Beware of butcher birds

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You know you're not in Israel when the only potential danger from above is a BUTCHER BIRD attack! 
I saw this sign while walking my granddog in our leafy northern suburb of Sydney; I didn't know whether to laugh or run!

(I came to Australia in November to see the grandchildren and now I am housesitting for them until late January while my daughter and their family tour America.)

A little research came up with this:

Called butchers because they hang their meat: "Grey Butcherbirds are aggressive predators. They prey on small animals, including birds, lizards and insects .... Uneaten food may be stored in the fork or a branch or impaled." and "Butcherbirds get their name from their habit of hanging captured prey on a hook or in a tree fork, or crevice. This 'larder' is used to support the victim while it is being eaten, to store several victims or to attract mates."
Another source says "With its lovely, lilting song, the Grey Butcherbird may not seem to be a particularly intimidating species. However, with its strong, hooked beak and its fierce stare, the Grey Butcherbird is not a bird to be messed with. When a nest or newly fledged chick is around, if you venture too close, a butcherbird will swoop by flying straight at your face, sometimes striking with enough force to draw blood, and each swoop is accompanied by a loud, maniacal cackle."Another source says "With its lovely, lilting song, the Grey Butcherbird may not seem to be a particularly intimidating species. However, with its strong, hooked beak and its fierce stare, the Grey Butcherbird is not a bird to be messed with. When a nest or newly fledged chick is around, if you venture too close, a butcherbird will swoop by flying straight at your face, sometimes striking with enough force to draw blood, and each swoop is accompanied by a loud, maniacal cackle."

Happy new year 2019 to you all! 
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Pigeon in a bad place

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This is the first time (fortunately!) I've ever seen a pigeon on the shopping carts just outside our town's Shufersal supermarket.
It was standing on the slot where you put in your 5-shekel coin deposit.
The poor bird looked like it could not fly, as if its tail was too short or something not quite right.
Poor thing. . .
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Davening birds?

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This is the spot where I often walk out of Meitar and into Nature.
It was Friday just before sunset, Sabbath Eve, and all these birds were on the wire as if in a long prayer line. 

I approached quietly, slowly, respectfully; but there came a point at which they could no longer abide my presence.
And they took off. 

Shabbat shalom! 

(Linking to Camera Critters and to SkyWatch Friday.)
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Big bird in the river

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It was a cold December day in Switzerland.
I was hurrying back to Grandchamp after getting a video of the big fish jumping UP the waterfall (then they swim against the current, up the river to their yearly spawning ground).
I was alone, it was getting dark, the narrow path along the rushing river was slippery, and I was imagining how I could easily fall to my death in the freezing stream with no one around to save me.
Suddenly a white being rose up right in front of me with wings spread to a meter and a half!!
An angel??!
Regaining my wits, I backtracked to try to find where it had flown to.
There it was--a beautiful tall Grey Heron standing in the water.
It paused just long enough for me to get a quick snapshot.
It was a welcome sign that I was not alone on the path.
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Free range organic farm

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Friday a neighbor-friend picked me up and we drove out to visit a big organic farm and to buy goat yogurt, white cheese, and labaneh.
This mega-dog was in a paddock with some bucks and rams.

Many of the cattle were basking in the warm sun.
It is not often that you see free-range cattle, sheep, goats, and chickens these days.
It made me happy.

Only the parrots were enclosed.

The view from the farm's dairy and shop has changed since I was there last summer.
The West Bank (which starts just across the road) is now behind a concrete separation wall.

The security fence and/or wall is not yet finished.
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(Linking to Camera Critters and SkyWatch Friday.)
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Birds in the moonlight

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Right around twilight the pigeons in my neighborhood gather together on the wires.
If I am walking home at that time, I cross to the other side of my street, just in case.
I wonder where they fly off to for the night's sleep.
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Little sparrows on big sacks

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Two sparrows feasting on rice.
(Enlarge the picture if you can't find them.)

More pictures of Beer Sheva's big open-air shuk/market in yesterday's post.

Remember when rice-throwing at weddings was banned in some places in the USA?
Apparently the notion that eating rice would kill birds was a myth. 
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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The great migration, overhead!

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Hearing the distinctive muffled distant bird-noise, I ran out of the house.
There they were--so many birds, stretched out in long lines!
The lens wasn't even wide enough to catch them all.
This happened on both Tuesday and Wednesday, just after 4:00 pm.

--  Click the photos a few times to see the big wingspans.

Maybe they are storks? 
The formation was flying north/northeast in the direction of Hebron and Jerusalem, and then maybe to a rest stop in Israel's northern Hula Valley.

Twice a year, spring and autumn, 500 million  waterfowl, birds of prey, and song birds from 400 species fly over Israel on their great migration between Africa and Europe.
They have learned to feel safe over and in our nature-loving country. 
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday and Camera Critters.)
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A sky full of birds

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It seems like you can't take a picture here in Sydney, Australia, without a bird flying into the photo.
:)  I'm not complaining/whinging, though.

Scenes from the beautiful and huge Centennial Park.

Click to enlarge and see the ibis birds better.
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday, Camera Critters, and signs, signs.)
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Red flag at Jerusalem Beach

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A pigeon lady feeding the birds in Tel Aviv.
You can enlarge the photo to see her bread bag.  

Where I'd like to be today -- Tel Aviv's "Jerusalem Beach."

It was a windy day when I took these pictures on June 27.
The red flag flew at our Mediterranean beaches to signal dangerous water conditions. 

Shabbat shalom from the hot dry desert today.
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(Linking to Skywatch Friday and Camera Critters.)
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Spring migration overhead!

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Walking back to town from a desert hike this afternoon I heard the faint tell-tale squawking high in the sky.
Yes! a huge flock of migrating birds! 
Click two separate times and see them a little better. 

The formation turned a few degrees and headed due north in the direction of Hebron and Jerusalem, and then maybe to a rest stop in the Hula Valley.
I watched long minutes until they flew out of sight. 
It was so exciting!   
I longed to join them and fly to Europe.

Twice a year 500 million  waterfowl, birds of prey, and song birds from 400 species fly over Israel on their great migration between Africa and Europe.
They have learned to feel safe over and in our nature-loving country. 

Ah, to be a bird and see the world . . . .
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Linking to Camera Critters meme.
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Dead bird falls from heaven

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Dead animals are often the only animals I find to contribute to Sunday's Camera Critters meme.

This pretty bird  was freshly-dead  when I walked through the eucalyptus grove in the wadi.
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Over the last few days the media has been buzzing about what some people thought was a hint from Pope Francis that animals die and maybe go to heaven.
It turns out that one paper ran an article about Francis but with a headline that actually quoted Pope Paul VI who once in the 1960s or 70s told a boy grieving for his pet, "Heaven is open to all creatures."
But at a recent audience Francis only said, while speaking of the afterlife, "Holy Scripture teaches us that the fulfillment of this wonderful design also affects everything around us."

You can read the explanation in this CNN article or in the wide-reaching article in the New York Times, which today made the corrections.
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My own Jewish religion hardly knows what to say about what happens to people after death.
But sometimes the rabbis refer to "the next world" or "the world-to-come" as Gan Eden, the Garden of Eden, and that certainly can conjure up images of animals roaming around, no?
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Do you ever ponder this question?
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UPDATE Dec. 15:  Catholic News Service today tries to clarify this and gives more ideas about animal heaven.
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First rain, promptly on Sukkot!

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This evening I climbed the big bare hill with the three mystery structures on top.

Tonight is the eve of the festival of Sukkot so, sitting on a rock under one of the wooden frames,  I pretended to be in a sukkah.

The International Space Station flew over at 18:02 but it too cloudy and not yet dark enough to see it.

Clouds sliced the sun into thirds.

Just before sinking behind the hills the sun took the shape of a UFO,  or maybe Noah's ark.

Then I turned in the opposite direction, hoping to see the full moon rise (the blood moon and eclipse and all), but the clouds were too heavy.
The street lights coming on in my little Meitar were just as pretty, though, in a different way.

Sheets of lightning started flashing in the clouds to the west.
I started down the "mountain" when I heard voices in the darkening sky.
No, not angels.  But something equally wondrous and surprising.
Black birds started arriving in groups of about a dozen each.
The big birds disappeared into the top of one or two tall trees and became quiet.
There must have been a hundred of them!
I never knew that all these birds came at 18:30 to roost in the eucalyptus grove!

As I walked the four blocks toward home, thunder started rumbling.
And then raindrops fell!!!!   The first since last May!
What a happy Erev Sukkot it turned out to be!
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Happy holiday!
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UPDATE 11 pm:  Ynet just put up some dramatic photos and video of the unexpected lightning (and fire) and rains across Israel this afternoon. 
Check out the palm tree trunk burning inside! 
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4579085,00.html
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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Ashen camouflage

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A few days ago I wrote about the recent fire in part of our town's eucalyptus grove down in the wadi.
 Well, it turns out that the black ash on the ground helps in camouflage!

See anything?

Enlarge the photos with a click or two.
Can you find at least 13 partridges in the first picture?! 

Here is a shot from last spring, when green leaves and flowers were still to be seen after the rainy season.

Whenever I startled these funny birds in the Jerusalem Hills, they would always run and hide or run fast and take to the air.
Here in friendly Meitar in the Negev, wild animals are laid back and calm, as if they know from experience that no one will hurt them.
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More about the hogla ( Hebrew for partridge)  at my post on Deir Hajleh [literally, in Arabic, the monastery of the partridge].

Linking to Camera Critters.
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Birds and blasts

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Missiles, mortars, and rockets are not the only things falling from our sky.

I wonder if a pigeon can get a heart attack from hearing too many Red Alert sirens and feeling explosions in the sky. 
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UPDATE July 24:
Look at this! An owl was hit by a mortar is being treated for shrapnel wounds!
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(Linking to Camera Critters and  ABC Wednesday.)
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A bird in the hand

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A bird in the hand is worth two in the Golden Age Club.

As we were learning Tai Chi, a little hummingbird flew in through the open side door and then got confused with all those glass walls.
Couldn't find her way out.

So our teacher, Eyal, gently caught the bird, stepped outside, opened his hand.
The bird rested a minute, got her bearings, and finally flew away back to freedom.
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(Linking to  Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors and to  Camera Critters.)
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Eagles riding thermals

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So there we were, in the spectacular Ein Avdat canyon, a part of the great wadi Nahal Tzin!

Having water all year round, Ein Avdat is a real oasis in the hot dry desert, a watering spot for birds and other animals and a magnet for hikers.
The path in Ein Avdat National Park is part of the Israel National Trail. 
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Our group had come for Shishi Zioni, the monthly program at Midreshet Sde Boker; and last Friday guide and bird expert Meidad Goren lectured about migrations and led us into the canyon.
We watched two fledgling humming birds in a bush and flocks of rock pigeons flying around.
We listened to the Tristram's Grackles' shrill cries.
One small chutspah-dik bird flew so close past by head I instinctively "ducked."

But most exciting was when a big Bonelli's Eagle, aka  Hieraaetus fasciatus or עיט ניצי
 hopped off the cliff and took to the air!

Then two other big raptors joined it in flight!
Click on the photo once and then once again to see all three.

With binoculars we could soon see them above Kibbutz Sde Boker.
They had caught a thermal and were circling upwards in the column's warm air. 
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(See also my post about ibex in Ein Avdat.)
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(Linking to Camera Critters and Weekend Reflections.)
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It's a bird, it's a plane . . .

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Happy spring!
It is migration season again for millions of birds on the Africa-Israel-Europe route.
The Hula Valley in northern Israel, pictured above (March 2012), is a favorite resting place.

A few days ago a bird collided with the engine of an El-Al jet headed for Tel Aviv.
The plane had to return to Berlin and make an emergency landing.
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See more at my post Revitalization of a drained swamp--the Hula.
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Linking to Sky Watch Friday.
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A human-watching pelican

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The Negev Zoo  pelican was swishing its beak around, hoping to scoop up some food.

But suddenly it decided to slide into the pond.

The big bird swam over to the little bridge.

Must have noticed that my little Libby was distributing zoo-provided kibbles to the ducks.
(Dean was busy taking some of his first photos with his first camera.)
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(Linking to Camera Critters and Weekend Reflections.)

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Live turkey

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This is as close as my family  got to turkey today here in Israel.
The turkeys were alive and well in the Negev Zoo near Beer Sheva.

The grandkids have ten days of Chanuka vacation.
I am so thankful and happy to be near them.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating the holiday today.
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