Turkish Delight

A weeks birding around the Tuzla Golu region on the Bodrum peninsula.

Swallowtail (continental sub-species)
Little Owls were everywhere...
Syrian Woodpecker
Black-headed Bunting

Woodchat Shrikes

Masked Shrike

Peregrine lunch...

Turtle Dove

Red-rumped Swallows

House Martin building houses...

These 3 Dalmatian Pelicans were spotted on Bafa Golu, flying South a few days later to Tuzla Golu.

Black-winged Stilt

A bit late in the season to see the masses of Flamingoes that frequent Tuzla lake but, fortunately, a few had decided to stay a while....

Short-toed Eagle

My only view of Rollers, posing atop a construction crane at Ephesus.

Farmland fancies

Early evening near Biggleswade, Bedfordshire.


... dinner time

Israel - Tel Aviv

Hoopoe. A surprise find, and very obliging bird, early one morning along the beach near Jaffa.

Hula

Clouds of Common Crane's sweeping in over the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon. Total bird count was reported at 32,000!

Formation flying

Fishing king's

Pied...looking for lunch at Agmon Hula
Common...taking a breather

White-throated...

Israel

Images from a recent trip to the Holy Land...

Preparing for take-off - Grey Heron


Blacks and Whites - Storks and Spoonbills

Jay - ssp atricapillus (thanks to Amir for the use of his Binyamina garden)

Pond-dipping....

Black Stork

Wrestling with lunch - Cattle Egret

Rose-ringed Parakeet

Spur-winged Plover

Laughing Dove's at Ma'agan Mikhael

Dungeness Dolphins

We enjoyed watching this school of around 8 dolphins for about half an hour, playing just off the surf-line off the pebble beach at Dungeness; presumably attracted close inshore by the warm water outfows from the nearby nuclear power station, the only blot on an otherwise gloriously desolate landscape.

My limited attempts to identify these mammals suggest they are most likely bottle-nosed dolphins, which are not uncommon in this area.

In the Shadow of The Moon

Total solar eclipse on 22 July 2009. Images taken from Hangzhou, China. Unfortunately, the anticipated cooling of the air temperature during totality was hardly noticable in the humid 40'C early morning heat.

Composite image centred on totality, showing the slender crescent Sun before and after the diamond ring.

3rd contact and the diamond ring effect.

At 20,000 degrees the chromosphere (red lower atmosphere of the Sun) makes a brief appearance at 3rd contact, signalling the end of totality. At 2 O'clock is a solar prominence, itself the size of planet Earth.

The diamond ring at second contact.

Sunlight shining through valleys at the edge of the Moon - an effect commonly known as Bailey's Beads.

Some new friends....

At the end of totality, the thin crescent Sun creeps into view.
At 2 million degrees, the pearly light of the inner corona embraces the silhouetted Moon.

The Nearest Star

Our nearest star - the Sun. Currently near the end of solar minimum, activity on the surface is unusually low. Photographed on 5th July, the visible sunspot group (#1024) heralds the start of solar cycle #24.