After the Holidays




The holidays are now officially over, so I now have time to publish some of the pictures I took in the last month or so. I'll start with pictures taken in the beautiful area I live in - that will take a few posts as there's much to share. After that I'll share some pictures from a trip we took to Eilat and the desert on the way, with some different wildlife.

Little Owl on a tree close to Givat Ada


  


Let's start with this amazingly cute Little Owl that resides on a tree near an abandoned house close to Givat Ada. A friend suggested that I go looking for him there, and he was well worth the wait. Look at these eyes and the facial expression! All this comes in a tiny package that's smaller than a dove, but what personality...

The Ada river is mostly dried out this time of year, anxiously awaiting the rain. But some spots still have (mostly standing) water, and they're a haven for the animals that needs the water to survive.

Toad hiding in the water

     

And, of course, the incredibly colorful dragonflies and damselflies:

Blue Dragonfly

    


Not far from that spot I met some of the animals that need less water:

Lizard has caught a small insect


I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye, and luckily spotted this tiny lizard (it's total length is less than 5cm). I was even more excited when I enlarged the photos and saw that they have just caught a snack!

We also have the Shrikes migrating through Israel now:

Red-backed Shrike

 

These beautiful small birds look innocent enough. Fact is, they catch their prey (insects, mostly), and impale them on branches until they die and are ready to be consumed. Looks can be deceiving.

When out on the beach I noticed some movement in the sand. It took some adjustment of the eyes to actually notice what was going on:

Ocypode cursor

     

These small crabs were running around the beach collecting food. Whenever a bird (or anything else that scared them) approached they fled immediately to holes they dug in the sand. The beach seend completely deserted in a split-second. Incredible!

Speaking of birds on the beach, the seagulls were putting on quite a show.

Seagull has landed!

 

I think this will be it for this post. It's becoming long enough as it is. Any comments or suggestions are most definitely welcome! I hope you like the new format of the update email. Let me know...