Foto Friday – Marco Jona’s borderless birds
Filed under: coexistence, education, Environment, Foto Friday, General, Science, Social Justice, Travel
This dignified feathered fellow is an Egyptian vulture as captured by photographer Marco Jona who has a passion for nature photography, in particular the migrating birds who pass through our region twice each year.
Bird migration is one area where Israel and her neighbors have had excellent success cooperating on tracking and research. A study, Birds As Peacemakers in the Middle East, the culmination of 15 years of research was released in 2010 and it is well worth reading.
The project got underway in 1996 as research cooperation between the German Ministry of the Environment, the Max Planck Institute, Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI). Israel’s Ministry of Education set up a website – www.birds.org.il — for schoolchildren to learn about the project, which initially outfitted 120 migrating White Storks on their path from Germany to Africa.
The first phase of the project, entitled “Migrating Birds Know No Borders”, widened the original initiative to include training Palestinian and Jordanian bird ringers, along with educational activities. It was funded by USAID-MERC and led by the International Center for the Study of Bird Migration, established by the SPNI and TAU, the Paletine Wildlife Society and Jordan’s Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature in Jordan.
The European Union joined in the second phase, “For Birds and People in the Jordan Valley”, which developed three field stations in Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. But the most extensive project, initiated in 2002, researched the use of barn owls and kestrels as biological pest controllers in agriculture; 200 nesting boxes have been erected in Israel, about 200 in Jordan and 200 are being set up in the PA with plans for another 800 there.
“We feel that the greatest achievement is that the subject of birds that ‘know no boundaries’ has succeeded in building a significant bridge in this war-torn region: teachers and pupils, conservationists, birdwatchers, academic researchers, farmers, people concerned with flight safety and the general public.”
The scientific results of the project — including satellite tracking, research on the effect on radar on bird migration, monitoring of migration by recording bird calls and more — are summarized in the report, as well as a 10-year outlook for what it hopes to do next.
As unrest in the Middle Eastern continues, we can only hope that this regional cooperation can continue spreading word about its good work — making stories like the so-called “Mossad vulture” arrested in Saudi Arabia for being an Israeli spy — a thing of the past. (PS: The charges were false and the accused released). At the very least, it should allow nature lovers like Marco Jona to keep on making captivating images like these.
Short-toed eagle
Barn owl
Pied kingfisher
Long-eared owl
White-throated kingfisher
Foto Friday – Jerusalem Bird Observatory
Filed under: education, Environment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Life, Profiles, Social Justice, Travel
Not many seats of government can lay claim to being located on one of the world’s prime birdwatching sites. In fact, Israel’s Knesset may be the only one.
The Jerusalem Bird Observatory (JBO) is a 5,000 sqm (one acre) plot of prime real estate, between the Knesset and the Supreme Court. The site is one of the few traditional birdwatching areas in Jerusalem and houses the Israel national center for bird-ringing (also called banding or tagging). Bird migration patterns are studied throughout the seasons, data collected and analyzed in a comprehensive database.
The JBO has four main goals: 1. environmental education, 2. conservation research, 3. eco-tourism, and 4. creation of a common forum for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Educational activities include training courses in tagging birds, courses in photographing birds, birdwatching tours, a birdwatching club, lectures , presentations of current research, and education about bird watching for kids.
The JBO website has an active community of members who upload photos from around the country of rare birds that have been sighted and tagged.
So, for example, on July 1 after a busy day of tagging 40 Green finches and Spectacled Bulbuls, JBO volunteers Ora and Avner met a surprise with bird number 41: an Indian silverbill. The report: “It was molting heavily and not at its prettiest! Nonetheless, a darling bird, tiny as can be, with a sharp bill!”
Volunteer Ron Haran, a talented nature photographer, snapped the finches in action…
and a bulbul, too.
And JBO volunteers Yotam and Yosef from the Zora ringing station, outside Jerusalem, report that — despite the summer heat — preparations for the fall migration are already in place: “The little warblers… are getting fatter and beginning to vacate their nests for their northern cousins who will pass our way in a month en route to Africa. This morning there were the first two European warblers… The first group of storks has settled in the alfalfa fields and we’re awaiting the pelicans.”
They also ringed a Red-rumped swallow…
and a wren.
The JBO is an amazing place and the central location can’t be beat but if you can’t visit right away, check out the website. The list of sighted ring recoveries reported by birders all over Israel makes for a fascinating read. It also serves as a glossary of bird names in Hebrew, English and Latin. That’s how I learned that the bulbul is called that in English, too.
Foto Friday – Oded Dayan – Bird Migration Across the Hula
Filed under: Environment, Foto Friday, Travel
The days are getting shorter and bird migration across the Rift Valley — otherwise known as our little corner of the Middle East — is at its height.
Israel is something of a paradise for birdwatchers, with 500 million birds migrating south from Europe to warmer climates in Asia and Africa each fall. The Israel Ornithology Center, which operates three bird watching centers, has recorded more than 540 different species of birds in Israel at various seasons in the year.
Photographer Oded Dayan, who works with the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael – JNF, produced this series of images documenting Lake Agmon, the heart of the re-flooded Hula Valley in Northern Israel.
Agmon is one of the best-known birding centers with a developed tourist infrastructure. According to the Ministry of Tourism, “approximately 35,000 cranes fill the fields and wetlands during the fall migration, with about 25,000 staying for the winter.”
“Visitors can take advantage of the camouflaged bird observation points and choose to tour the area on foot, by bicycle, golf cart, safari wagon or train. This is also a center for bird research and a station for bird ringing.”
More information about Lake Agmon can be found on the KKL-JNF website, or on the Ministry of Tourism website. And of course, ISRAEL21c has reported extensively on the rehabilitation of the now-flourishing Hula Valley.
Foto Friday – Israel is Birdwatch Central
Filed under: Environment, Foto Friday, General, Travel
Tiny Israel is located on a land bridge that forms one of the major routes for birds migrating between Eurasia and Africa. Each spring, hundreds of millions of birds fly north to Europe and Asia, and thousands of birdwatchers from around the world come to Israel to watch them at sites such as the Kibbutz Lotan Centre for Birdwatching, the International Birding & Research Center in Eilat (IBRCE), and other birdwatching stations.
View in HD Download 400p Version Visit Sassi Haham’s ExposureRoom Videos Page
Bird watching season opens next week with the 2nd annual Artists for Nature Festival , which will take place in the Hula Valley on 6-15 March 2009 The festival, organized by the Israel Ornithological Center of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) together with the Dutch-based Artists for Nature Foundation (ANF), is intended to raise awareness of top priority conservation issues through cultural exchange. Over 20 internationally-renowned wildlife artists will participate by drawing and painting alongside Israeli wildlife artists in the open landscapes of the Hula Valley. In addition, there will be nature tours, lectures and workshops that will be open to the general public.
View in HD Download 400p Version Visit Sassi Haham’s ExposureRoom Videos Page
Then, at the end of the month, the Ornithological Center, together with IBRCE, will organize the 3rd annual International Spring Migration Festival in Eilat on 23-30 March 2009. The program, timed to coincide with the peak week of Israel’s spring migration, will include activities for nature lovers and birders of all levels.
View in HD Download 400p Version Visit Sassi Haham’s ExposureRoom Videos Page
These activities dovetail nicely with the news that British nature magazine BBC Wildlife, declared the Hula Lake Park as one of the most important photography and observation sites in the world.
View in HD Download 496p Version Visit Sassi Haham’s ExposureRoom Videos Page
Sassi Haham is an avid photographer/videographer and birdwatcher who shoots amazing videos. Some of these are posted here with many more to view on ExposureRoom, and on Zapar.col.il, the Israeli birdwatching portal – which also has a comprehensive index of Israel’s birds.
View in HD Download 400p Version Visit Sassi Haham’s ExposureRoom Videos Page
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