Wetlands may not look as picturesque as flowery meadows or verdant rainforest, but that doesn’t mean they’re not important. As well as acting as carbon sinks and shock absorbers for extreme weather events, they are also essential rest and refuelling stops for thousands of waterbirds as they migrate along coasts and continents. That’s why the […]
Tag: hula valley
Hula weekend
Spent the weekend up in the Hula Valley with my wife, my brother and his wife. No kids. Good food, wine, spectacular scenery and a little bit of birding in between. In the Agamon, Barny is still present – patiently waited for my brother. A crane or two… Always a treat to be on a […]
Birds in the Holy Land – book by Thomas Krumenacker
In this post I want to present a beautiful new book published recently by my dear friend Thomas Krumenacker. This is not a book review (I write book reviews for Dutch Birding); it is rather a celebration of this wonderful creation by my friend. I am too involved in the book, and too close to […]
Wings over Israel: conservation challenges and second chances
Israel is one of the most important bird migration bottlenecks in the world. Twice a year, when the call of warmer climes springs nature into action, an estimated 500 million birds make their spectacular odyssey: amongst them, the entire global populations of Lesser Spotted Eagles (~100,000) and Levant Sparrowhawks (~60,000), the entire European population of […]
Israel sets an example in the protection of migrating birds
HULA VALLEY, Israel — It’s chilly and still dim at 6 a.m. when Haggai Hochman, a Galilean farmer, slides into his tractor and sets out on his dusty course. Behind him, in a repurposed fertilizer spreader, he drags four tons of dried corn kernels. It’s “for the birds,” he says. As Hochman turns off the […]