Some birds and scenes from Israel recently

I took toooo many photos but enjoyed them all.  Here is birding Israel 101... most of these were taken around the Knesset gardens and Jerusalem Bird Observatory.  Here is a Hooded Crow.

 During my tour of the Knesset, I had the pleasure of seeing the Israel Declaration of Independence Scroll.

 Love this bird, the yellow vented bulbul.

 The Israel Museum has a fabulous outdoor 2nd temple model, nearly 1 acre in size and about 1/50 scale. This is what Jerusalem looked like in approx. 66 a.d., before its destruction by the romans.

 This is the SE corner, the ancient City of David area.

 Another Hooded Crow

 I sure enjoyed walking around in the Knesset gardens.  Lots of Lesser Whitethroats around.

 But my favorite new bird of the trip was this Blue Throat!

 He is a stunning little guy.

I saw this in Tel Aviv along the sea - I think it is a Pallas's gull !

 And these are yellow legged gulls.

 Wagging its tail for me was this White Wagtail :)

 The Common Myna is not well loved here as it is invasive. Handsome bird, though.

 This is the cute Common Blackbird.

 My favorite Jerusalem birding spot!

 Notice the Sunbird on this homemade feeder. Beautiful!

 Common Chiffchaff.

 These are everywhere but I loved seeing these Laughing Doves.

 This is the impressive looking european Greenfinch

 And the Eurasian Jay.

 European Greenfinch with an attitude.

 This cuteness is the Blackcap warbler.

 This is a female Sunbird.

 All you need is a water feature and you have trees full of birds nearby.  The little one is the female Blackcap.

 This is the Great Tit, quite a songster.

 Greenfinches?

 What a bird!  Yellow vented bulbul

 Had an amazing time at the Western wall.  One of these doves flew down near us when we finished praying there.

 Can't help but love these ancient walls.

 AHA!  See the tiny Common Swift?

 This guy is amazing, the Hoopoe.

 Just as stunning in flight.

 Enjoyed watching them band the birds, ok they call it ringing.  This super bird is the Eurasian Wryneck.

 The powerful jaws of the Hawfinch!

 Hmm, have no idea what kind of frog.

 Could be a Willow Warbler.

 These Sunbirds take your breath away, so beautiful.

 Pretty neat lizard.

 Another Whitethroat.

 You can be sure this is the Syrian Woodpecker, the only WP in the area. Cute!

 Another whitethroat?

 Amazingly tiny and beautiful!

 I wanted to mention that the common crane was a familiar sight around town  :)

 This peafowl was at Ramat Rachel,...

 as well as this Rose Ringed Parakeet.

 This handsome guy is the Jackdaw.

 He seemed interested in the archaeological park.  They have remains there going back 3000 years, it is a fascinating site.

 I think this one is an Orphean Warbler.

 I just cannot resist taking pictures. I loved seeing these birds, it really connected me to the land even more.

 I think this one is a Syrian Serin with the yellow tail.

 The last morning, we had the pleasure of seeing them band this Common Nightingale.

 My friend got to release it.

 This was their sunbird feeder, a great way to recycle the drinking bottles with a pin hole in the cap.  Wish I could attract Sunbirds to my backyard !!

 This is Avner, who works at the Jerusalem Bird Observatory, and was on the winning team of the Champions of the Flyway contest with their 179 species in one day in a southern region of Israel. Congratulations and thanks for being such a great teacher.