2023 - Pictures of the Week

The Dog and Bottle - This dog has got a lot of bottle but hasn’t bottled-up his feelings. Photographed in Caesarea.

Common Tern - Its scientific name (as the Pope would say) is Sterna hirundo, but its common term is the common tern. Photographed at Hula Valley.

Water Bomber - Firefighters water bombing a fire. Photographed at Jerusalem.

Sitting Pretty - Sitting pretty at the museum reading modern and classical literature. Photographed at Jerusalem’s Israel Museum.

Hyundai-Hyundai - Hyundai car with integral Hyundai roof-top oven. Photographed in Jerusalem

Myna - Don’t get confused – this young bird in a myna bird, it’s not a miner bird. And being young it’s a minor myna! Photographed in Tel Aviv

Water Lily - Did Lily put this little lily in the lily pond? Photographed at Kibbutz Lavi

Stilts - A pair of stilts – one of them’s tilting looking for critters in the silty water. Photographed at Hula Valley.

Marbled white - This little fellow clearly hasn’t lost his marbles. Once can only marvel at the marbling of the marbled white butterfly. Photographed at Ramat Hanadiv

Treehouse - The builders of this treehouse were shady characters. Photographed in Baka, Jerusalem

Paper Wasps - Paper wasps building their nest – or perhaps reading the morning paper. A hive of activity on the stem just below a wild carrot flower. Photographed in the Switzerland Forest, Tiberias 

Griffon Vulture - Griffon vulture before flight – looking for its carryon! Photographed at Hai Bar on Mount Carmel.

Thistle Hopper - Thistle be a thistle hopper, or perhaps just a grasshopper. Photographed at Mount Arbel.

King of the Fishers - Charles was crowned King of the United Kingdom, but this young fellow is the King of the Fishers. Photographed at the Sarona Market, Tel Aviv.

Skinky - This 30cm long tiny-legged skink is skinny like a snake but it’s not stinky like a skunk. Photographed at Switzerland Forest, Tiberias.

Wheat Ear - What have we ‘ere? It’s a wheat ear – not a wheatear, but an ear of wheat. Photographed at Ramat Hanadiv.

Night Heron - This night heron was out during the day – presumably it’s a bit of an insomniac. Photographed by the Kinneret, Tiberias.

Skulduggery - Someone has ‘posted’ a skull of a large beast, in the forest – looks like skulduggery! Photographed in the Switzerland Forest, Tiberias.

Hyacinth Squill - Scientists at Tel Aviv University recently reported that they have recorded plants ‘talking’. Next time I say “hiya Cynth” as I walk past a hyacinth, I will know that my greeting is not wasted. I just wish I could hear the reply.This is a hyacinth squill (Scilla hyacinthoides), photographed in Netanya.

Weevil on a Globe Thistle - Even when walking on thistles, weevils wobble but they don’t fall down! Photographed at Har Arbel.

Bulbous Bulbul - This bulbous bulbul is looking a little glum. Photographed at Aniam in the Golan.

Swallowtail - This swallowtail, Papilio machaon (not to be confused with papier-mâché), fluttered by, on a warm spring morning, but eventually settled, unflustered by all the people around the top of Mount Arbel.

Tortoise - We were ambling along and met a tortoise tootling towards us. This was not an escaped pet – tortoises live naturally in the wild – and indeed it is illegal to capture one to take home. Photographed at the Switzerland Forest in Tiberias.

Mongoose - Snakes beware! There are mongooses around. Photographed at the Hula Valley.

Lady Mallard - Mallards, Ladies and Gentlemen – pray silence, for Lady Mallard reflecting on the pond, in quiet solitude. Photographed in Netanya.

Cattle Egret - Why did the cattle egret cross the road? Photographed in Netanya. 

Silk Floss Tree - anti-scrumping device - the bite behind the bark - This 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. Photographed in Netanya.

Egret Flight - Egret in flight as brisk as all-egret-to – but I re-gret to say I don’t know if it a he-gret or a she-gret. Photographed at Hula Valley. 

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Bull fighters - Two young bullish bulls having a tête-à-tête. Photographed at Hula Valley.

Can’t Read - This family of Syrian Rock Hyraxes seems oblivious to the dangers of hanging out near the edge of the cliff. Photographed at Mount Arbel.

Bunfight - Bunfight on the Kinneret – black-headed gulls (white-headed for the winter) fight over a bun. Photographed at the Kinneret.

Mesmerising Murmuration - These starlings swooped and swirled and twisted and turned creating everchanging patterns to confuse black kites that were looking for some starling pie. Photographed near Beit She’an.