popping out of their shell rather quickly. And be careful! Although they don’t have teeth they could take your finger off with their powerful jaws – so don’t get too close. The biggest danger to the softshell turtles is actually children on school trips who love to throw them bits of their sandwiches, which the turtles eat but can’t digest.

Alongside the turtles was a sitting duck, a rather lovely male mallard. They seemed to ignore each other. The duck was a bit big for the turtles to make a meal of, and in any event, it’s an expert at ducking and diving.

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5th December 2023

Almost directly across the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) from Tiberias is a small fishing port-cum-kibbutz called Ein Gev, which we visited yesterday. We opted for the scenic route, that is the 25km drive round the South side of the lake rather than the most direct route, a 5km swim, straight across. En-route Miriam asked me what I hoped to see – paraphrasing Basil Fawlty, I said I would like to see the Sydney Opera House and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and particularly herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plain. I wasn’t disappointed – the houses are nice; the gardens are beautiful; and the egrets flying across the harbour were certainly majestic.

The egrets took a keen interest in the fishing boats hoping to be thrown unwanted fish rather than have to work hard for their catch. I spent quite some time observing one bird that stood patiently at the edge of harbour, for much of the time on one leg.

While I was watching I did a quick bit of research:

- The world record for a man to stand on one leg is a staggering 76 hours and 40 minutes

- Standing on one leg improves posture, reduces back pain, keeps your circulation going and burns calories.

- A person in their 50s should be able to stand on one leg for 40 seconds, someone in their 60s for about 20 seconds and someone in their 70s for around 10 seconds – I think I might be younger than my birth certificate indicates.

But more importantly, I discovered that there are two main reasons why birds stand on one leg. Primarily, tucking one of its unfeathered legs into its feathered regions reduces heat loss. Tucking up both legs would further reduce heat loss but any bird doing this would probably become a sitting duck. This week the temperature was about 28 Centigrade, and even though that’s on the cool side for our region (though not at this time of year), the egret shouldn’t have felt the need to conserve heat. The other reason that birds opt for a single-legged position is to rest the other leg. Personally, I find it better to sit in an armchair with both feet raised.

The three photos show the bird on both legs, on its right leg and on its left leg.

If you have four minutes, you might like to listen to some of Miriam’s music accompanying a slide show of my photos of egrets – it’s here:

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1st December 2023

In yesterday’s post, I included a picture of an olive tree that is more than 500 years old. My daughter, Naomi, asked how we can tell that it is 500 years old. There’s actually a little sign on it that reveals its age, but generally speaking how can you tell how old a tree is, if there isn’t a sign on it? It’s well known that you can count rings in the tree trunk to determine the age – but in a tree that’s still standing that presents a challenge. Dendrochronologists (that’s the posh word for those who count tree rings) use increment borers to age trees harmlessly by taking an extract from the tree (sounds a bit like a biopsy).

But there is an altogether simpler method that requires just very basic maths. The thickness of the trunk gives a very good indication to the trees age. The diameter of a cross section of the trunk increases each year by approximately 2mm – therefore its radius increases by 1mm each year. So, if you measure the girth of the trunk (that is the circumference) you can calculate the radius.

For a circle, Radius = (½ X Circumference) / π (Pi)

If the circumference of a tree is 3.14 metres the radius will be ½ metre = 500 mm

So, a tree with a girth of 3.14 metres will be approximately 500 years old.

Next time you’re hugging a tree, if you can’t get your arms all the way round, you can be sure it’s quite an old tree.

It occurs to me that given my waist girth (32 inches), if I were a tree, I’d be about 129 years old (twice as old as I am). Perhaps it’s time to branch out.

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Naomi also told me that they get geckos (which I wrote about last week) in their house from time to time. I think they’re probably Mediterranean house geckos. Can’t say I’d fancy one walking across my bedroom ceiling – but on the other hand they’re mosquito eaters, and mosquitos eat me, so maybe I should get a pet gecko.

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If elephants could fly …

While in Netanya earlier this week, a cattle egret flew over me – here it is. The cattle egret is also known as the ‘elephant bird’, though in my opinion it doesn’t look any more elephantine than the elephant’s ‘cousin’, the Syrian rock hyrax (that I photographed last week at Mount Arbel).