Day 9

My day started a little before 5 a.m. this morning. The wakeup call wasn’t until 6:30, but a small group of us decided to spend our last morning in Israel watching the sun rise over the Sea of Galilee. On the way down to the waterfront, I could hear the many birds in the trees. I didn’t recognize their calls and couldn’t see any of them, but they sounded like they were eagerly anticipating the sunrise too. Several groups of Chimney Swifts flew overhead.

We arrived at the waterfront with plenty of time to spare before the sun came all the way up. The air was comfortably cool and there was a very slight breeze. While we waited for the sun, I enjoyed the opportunity to watch the birds. Gulls of some variety circled over the water giving an occasional call. Some of them lazily fought over a preferred perch on one of the boats. Behind me were several kinds of Pigeons (or maybe Doves), that became more plentiful as the morning wore on.

After a while, another visitor arrived that was even more interested in the Pigeons than I was. One of the many stray cats in the area carefully crouched in a pothole hoping for an easy breakfast. But, the Pigeons didn’t want to cooperate, and, after a few failed pounces, the cat soon became frustrated and left.

I heard my ‘Saturn Missile’ Warbler again, and this time I was able to get a look at it. I was relieved to see that I had not misidentified the call; it was definitely not a Pine Warbler. What its true identity is, I still don’t know. It had dark feathers and a long bill, but it was quite a distance away, and without binoculars, I couldn’t tell much more detail.

Some of the Chimney Swifts I’d seen earlier flitted out above the water, never venturing more than a few yards out. The split-tailed bird I’d seen at Tabgha joined them.

Something I didn’t recognize at all, with a very long bill and dark feathers sat in the water not too far from where I was standing. Occasionally, it would dive and reappear a few seconds later, usually with a successful catch.

Soon, the sun peeked over the clouds that were sitting on the horizon. The narrow, elongated reflection in the water created the image of a slowing growing column of fire, gradually stretching toward where we were on the western shore. But, before the pillar of fire could reach its full height, the sun was once again obscured by clouds. However, they couldn’t hold it back too long and soon the sun burst forth in all of its splendor. The fire column was almost too bright to look at directly, the sky turned a brilliant blue, and, coming out from the uniform grayness of just a few minutes ago, white puffs of clouds became visible.

Morning had arrived.

We walked back to the hotel and arrived just as everyone else was waking up. The expense of being a little more tired than we would have been was definitely worth the experience. As an extra treat, breakfast provided a brief glimpse of a hummingbird just outside the window of the hotel restaurant.

At the gift shop on the Jordan River site, I spotted a birding pamphlet I hadn’t seen at any of the other shops before. It was really quite nice, with good illustrations and descriptions, and it only covered the most common birds, which made it easier for me to find what I was looking for. However, this gift shop had a particularly high markup and the pamphlet would have cost me almost as much as the book I’d seen at another site. I was still able to spend a couple minutes flipping through it. The illustration of the House Sparrow was better than the picture I’d seen before, and I can now say without a doubt that is what I’ve been seeing. But, the most exciting discovery was the true identity of my ‘Chimney Swifts.’ It turns out that they’re actually Common Swifts, but I was happy to know that I wasn’t too far off.

That makes at least four birds that I can say I identified for sure: Common Swift, House Sparrow, Fan-tailed Raven, and Tristram’s Grackle.

Israel is a beautiful country.