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.
The Hearts of Israel
Everyone has a blog (soapbox) these days where they wax poetic about politics, pop culture, business, etc. If you are a blog junkie like myself it can certainly certainly get overwhelming at time. Being inundated with too much information confuses the mind and distracts and who can retain all that information anyway? I I recently came across a lovely little Israel-based blog simply titled levavot, or “hearts” in English. It’s mission statement is simple. Every day a photo will be uploaded of an image of a heart that the anonymous author comes across in her day. When the heart is linked to a cause, she will provide that link, with the goal being to “spread the love.” Her mantra is love is everywhere, sometimes you just need to look.
It’s a fascinating way to look at life. Many of the images are of objects that intentionally have hearts on them – be they products, art, clothing. The really special images however are hearts that are purely from nature or noticed in her surrounds. I’ve selected a few of my favorites. The first (see right) is a nice heart on a dalmatian’s back. Trees may or may not feel pain, but after see the below photo you can’t deny that they do not have hearts. Even paint chipped away on a parking spot reveals a heart (Wonder how she spotted this one?). And finally, maybe somewhat obvious, but Israel flora reveals a heart as well.
For more images where hearts in Israel lie (both conventional and unconventional places visit Levavot.
Foto Friday – Wildflowers
Filed under: Environment, Foto Friday, General, Israeliness
The rainy season is almost at an end and the country is a-flower. Everywhere you look – the side of the highway, the vacant lot behind your building, and of course, the fields and hillsides – are a riot of red poppies and yellow daisies.
The website, Wild Flowers of Israel, a labor of love aimed at plant aficionados of all walks of life and all ages. It was started by photographer Sara Gold, Prof. Amram Eshel, a professor of botany at Tel-Aviv University, and programmer Abraham Plotnizki, using materials donated by some very talented volunteer photographers.
Photo: Mori Chen
“Flowering Times” is one great feature the site offers. This is the high season for flowering plants — including desert tall grasses like this:
Photo: Mori Chen
The site includes information about plants for herbal or medicinal uses, toxic plants, flowering seasons, protected species and more. Special emphasis has also been given to the linkage between the plants and the Jewish traditions and scholarly literature
Photo: Sara Gold
The red anemone — calanit in Hebrew — is a favorite in Israel, having been immortalized in song by the legendary Shoshana Damari.
Photo: Amram Eshel
Another is the bashful cyclamen — or rakefet — which hides between the rocks and blooms only briefly. The song Rakefet, as sung by Esther and Avi Ofarim is another classic.
Photo: Eli Livne
There’s still time enough to get out and see some wildflowers for real, and of course, there are large format images to enjoy online, too.
Human nature
An SPNI hike - great even if you're not a VIP
Our American friend, let’s call her Lauren, was planning her son’s bar mitzvah celebration in Israel. In addition to the bar mitzvah itself, she was also organizing other activities that her family as well as parents, cousins, etc would enjoy during the week.
She emailed the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel and inquired as to whether there were any organized trips/hikes during the 10 days they were going to be here at the end of December. She was told no, but if you hire a van, we’ll provide you with a guide to take you around.
“I wrote back, thanks, but we’re trying to keep our budget down and we can’t really afford to hire a van,” said Lauren. Next thing she knew, the SPNI contact had written back and said, the van is on us, and one of our director will be taking you around.
Flabbergasted, Lauren didn’t quite know how to respond. “We’re not even members of SPNI,” she responded. “But we certainly wouldn’t mind joining.”
On the predetermined day, her family gathered at the agreed upon spot, and sure enough, a van showed up wth one of SPNI’s head honchos, and they spent 10 hours hiking in the Judean hills, through Sataf, and having a splendid time. The SPNI suit was atttentive, informative and treated the family like VIPs.
At the end of the day, he said to Lauren, “You have to meet Naomi Tsur. I’ll make an appointment for you.”
Uh, ok, who is Naomi Tsur, Lauren responded, and she was told that Tsur was one of Jerusalem’s new deputy mayors on Nir Barkat’s list, and as a former head of SPNI, was going to spearhead efforts to ‘greenify’ Jerusalem.
The next day, Lauren, her husband, and three of their four kids were escorted into Tsur’s office in Safra Square.
“So, tell me, why exactly are you here?” Tsur asked the family of American tourists.
“We have no idea, we thought you wanted to see us.” answered Lauren.
“Right then, we could have admitted that this must be a big mistake and we were obviously thought to be somebody that we weren’t. Or we could have carried on this charade and continued this painfully awkward dialogue,” chimed in Mr. Lauren. “We chose the latter.”
45 minutes later, they were ushered out of Tsur’s office, still having no idea why they had been singled out for special treatment by the SPNI.
“It was as if the United States took each family of tourists that entered the country, and gave them a van for the day, a guide, and a personal meeting with President Obama,” said Mr. Lauren.
Somewhere, I’m sure, there’s a big SPNI benefactor who’s wondering why the van and VIP day has been cancelled.
Foto Friday
Head to Holon, Israel’s new cultural mecca, to view the photographs of Meir Paz, and what he sees in the peeling bark of the eucalyptus tree. The trees aren’t native to Israel, but were planted in great numbers at the turn of the century because of their ability to drain swamps, create shady forests and supply wood.
These elegant trees lose their bark gradually over time, and as a result, comments Paz on trekearth, one can see naturally carved shapes on their trunks — kind of like images in the clouds — that can look like people, animals and other abstract forms. Paz was so fascinated by this when he discovered the phenomenon that he goes back “again and again to spend hours near them in order to photograph and commemorate their special appearance.”
“Face of the Eucalyptus” will be shown at the Holon Theater, Yad Lebanim, 11 Kugel Avenue, Holon, opening September 4.
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