...we crossed private property and restricted areas, but we did it responsibly...

on the roof of the cow shed (see below)

Since arriving back in Israel, I have had plenty of lab work to do, but whenever I have the opportunity to go out to the field with my lab-mate, I try to say "yes."  Yesterday was one such day.  It was a day of a few firsts and crazy experiences (as always).

The day started early in Jerusalem, for me at least.  I had to pick up the lab jeep from campus and drive to Tel Aviv.  I am not a bad driver, and I am not bad at directions, but driving a new car in a new place isn't always the most fun.  Luckily, at 7am I missed most of the morning traffic; I had studied my map well; and I had a good handle of the HUGE (well compared to tiny Israeli cars) lab vehicle.  I arrived more or less on time and picked up my lab mate, so we could start the three-hour drive up to the Golan where our storks nest.

When we got to the North, we drove around a bit observing the nests.  The storks have grown a lot since we came last to ring and take feathers.  The nestlings of one nest were already beginning flight exercises.  The nestlings of the other nest were younger, and we came, in part, with the intention of going up to their nest to get feathers and ring them because last time they were too small.  Before we went up to the nest, though, we had a lot of observing to do.  An overarching goal in the Golan is to catch the adult storks and put on trackers and transmitters.  That way we can understand more about their migration.  There are also adults that don't have rings, so if we can ring them, they can easily be identified in Israel or elsewhere, and their ages, breeding sites, and other details can be more accurately be recorded.

Catching adult storks, though, is not so easy.  We have been trying a number of things until now and none have worked, so yesterday was dedicated to determining if our storks have fixed foraging sites, and if so, locating them.    We first observed the comings of goings from a hill between two relatively close nests.  We tried getting to the hill from several different angles, but there was a pretty serious fence around it.  As we were trying to get to the hill, one of the adults flew up.  I quickly scrambled to the roof of the jeep to get a better view of where she came from and where she was off to.  Once she flew off, we continued searching for a cut-through to the hill.

our picnic/observation spot on an old bunker

We finally found a gate that wasn't locked and pulled the jeep up to the entrance.  On the other side of the fence that we were about to cross to climb to the hill of an old bunker that was fenced off from most sides was a horse and a young foal.  The foal looked pretty exhausted from the heat and was lying in the sun.  It was so Israeli when, before going in and setting up our picnic area/observing point, we called the village security to tell them not only about the young foal but also that we would be sitting there for the next several hours to observe.  We also told them that we would be going up to the nest later in the day.  All went well and we began our ascent.  As we were walking up, we were greeted by a few more animals: donkeys this time.  They came out from inside the shady, cool, defunct bunker and began to follow us.  After a few minutes though, they turned around, and we found ourselves a nice sunny spot to put our chairs and umbrellas.

our car far far away and on the other side of the barbed fence

We had a nice picnic and did some good observing.  After getting a sense of where the storks were flying we tried to drive around a bit and see if we could see them foraging.  No such luck.  Instead we went for ice cream and then continued to a reservoir to see if the storks were there.  When we got there, there was barbed wire, a notice about drowning, and not a soul in sight.  It was so Israeli when we casually walked up to the wire and climbed right through.  We saw a ton of storks and other birds and even a few storks, but most of the storks we saw were younger, non-breeding ones.  We walked around the reservoir for a while, though, seeing the sights and the birds.  Then we went back to the car to drive to another area of the reservoir (also through a fence of two and past a few private property signs).  This view and another pond area used by the cows as a watering hole (they were actually swimming!) were nice but free of storks so we decided to head back to the nest with the young storks, collect feathers, and drive to one more watering whole that might be a foraging site for storks.

ladder to the roof

squirting cucumber

Right as we were pulling into the farm with the nests, though, we saw an adult land on the nest.  We parked and quickly scrambled up a ladder to the roof of a cowshed.  We got up just in time to see the stork fly off into the direction we were suspecting, thus further confirming our suspicion that they might be foraging on the trail we wanted to drive on near the watering whole.  We came down to the fence and headed over to the nest with a member of the village and his lift/cherry picker/thing.  While we were waiting for him, I discovered (i.e. my lab partner introduced me) to the coolest plant ever, the squirting cucumber.  When you touch them they pop, squirt, and break off the vine almost simultaneously. I definitely went around for a good five minutes finding ripe ones to touch and explode while my lab-mate was getting ready to go up to the nest.  I joined him a few minutes later to prepare feather sample envelopes and the sorts, and then the lift was ready.  The rest of our day, however, did not go as planned....