2023-06

30th June 2023

I spent a happy morning on Wednesday this week, stalking little egrets at the lake, while they themselves, were stalking fish. In the time I was there I achieved more than they did, in that they didn’t catch any fish while I managed to catch a few shots. The little egret is a medium-sized bird in the heron family, standing at about 60cm in height, and as you can see is primarily white. Many, if not most, fishing birds are predominantly white - gulls, terns, gannets and pelicans, to name but a few. This gives them an advantage over the fish, as it’s hard for the fish, looking up, to spot a white bird - it is camouflaged against the light sky above. That said, kingfishers seem to manage well, with their colourful plumage – further research required to understand why they’re not white.

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28th June 2023

While walking in the woods in Netanya earlier this week, I saw a crow sitting on the ground in the undergrowth with its wings spread. There are two theories as to why a crow would do this.

1) It is ‘sunning’ – allowing the sun to help spread its preen oils, which drives away parasites

2) It is ‘anting’ – enabling ants to crawl over its feathers, and formic acid from the ants drives away the parasites.

And yesterday in the woods in the Switzerland Forest, I watched a large salmon Arab butterfly. It’s really quite a small butterfly, but it’s called a large salmon Arab to distinguish it from the even smaller, small salmon Arab butterfly.

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26th June 2023

We’ve been in Leeds for the last few weeks. We had a wonderful time visiting Mum and all the family, but we are now back home. We missed the view of the lake and the mountains, and we missed our regular walks in the woods in Netanya and the Switzerland Forest. Last week I posted a photo of a magpie in England - today is the day of the jay – photographed in the woods in Netanya. The jay and the magpie are both corvids (no relation to the virus), that is members of the crow family. Even without getting a full view of jays we’ve learnt to recognise them. One of the giveaways is the location in which we see them – near oak trees. Jays love acorns (or should I say jaycorns?), almost as much as Pooh’s friend Piglet likes haycorns. Being part of the crow family, jays are intelligent, as we’ve discussed before. They know that there’s a plentiful supply of acorns/jaycorns in the autumn and that by the winter they’re no longer to be found. So, during the autumn they bury lots of acorns in the ground, for future consumption. They’ve got really good memories and in winter when food is hard to come by, they dig up the acorns that they had secreted. Good as their memory is, it’s not perfect and inevitably some get left behind. So planted by jays, mighty oaks from little acorns grow.  

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22nd June 2023

It’s really great to see exotic birds and animals in Israel. But of course, one man's exotic is another man's normal. So now I’m back in the UK for a visit, it seems quite exciting to see magpies, which despite the negative feeling about them, are really splendid looking birds. And being part of the crow family, they’re fairly intelligent birds. The grey squirrel is also much disliked, but again it was great for me to see them scuttling around gardens and parks. But no one at all, can have negative thoughts about the splendid thrush, which can be seen in Israel, though I’ve never seen one. However, we do see blue rock thrushes on Mount Arbel.

Yesterday, I saw a pine marten out for a walk. I really can’t say I approve of keeping wild animals as pets – they’d be much better off in the wild, where they’re meant to be.

This morning, there was a thud against the window. A little dunnock (like the one pictured here, with beak wide open) had flown into the window and was on the ground suffering from concussion. There it stayed for an hour and a half and then recovered sufficiently to fly off. Sadly, in all likelihood, it will die in the next few days from internal injuries suffered in the crash.

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20th June 2023

Rarely, if ever, are mute swans to be seen in Israel, ballet aside. But in Leeds and many other places in England, there are many on lakes and rivers.

I’ve written before about how birds cope during very hot weather, like we experience for prolonged periods in Israel. Birds can’t pant like dogs, to cool down. Nor can they sweat, like we do. So, some birds, cormorants for example, use a technique known as gular fluttering to stay cool. They flutter their throat muscles (gular) to allow air to circulate within them rapidly, and in doing so, it cools the birds down. Swans have a different way of cooling. I watched a swan swimming in Roundhay Park Lake in Leeds, with its foot resting on its back. I wondered whether it was injured, but then I saw other swans doing the same. It is thought that taking its foot out of the water is a way of it cooling, as water evaporates from the foot.

And why do you think they are called mute swans? Are they unable to speak/honk? It seems that a mute swan is called a mute swan because it is less vocal than other swan species – but that’s a moot point.

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18th June 2023

I spent a very enjoyable morning, one day last week, at the Bacall Bird Observatory and Gardens in Manchester. The head gardener told me that a bullfinch had been visiting every day for the last few days, but sadly it didn’t visit while I was there, probably because it was quite a warm day. However, a juvenile goldfinch popped in and perched on a tree before my camera (and the next day, I saw an adult male goldfinch in Leeds). I don’t see goldfinches so often in Israel, but in Britain there are more than a million and a half breeding pairs.

I learnt a new word this week – the word is nidicolous, which you will probably agree is verging on the ridiculous. Nidicolous birds, of which the goldfinch is a good example, remain in the nest for a long time after birth. On the other hand, nidifugous birds (gamebirds, for example) leave the nest soon after hatching.

In the gardens I photographed black roses (Aeonium arboreum 'zwartkop') and stars of Persia (Allium cristophii).

The highlight of the visit was lunch in the tea rooms with the head gardener and chef and other important guests.

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13th June 2023

Three of these photos are of Muscovy ducks and the other is a mandarin duck. I photographed the Muscovy ducks in Jerusalem recently, and the mandarin duck, last week, in Leeds (Britain).

Muscovy is an old name for the region surrounding Moscow, but Muscovy ducks aren’t from Russia at all, they’re from Northern and Southern America. It’s unclear why they’re known as Muscovy ducks, but it’s clear to many that these ducks are amongst the ugliest of all ducks, if not the ugliest.

Mandarin ducks, on the other hand, are considered by many as the most beautiful ducks of all. They are found in China and were imported into Britain in the 18^th Century. Some escaped and now breed/live in Britain.

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11th June 2023

One of the very rewarding benefits of writing this blog, is that people from all over the world give me feedback on the blog posts.

I’ve written before that the nearest relation in the animal world of the Syrian rock hyrax is the elephant. My cousin in the USA is a physician/researcher and haematologist looking to improve the diagnosis and treatment of blood-based diseases. He wrote to me about the Syrian rock hyrax:

I am finishing up a large research project that I have been doing for the past 45 years. I have measured the expression of a membrane water channel in some 400 species including the rock hyrax whose measurements are almost identical to elephants and quite unlike rodents that they were once thought to be.

I photographed this mother with her young, recently in the Switzerland Forest.

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My friend, Moshe in Tiberias, a licenced tour guide, wrote to me about water buffalo as follows:

During the Ottoman period water buffaloes were brought to Israel from Egypt. The Arab farmers used them and later on the Turkish army used them to a limited extent as well. The surviving animals escaped captivity and today live unattended.

Their milk has a higher fat content than cow milk and to this day in Egypt is used in pastries like Sabrina. Sabrina is a type of sponge cake covered in thick sweet cream and drenched with rum.

I photographed this water buffalo last month in the Hula Valley

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And Chantal from Belgium sent me this photo taken recently by her cousin who was visiting Namibia. I’ve posted photos and written about the common chameleon that we see in Israel. It can extend its tongue a huge distance (one and a half to two times its body length). However Israeli chameleons seem to very polite and don’t stick out their tongues, at least not while I’m watching. Chantal’s cousin photographed the Namaqua chameleon, which is found in Namibian deserts, clearly less polite, in that it put out its tongue to catch its lunch, while he was watching.

The photo of the common chameleon is mine and the photo of the Namaqua chameleon with it’s tongue out catching an insect is from Chantal’s cousin.

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8th June 2023

We’ve reached that time of year when the hills are browning, and the flowers have more or less ‘hibernated’ if you know what I mean (actually, there is a word for summer sleeping – aestivation). But there are a few nice flowers and plants still to be seen.

The caper bush, from which we get caper berries, has flowers with many long violet-coloured stamens – I photographed this flower on Mount Arbel.

And the plant with reddy/orange and green berries (photographed in woods in Netanya) is the Arum maculatum, more commonly known as cuckoopint, adder’s root and various other names. The berries are rather poisonous, unless you’re a bird, so stick to the caper berries which are somewhat better for you. Caper berries contain a natural antihistamine, so may even be good for hay fever sufferers.

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6th June 2023

Have you heard of water buffalo in Israel? There’s a herd of water buffalo at the Hula Reserve in the North of Israel and another herd at Tel Afek (near Haifa) - so, should you encounter a gruff-looking cow there, grazing in the water, it’s more likely than not, a gruff-looking water buffalo, which is not to be confused with a gruffalo. Bubalus bubalis, as the Pope would call it, commonly known as water buffalo hadn’t, been seen in Israel for a hundred years or so before they were reintroduced recently and now the biggest herd in Israel is to be found in the Hula Reserve.

They are similar in many ways to their more common farm-animal ‘cousins’, the cows and bulls we all know so well. But water buffalo tend to be bigger and heavier, and their milk is richer, which makes it suitable for making cheeses, such as mozzarella. They are also, as their name indicates, partial to sauntering in shallow water, for which their large hooves are particularly useful. And they enjoy wallowing in mud as much as do hippopotami and young children.

Kosher though they are, both chewing their cud and having cloven hooves, the water buffalo in Israel are well protected and will certainly not end up on your dinner plate. They’re thought of as a domestic animal, but their speed and bulk keep them out of harm's way from predators in the wild and they will even put up a good fight against lions and tigers. Female buffalo have small horns but the males’ can reach a meter and a half which makes for quite a weapon. So, when you’re next at the Hula Reserve or Tel Afek try not to get too close a view of these large bovines.

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4th June 2023

These birds are all shrikes. The black-headed bird is a masked shrike (photographed in Switzerland Forest, Tiberias). The grey-headed bird is the lesser grey shrike (photographed near Netanya) and the brown-headed bird is a woodchat shrike (photographed last week in the upper Galilee).

Shrike comes from the word shriek, and as you can guess they’re shriekers. They’re also known as butcherbirds, because, rather gruesomely, after killing their prey, some shrikes impale them on sharp points, until they’re ready to consume them.

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1st June 2023

Last week while walking in the Switzerland Forest near Tiberias I waspassing a wild carrot plant and I saw a hive of activity on the stem of the plant, just below the carrot flower itself. When I looked closely, I saw a group of paper wasps hard at work on their nest. They use various plant fibres together with their saliva to manufacture the paper-like substance with which they build the nest. They construct little chambers within which they lay their eggs. They then secrete an ant-repellent to deter ants from stealing the eggs they lay. It struck me as a little short-sighted of them, to position their nest on the flower stem, as the stem will wither soon, but I guess they know better than I, where is a good location for their nest. I watched them for some time and went quite close, which I have since discovered wasn’t a great idea as they can give a nasty sting if they feel their nest is threatened. After a while I let them be and went on my way.

Yesterday, I revisited and they’re still working industriously on their nest. I waspleased as could be that indeed it seems an OK place for a nest, at least for now.

2023-05

30th May 2023

Fifteen years ago, when, funnily enough, I was fifteen years younger, on a very hot August day (about 40 C) I walked at Yehudia and was almost defeated by the hike. I walked down a steep ravine, with Naomi (our daughter), into a gorge, to see a spectacular waterfall. The descent was quite tough but so far, so good. The problem started with the upward climb, which was just as steep. For Naomi, the climb was as easy as could be, but I struggled to the point that I thought I was having a heart attack. Thank goodness I got back in one piece but determined not to repeat the madness. Walks like that are best left for mountain goats.

Earlier this week, on a warm humid day (about 33 C) Miriam and I became mountain goats and did the walk – and completed it, without feeling at all ill. So, we’re fifteen years older but have become acclimatised to the hot weather.

For all our efforts we were rewarded with beautiful views and seeing a freshwater crab, a black mud-dauber wasp (with bright yellow legs and other parts) and loads and loads of glaucous star thistles.

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28th May 2023

Cricket season is now under way in the UK, and I’ve been seeing crickets here too. And grasshoppers - but thank goodness not locusts. A couple of years ago, we had a plague of crickets – they were everywhere, including in our apartment – it wasn’t very pleasant. Crickets, grasshoppers and locusts are similar in many respects but there are differences. Crickets have long antennae; grasshoppers have short antennae. Locusts and grasshoppers are very similar, but locusts swarm and grasshoppers don’t.

Here are a couple of photos of grasshoppers from recent visits to Mount Arbel.

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25th May 2023

As you can see from these photos, we really do have wonderful views from our apartment. From our balcony we see the lakes and mountain – these photos are of sunrise looking towards the East across the lake, and also looking Northeast, the lake and snow-capped Mount Hermon in the spring. From our kitchen window we see the residential areas of upper Tiberias and the Switzerland Forest.

In this photo essay in the Times of Israel I discuss the nature that we see at the lake and at the Switzerland Forest on our frequent walks:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/photo-essay-nature-of-tiberias/

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23rd May 2023

I’m not one who really likes getting wet, aside from in the shower, so despite living so close to the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), I’m yet to get closer to it than the dry shoreline. Early yesterday morning I saw these little critters at the edge of the water, and for sure now I shan’t be taking a dip. I couldn’t fancy meeting all those claws under water. I watched them walk sideways, which they do because they have stiff jointed legs, and it seems that having such legs it’s easier to walk sideways than forwards. So, if you wake up in the morning feeling a little stiff in your joints, try walking sideways.

This particular crab is the Potamon potamius, also known as the Levantine freshwater crab. It’s not actually classified as critically endangered but is ‘near threatened’, so hopefully their predators will take that into consideration before feasting on them. Potamon sounds a bit like pokemon, which apparently is derived from the words pocket monsters. Can’t say, I’d like a potamon monster in my pockets. But actually, Potamon comes from the from Greek word potamos, river (hippopotamus is a river ‘horse’), as does potamius.

Next time I see a Potamon potamius I shall probably think of it as pocket hippo!

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21st May 2023

While walking in the Switzerland Forest a few weeks ago, Miriam and I saw a bright yellow chameleon, disappearing into the undergrowth. I’m afraid I couldn’t photograph it – so these photographs are from previous encounters.

Chameleons really are fascinating little creatures and their most interesting feature, of course, is their ability to change colour. Chameleons are lizards, but unlike most other small lizards we see, the chameleon moves very slowly – it moves as if it has all the time in the world, and indeed, makes the tortoise look like a hare. Not only does it lack speed but it also lacks a defence arsenal – it doesn’t have sharp teeth or claws or a hard shell to fend off predators. Its best chance of survival is to appear unthreatening or better still to appear as though it’s not there at all.

If you think the chameleon’s ability to change colour is so that it can blend into its surroundings by camouflaging itself, you’re thinking the way I thought; and, I suspect, like most people think. But that’s not the case. The chameleon’s colour change is usually associated with mood swings. Just as we will turn white if we’re frightened out of our wits or red if we’re embarrassed or are inflamed, so too the chameleon’s colour can indicate how it is feeling. If it is happily walking along in the sun, enjoying life to the full, it will be a bright green colour; if it’s frightened, its complexion turns a dark shade; if it’s feeling aggressive or angry it might be reddish; and if it has a bout of depression it could be brownish. It doesn’t hide its emotions well, it wears its heart on its sleeve – what you see is what you get.

How chameleons change colour and how they do it so quickly is beyond the scope of this short post but there are other characteristics that are worth noting. Their swaying gait is an attempt to appear unaggressive and though not wide-eyed, so to speak, their eyes enable them a 360-degree field of view, which of course, isn’t bettered, by any other creature. They can even focus their eyes independently in different directions. Their ability to see what is behind as well as what is in front, as can any experienced schoolteacher, is useful for both defensive and offensive purposes. And its hugely long tongue, about one and half times its body length, enables it to capture its prey, primarily insects, without moving far at all. The chameleon may not have weapons with which to defend itself but when stalked by a bird or snake it uses its intelligence to appear aggressive and strong and opens its mouth wide to threaten its predator.

Unlike the chameleon, most of us can’t see what is behind us, and not having such a long tongue we may have to get off the couch to hunt down our next meal but there is one way we can emulate the chameleon. If we’re feeling a little off-colour, we should think of a million chameleons, and hopefully we’ll regain our colour as quickly as can a vermilion chameleon.

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18th May 2023

A couple of weeks ago, Miriam and I were walking in an urban forest in Netanya and we watched a hooded crow with interest. It had found a stale slice of bread, which had become very hard. The crow stood on the bread and used its substantial bill to hammer the bread until it cracked into small pieces. Then it took one piece at a time and flew to a little stone structure in which rainwater had gathered. It dunked the piece of bread in the water – left it for half a minute or so to soften, then took it out of the water and ate it.

Clearly this crow was no bird-brain. Indeed, crows are considered amongst the most intelligent of birds and recent experiments have shown that crows can recognise the faces of other crows and even human faces. Pigeons, which have also been shown to be intelligent, can do this too. It seems that pigeons can be taught to recognise, somehow, all twenty-six letters in the English alphabet – a skill that, no doubt, they find useful when speaking pidgin English.

It's interesting to note that Noah understood how intelligent crows and pigeons are. He sent a raven and then a dove on reconnaissance missions, before he came out of the ark. Ravens are part of the crow family, and doves are part of the pigeon family.

This week, Ariel wrote to me, to tell me that he had rescued a crow chick that had fallen from its nest, and he had returned it to its parents. He told me that, now when he leaves home, the crows greet him and accompany him on his walk for the first 200 meters or so. He thinks that they’re showing their gratitude. Well, believe it or not, it is thought that crows do express gratitude to people who feed them, by bringing them small gifts. So, more likely than not, the crows really are showing their gratitude to Ariel.

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16th May 2023

Last week I wrote about Egyptian vultures that I had seen recently. Today I’m writing about Griffon vultures that we saw last week at Hai Bar on Mount Carmel, near Haifa.

Griffon vultures are huge, having a wingspan of up to 2.8 metres, much bigger than Egyptian vultures whose wingspan can reach just 1.7 metres. Whereas the Egyptian vulture is an endangered species, the Griffon isn’t. But locally, in Israel, it is endangered – there are far fewer here now than there were a few decades ago. To try to ensure that these magnificent birds remain in Israel, there are various breeding programs to boost their numbers – including at Gamla, Ramat Hanadiv and Hai Bar. At these places and elsewhere, the vultures can be seen riding the thermals, circling to gain height. They have superb eyesight and can see carrion from up to four miles away. By circling above carrion, they alert other vultures to come to share a meal.

Their stomachs are highly acidic allowing them to digest bacteria that other scavengers can’t – thus removing dangerous bacteria from the environment. We might not think of vultures in the positive light that we think of eagles, but they perform a vital function, for the benefit of us all.

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I’ve also included a photo of a wild carrot plant (which is also known as Queen Anne's lace and bird's nest). After flowering they contract and turn concave like a bird’s nest, as you can see.

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14th May 2023

On a recent visit to the Hula reserve, I spent quite some time watching a pair of black-winged stilts (the male has black wings, and the female, brown). They’re very long-legged waders with pink legs and an ungainly walk, which reminds me of a clown on stilts. The ratio of the length of their legs compared to their bodies is bettered only by flamingos. They feed on insects on the surface of the water, and their long legs give them the ability to wade a little beyond the edge of lakes/rivers while keeping their feet planted firmly on the ground.

To look at them, it seems that they bend their knees in the opposite way to the way we bend our knees. You can see the same knee-bends on the little egrets too. However, this isn’t so. The joint that looks like a knee is actually the bird’s ankle. Its knee is much further up the leg (often not visible) and bends in the same direction as our knees do.

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11th May 2023

I recently visited a Nature Reserve; I’ve got to know the folk there quite well, so I asked if there was anything special to see. I was told that an Egyptian vulture had flown over the day before, but they were not publicising it, because some unscrupulous photographers were operating in the reserve. These photographers, sadly, are more interested in a good photo than the welfare of the birds. They were being particularly cautious, as the Egyptian vulture has a conservation status of ‘endangered’.

After I’d been walking for half an hour or so, a vulture flew above me, circled, and then I noticed it had a mate with it too. I managed to get photos as you can see. But I’ve been asked, when I post them on Facebook or elsewhere, not to say exactly where I saw them.

When thinking of Egyptian vultures, I’m reminded that we read in the Bible (Exodus 19:4) of how the Children of Israel were transported out of Egypt on the wings of eagles (kanfei nesharim). Obviously, this is metaphorical but it’s interesting to note that a nesher is not an eagle, but a vulture. But I guess that vultures are not widely liked and to translate as ‘the wings of vultures’, doesn’t sound nearly so impressive.

I also spotted a spotted fritillary – a small butterfly.

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9th May 2023

Near the lake, and even in the Switzerland Forest, as well as many other places we visit in Israel, we frequently see white-throated kingfishers. The first of these photos, was from a recent visit to the Kinneret lake.

But you don’t have to be by the lake or in the countryside to see this master fisher, yesterday in the centre of Tel Aviv, next to the Sarona Market, I watched a white-throated kingfisher dive from a nearby building into a lily pond, in which there were goldfish swimming.

The kingfisher enjoyed a good fish lunch, as you can see.

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7th May 2023

In the Switzerland Forest last week, we encountered this 30cm/12inch long, tiny-legged skink – it’s skinny like a snake but it’s not stinky like a skunk.

We also saw a roughtail rock agama (also 30cm/12inch long), as we often do when we’re out and about in the countryside on warm or hot days. The agama is not nearly as skinny and has much bigger legs.

On Friday we watched a roughtail rock agama walk up a vertical wall at Kibbutz Lavi – easy for a lizard – they have suction pads on their feet. It was very hot on Friday – 43 Centigrade in the shade at 2pm – but much cooler today/tomorrow – high 20’s.

The skink and agama both have long tails which they will shed if attacked by a predator – the idea is to sacrifice a non-essential limb, hoping to save its life. The tail grows back but isn’t quite the same quality as the original.

Like all lizards, they’re cold-blooded and in order to gain sufficient energy to operate, they bask in the warm sun for much of the day.

The final picture is a chicory flower.

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4th May 2023

There are lots of nine-spotted moths around at the moment – we’ve spotted them at Mount Arbel and also at the Switzerland Forest. This moth is also known as the yellow-belted burnet – yellow-belted for obvious reasons. Moths, unlike butterflies, are generally nocturnal insects, but the nine-spotted moths are an exception. Another big difference between moths and butterflies is that moths rest with their wings open, butterflies tend to fold them up as you can see in this photo of a Bath white butterfly.

If my white bath looked like this colour, I wouldn’t be so pleased. So, why is this butterfly known as a Bath white? I think there is a clue in that it is a ‘Bath white’, not a ‘bath white.’ Answer - it’s named for the town Bath in the UK – and it’s whitish – hence the Bath white.

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2nd May 2023

We spent this last weekend in Jerusalem, and on Sunday visited Gazelle Valley. The Gazelles kept a low profile hiding beneath the vegetation that was growing high, so we just got a fleeting glimpse as gazelles passed by in the distance.

Gazelles were scarce, but the rather lovely purple milk thistles were in abundance. However, we didn’t need to travel to Jerusalem to see them, we regularly see them much closer to home. But today we saw something we’d never seen before – a white version. As this was so unusual, we consulted the park wardens, who told us that the white milk thistles are a genetic mutation – they are albino milk thistles.

By the way, some people claim that milk thistle can help cure cancer. The general consensus in the scientific world is that more research is needed before we will know if milk thistle can help prevent or treat cancer.

As well as the purple and albino milk thistle photos, there are also photos of a very young coot chick and a spectacled bulbul that we saw.