19th October 2025
Harriers and Dragons
We’re so relieved that our living hostages
have returned home, and that for the time being, we can hope that there maybe a
period of peace. The last year has truly been an annus horribilis – and
the year before that was just as bad, if not worse. The damage that we have
suffered as a nation has been enormous and it will take many years for us to
recover. Likewise, our neighbours in Gaza and elsewhere have suffered terribly
- all as a result of murderous and totally immoral terrorists. We all
desperately need to live together peacefully.
Last year, I wrote an article for the
Jerusalem Report magazine, Israel-Hamas War: Learning from nature to work
together – opinion, which is also on the web, here - https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-783478.
As I concluded in that article, “Let’s learn from the birds and animals how we
must look after ourselves. But more important still, let’s find ways to work
together with our neighbours and let us all be winners – we’re all brothers and
sisters here.”
--
A recent post was about the speed of
eagles. But one wonders how much they miss when flying so fast. I must say, I
often wish I could slow down when zooming past an interesting bird perched on a
fence. Fast isn’t always best; sometimes it’s worth taking an extra moment or
two to enjoy what you see.
The marsh harrier does just that. It can
fly so slowly, it’s a miracle it doesn’t stall and fall, gliding back and forth
as it scans its surroundings – a technique known as quartering. This hunting
strategy lets it cover a wide area while searching for small mammals, birds,
frogs, and fish.
When I took this photo of a marsh harrier,
I wasn’t 100% sure that it actually was a marsh harrier – I half wondered if it
was a black kite. I consulted a real expert, Alena Kacal, who told me “It’s a
marsh harrier - one key ID point is the tail – the black kite has a slightly
forked tail, while this tail is more rounded. The harrier flight
pattern is also key - often seen quartering over marshes - low and slow, holding
their wings in a slight V (called a dihedral) and almost rocking
from side to side.”
Dragonflies, a favourite prey of marsh
harriers, use a similar method when hunting smaller insects, which they mostly
catch mid-flight. Among their favourite snacks are mosquitoes – which, as you
may know, have a taste for me – so I am very grateful to dragonflies. They
often return to exactly the spot they left after a short foray, giving me a
perfect chance to snap a photo. Of course, they’re not cooperating for my sake;
once a dragonfly finds a good vantage point, it doesn’t give it up easily.
Catching one is no simple task. Their huge
eyes give them nearly 360-degree vision, and their four wings allow them to
change direction instantly. They can fly forwards, backwards, sideways, up, and
down, hovering like tiny helicopters.
Dragonflies are even older than dinosaurs, which means they survived the massive meteorite impact that wiped out those ancient giants. Perhaps if dinosaurs could have flown in all six directions like dragonflies, they might still be here today.
12th October 2025
We wait on tenterhooks, hoping beyond hope
that today or tomorrow will bring the return of our hostages. We’ve waited such
a long time for this day - two full years. We hope and pray that this will mark
the beginning of a lasting peace in our part of the world.
--
Our last post was about an eagle, which, as
everyone knows, is a rather fast bird. Indeed, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in his
poem ‘The Eagle’ writes, “He watches from his mountain walls, /And like
a thunderbolt he falls.” But the eagle is by no means the fastest bird. This
accolade is awarded to the Peregrine falcon – the fastest animal in the world.
It can reach speeds of up to 240 mph (390 km/h) as it dives pitilessly on its
pitiful prey.
Believe it or not, butterflies are also
surprisingly fast movers. I have struggled on many occasions to photograph
flying butterflies, but with no success. This isn’t altogether surprising
because their actual speed is not far off that of the thunderbolt eagles. They
reach speeds of up to 12 mph (20 km/h). Now you might suppose this doesn’t come
anywhere near as fast as a ‘thunderbird’ eagle, but when their comparative
body sizes are taken into account, it is very fast indeed.
Think of Usain Bolt, who is quite a quick
runner. He can run 100 metres in a little less than 10 seconds. That’s about
ten metres per second – and let’s say he is about 2 metres tall. Then he can
run at 5 body lengths each second. Here’s a comparative list of approximate
body-length movement per second:
- Peregrine falcon (dive): 250
- Pigeon: 110
- Mosquito (flying away after biting me): 100
- Golden eagle (dive): 90
- Short-toed snake eagle (dive): 60
- Swallowtail butterfly: 49
- Human (head-down skydive): 47
- Marsh harrier (dive): 40
- Boeing 737 jet plane: 6
- Usain Bolt sprinting: 5
- Julian (me) walking with camera: 0.8
- Tortoise: 0.2
All speeds are relative. Or as Einstein is reported to have retorted, “The faster you go, the shorter you are,” which should make me rather fast.
I photographed this swallowtail butterfly a few days ago. It was buzzing around at a pace far too quick for me to follow, but then it settled momentarily at the top of a small hill. It’s very noticeable when we visit Mount Arbel that the swallowtails congregate at the top of the mountain and are rarely seen lower down. This is one of the ways the males indicate their prowess and virility to potential mates – and is known as hill-topping. The most eligible bachelors (that is, those who are fastest, strongest, and possess the greatest manoeuvrability and endurance) claim the high ground. The less top-notch (that is those lower in the butterfly hierarchy) are left languishing at the bottom of the butterfly ladder.
6th October 2025
Last
Thursday, Yom Kippur (our Day of Atonement), was a truly horrendous occasion
for the Jewish Community of Manchester. The Synagogue that was targeted was
just a couple of hundred meters from the house that we had lived in happily for
30 years or so, before leaving the UK. We know the Rabbi of the Synagogue; we
knew one of the deceased, and we know one of the injured young men. We mourn
for those that died, and we pray that the injured victims should have a
complete and speedy recovery. And most of all, we pray that there should be no
more terrorism on the streets of Manchester, nor on the streets of Israel, nor
anywhere else in the world.
Not very far from where we live now are two mountains – Mount Arbel and
Mount Nitai. We like to hang out at one of the cliffs of Mount Arbel – but not
too close to the edge. From here we get a magnificent view over much of the northeast of Israel.
Words can’t adequately describe the beauty of the panorama, so I’ve attached a
short video clip that I hope will give you a feel for what we see – it was a
windy day, as you will hear.
We’re not the only ones who like to hang out near the cliff
edge. Raptors do too. Thermals, which are rising columns of warm air created
when the sun heats the ground unevenly, cause pockets of air to become less
dense and lift upward. This effect is especially strong over sun-heated
surfaces such as fields, rocky slopes, or sun-facing cliffs. As the warm air
rises, cooler surrounding air flows in to replace it, creating a continuous
cycle that birds and gliders can ride to gain altitude without using energy.
Raptors often head toward these sun-heated areas, including cliffs, to exploit this free energy supply.
Last week we saw scores of ‘kettles’ of large raptors soaring
effortlessly over the mountain. They were mostly European honey buzzards and
black kites, but I spotted a couple of short-toed snake eagles amongst them –
by the way, it’s the eagles that have short toes, not the snakes. And though
they were high above, I managed to photograph one of them.
Just as we were leaving to head home, in the distance we saw
a pair of Egyptian vultures circling over the cliff-top. One of the park rangers told
us that the vultures had recently hatched a chick in their nest halfway down
the cliff face. Once the chick was mature enough to cope with the disturbance,
the rangers rappelled down the cliff (rather them than me!) and attached a tracker to the chick.
It has now flown the nest, leaving its parents behind, and is residing in
Yemen, more than 1,300 miles from its birthplace.
Everyone admires the high-flying eagles that swoop from the
sky to carry off a young or small animal or bird. By contrast, vultures are
often looked down upon for scavenging and making a living from decaying
carcasses. Yet vultures perform a vital service: the strong acid in their
stomachs allows them to eat decaying meat that other animals couldn’t digest.
In doing so, they clean up the environment and help prevent the spread of
dangerous diseases.
Eagles, vultures, kites, buzzards, and other raptors fly by virtually past our windows – we’re truly blessed to be able to see
them all.
The photos here are:
- Three Egyptian vultures from a previous visit – black and white
underwings
- Short-toed
snake eagle with pale underbody – high in the sky
- A fourteen-inch rough-tail rock agama – rather crocodile-like – completely vertical, sunning itself on a stone memorial slab.
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