Monday, October 6, 2025

2025-10

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.”

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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. 



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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.

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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.


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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:

  1. Three Egyptian vultures from a previous visit – black and white underwings
  2. Short-toed snake eagle with pale underbody – high in the sky
  3. A fourteen-inch rough-tail rock agama – rather crocodile-like – completely vertical, sunning itself on a stone memorial slab.