29th May 2024
I almost
jumped out of my skin, when walking in Jerusalem yesterday and this old dear
(with huge eyes and sharp pointed horns) appeared from behind a tree. Of
course, this old dear isn’t a deer, but is a gazelle. Her husband (with rings
on his horns) wasn’t nearly so friendly, and looked on from afar. I won’t
repeat what I’ve written before about the gazelles in Jerusalem’s Gazelle
Valley (see https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/nature-of-israel-gazelle-valley/). Today I’ll focus on how gazelles
differ from deer. Gazelles are a small or medium-sized antelope that are
primarily found in Asia and Africa and have horns. Deer, on the other hand, are
found worldwide and the males have antlers, which they shed each year and
regrow. Deer are not slow, by any means, but are not nearly as swift as
gazelles, which can reach speeds in excess of 50 mph (80 kmph). The cheetah
runs even faster, but a gazelle can often escape a cheetah because it can
sustain its speed over a much greater distance. Here, in Israel, we’re lucky
enough to see deer and gazelles, but it’s 50 or 60 years since cheetahs were
last seen here – they were hunted out of existence. Maybe they’ll be
reintroduced one day – if they are, I’ll ready with my camera.
While I
almost jumped out of my skin, I didn’t actually. But a few weeks ago, in the
Switzerland Forest near Tiberias, we came across a snakeskin – the snake had
literally jumped out of its skin. Well, snakes don’t really jump, but they
certainly do shed their skins – some snakes do so once a year, while others do
it a few times a year. And just as deer regrow their antlers, so do snakes
regrow their skin. I’m not sure what sort of snake it was, whose skin we found.
We looked but couldn’t find the snake – it had shed and sped instead.
28th May 2024
Yesterday, Miriam and I met cousins H&A
for a lovely walk at one of our favourite locations, Ramat Hanadiv, followed by
lunch in the fabulous outdoor café. The weather was perfect - sunny and warm
with a good breeze - the company was delightful and the food delicious. At the
very next table, was an old friend, J, enjoying a light lunch. In the photo you
can see J tucking into some rather nice wholemeal bread, a toast salad and a
glass of juice.
J, of course, is a Eurasian jay, and like
all of his kind, is particularly known for being garrulous, hence the Latin
name - Garrulus glandarius. The Eurasian jay is now renowned as well,
for its episodic memory. CNN’s website, a few days ago, reported on recent
research that shows that jays have remarkable memories. We’ve already discussed
how, in the winter, they remember where they hid acorns in the autumn. But it
seems they can also recall episodes from their past in much the same way as we
do.
When I saw what J was doing, I did wonder
whether being caught on camera stealing food might lead to a spell of ‘bird’ in
jay jail. But I guess he’s done this many times before and remembers that it’s a
sure bet he won’t get into trouble.
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24th May 2024
Toy Story - Papillon
It's not
every day that I'm a lifesaver, but yesterday, I was just that. I walked past a
toy shop in town and noticed a rather life-like toy butterfly flying around the
inside of the shop window. I stopped for a minute or so and watched it flying
up and down and upside down, and from time to time it flew against the glass. A
remarkable bit of engineering, I thought, until it stopped and settled for half
a minute. It wasn't a toy at all, but a rather large butterfly (with wingspan
of almost 4 inches, 10cm) that was frantically trying to escape its 'cage'.
After a little while it resumed flying, with its wings fluttering at tremendous
speed as it desperately attempted to gain freedom. With the huge energy it was expending I was
sure it couldn't last long, so I went inside and explained to the shopkeeper
that she had a 'prisoner' in the window. Together we moved boxes so that we
could reach the window. By now the
butterfly was totally exhausted and it was easy to catch it in a tin and
release it to the outside world. Of course, I wanted to photograph it first,
which I did, but my camera was in the car, so I had to use my mobile phone. The
lesson from this toy story is never go out without your camera.
And what of
the butterfly? It was a rather fabulous looking ‘lime butterfly’ (papilio
demoleus), so-called because it likes hanging out on citrus trees,
particularly limes. It's a sort of swallowtail but unlike the swallowtails we
usually see, it doesn't have the swallow-like tail extensions, for which it is
named. It looked so perfect - no bits of the wing missing (something that
afflicts many butterflies following skirmishes with predators). This butterfly
doesn't have sufficient time to be involved in fights - males live for just
four days and females for seven days, making it the shortest-lived
butterfly of all.
22nd May 2024
Last week at Caesarea I stumbled across a Sardinian
warbler. Why do you think it’s called a ‘Sardinian’ warbler? Could it be
related to the little fish called a sardine? The ‘Sardin’ part of its name is perhaps
a bit of a red herring. It was seen a few hundred years ago in a book of birds
of Sardinia and got its name from there. The sardine, which has a red
appearance seems to get its name from the reddish-brown gemstone sard.
Talking of herrings, the gull here, which was flying over
Caesarea harbour is not a herring gull, it’s a yellow-legged gull. But it’s not
fussy, it will eat herrings as well as sardines and any other small fish.
However, the hoopoe that we saw (as we frequently do) on
a lawn at Caesarea, close to the sea, is not a pescetarian – it doesn’t eat
fish, but will eat small reptiles and frogs, crickets, beetles, earwigs, bugs
and ants – and also seeds and berries.
Birdwatchers have long been thought of as nerds, geeks or
anoraks – or maybe all three. A recent study at North Carolina State
University, reported in London Daily Telegraph a week or two ago, shows that actually
birdwatchers are happier than most other people. There are mental and physical
benefits in spending time in the countryside with a purpose – spotting and
observing birds. And the benefit exceeds that gained from looking at
butterflies, trees or flowers. With that in mind, Miriam and I had a very nerdy walk in the Switzerland
Forest recently and spotted
jays (one of them is shown here), and a woodpecker (shown here on a metal grid,
protecting a tree), as well as a blackcap, chukars and parakeets.
The great black-headed gull, also known as Pallas’s gull
(Ichthyaetus ichthyaetus), is one of the biggest gulls out there. It’s
not such a common visitor to these parts but I was lucky enough to be out in my anorak recently and saw
one flying over the Kinneret – and just in case you’re wondering, it wasn’t me
flying over the Kinneret. Ichthyaetus sounds a bit itchy but is actually
from the Latin words meaning fish eagle and though they’re not really eagles at all, they are certainly rather fond of fish.
12th May 2024
Israel has
a national bird, the hoopoe, a national flower, the crown anemone (kalanit
in Hebrew), a national tree, the olive, and now it has a national butterfly.
Last year the Israeli public selected the common blue butterfly to be its
national butterfly. It wouldn’t have been my choice – I love swallowtails – but
nevertheless it is a rather attractive, if somewhat small, butterfly.
It’s a
sexually dimorphic butterfly; that is the male and female look quite dissimilar.
The male is an iridescent blue with a white edge while the female is a less
attractive browny colour. The undersides of the wings, in both male and female are
grey with orange and black spots, which provides good camouflage.
The bright blue of the male gives it a distinct disadvantage – it’s easily spotted by predators. But the brighter the blue, the more attractive it is to females. So, the more attractive it is to females, the more noticeable it is to predators – a bit of catch-22 situation for the poor male butterfly. This phenomenon is known as the ‘handicap principle’, a hypothesis proposed by the Israeli biologist, Professor Amotz Zahavi. He suggests that to show its physical prowess, which makes it more attractive to a female, the male will put itself in danger, a sort of message to the female that it’s strong enough not to have to worry about predator threats. A high-risk policy indeed!
8th May 2024
I’ve
written before about how vulnerable the griffon vultures are in Israel – there
are just 200 or so. And unfortunately, from time to time, some of them eat
poisoned meat and die. So, it was a particular pleasure to see five of them fly
over us during our recent visit to Gamla. They really are magnificent birds and
quite huge too – with a wingspan of almost three meters. So much under threat
are they that last year, Israel’s biggest beer producer, ran a special campaign
to raise awareness of their plight. Nesher beer, one of its brands, has an
image of a vulture on its label. And it’s quite fitting to do so, as nesher
is the Hebrew word for vulture. Last year, the company removed the vulture from
the label, leaving a blank space instead. The campaign was hugely successful,
and the Government allocated several million dollars to help the vultures.
7th May 2024
It’s been
many months since we were last at Gamla in the Golan Heights. Because of the ongoing
war, we haven’t ventured so close to the borders. But earlier this week, we travelled
the 45-minute journey there. From the Nature Reserve, the uninterrupted view
down to the Kinneret lake (some seven miles or so as the crow flies, with a
drop of about five hundred and forty metres) is glorious and includes the Gamla
hill itself with its old fortress. It’s called Gamla because it looks just like
a camel’s hump – and camel in Hebrew is gamal and in Aramaic gamla.
Here it was that the Jewish population in the year 66 held out under siege by
the Romans for seven months, before being wiped out. The sides of the Gamla
ridgeback are tremendously steep, and it seems incredible that semi-permanent
dwellings could have clung to such precarious inclines. It makes you dizzy just
to look at the ruins.
We walked across
the nature reserve to the waterfall - which, with a 51-meter drop is the
highest in the country. The route there took us across open land, which was
still sporting some spring flowers, including the tall, purple round-headed
garlic, which we haven’t seen before. The weather was perfect; warm sunshine
with a strong fresh breeze, which griffon and Egyptian vultures were making
good use of, to soar above us from time to time. There is a small stream to
cross, in which I was hoping there might be some turtles. There weren’t any at
all, but a water snake darted for cover when it saw me and two frogs were
enjoying the sunshine, one on one side of the bridge, the other on the other,
neither of whom were croaking to each other or anything else. Turtles we didn’t
see, but on the way back to the car, there were two turtle doves. I have to say
that they didn’t look like turtles in any way, which made me wonder why they’re
known as turtle doves. A simple answer – their call is turtle-like – which is
not to say they coo like turtles, rather their coo is like “tur-tur”. Turtle
doves are summer visitors to the North and Centre of Israel. They’re such
beautiful birds, but sadly their numbers are in decline, and they are
classified as a threatened species. One reason for the decline is change in
farming methods but another is that unfortunately birds are shot out of the sky
as they pass through some countries. According to a 2001 report of the European
Commission, two to four million birds are poached each year in Malta, Cyprus,
France, Italy, Spain and Greece – with the Maltese being particularly bad
offenders. How sad!! Turtle doves are not to be sent as gifts, as the famous
song suggests. They and partridges, French hens, calling birds, geese, swans, and
all other wild birds, should be left to fly freely, wherever they choose.
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