Monday, January 28, 2013

Ibex in Israel

When I was planning my pilgrimage to Israel there was a prerequisite for me; I had to spend one day tracking in Ein Gedi park and look for some Ibex. I have always thought that Ibex were majestic creatures. A prime specimen would be a sight to behold. I did not have to wait until then to get to see one as there were some in the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem. They were too easy to get pictures of and to be honest would have been a way too cheeky for my ethics to pass them of as ones that I had tracked. Here are some pictures of Ibex in the zoo:                 

Zoo picture one
 
King of the harem, in the zoo.
It takes no skill to realise that the Ibex is basically a type of wild goat. Its genus is that of Capra in the family of Bovidae . It is jsut so impressive to see. If I had to market bodybuilding products, I would use the Ibex as a symbol; not because they are so muscular but because they just stink of testosterone, for a ruminant they are about as masculine as it gets. There are 8 types of Ibex, the ones in Israel were Numidian Ibex, if you want to know what the other ones are, look up wikipediaWikipedia Capra genus. The next one on my list however is the Alpine Ibex. They live well above the tree line in the Alps so that will require a fair bit of climbing. Not sure when I will get around to that but hope to do so in the future. I will get a better camera for that one than the one I used for these pics which is a standard point and shoot with minimal magnification.
Fear me, fear my shadow, in the zoo.
Here are some pics of less impressive ones I managed to get close to in Ein Gedi. It was not that hard and took little stalking skill as I am pretty sure it was rutting time or its equivalent, that is unless these males are horny all the time. When I next get back to Israel I will stay at the Kibbutz at Ein Gedi and spend a few days here following these guys about. I will make it around October as the heat was really hard to take. It was about 36 degrees in October and I would not like to experience it much hotter. Part of the attraction for me is the dry hot places. I find desert habitat to be very beautiful. That is one of the reasons that the film Laurence of Arabia is on my shelf.

Too distracted to worry about my presence, not in zoo, wild ones.

Pic of track of male in above photo.




















These last pics have very small horns but I had a little difficulty in stalking close to these guys to get the shot, they were much more skittish than the others.

Fairly hard to see if they don't move.

Sillouette pic, love the leggings.


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Jesus the friend of lizards

You know it has been too long since your last blog post when you struggle to remember your password for logging in. It is now four months since I was on holiday in Israel. While I was there I spent some time in the garden of Gethsemane which is on the slopes of the Mount of Olives just East of Jerusalem. Luke chapter 5 verse 16 says that Jesus often withdrew himself to lonely or wild places and prayed. (My paraphrase) Later on in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 22 verse 39, it describes the Mount of Olives as a place he was "accustomed, " to going there. For those who are vaguely aware, the garden of Gethsemane is the place Jesus went to to pray the night before his crucifixion and was also the place he was arrested. When I was there I wanted to get a sense of place because to me this was the place that Jesus came to Zone In (Zone In as mentioned in previous post). This was the place where he had his sit spot to use other tracking terminology. It was here that he attuned himself to God, his Father. When I was there I could smell the fermenting olives lying on the ground and felt the heat and imagined Jesus here in the shade. I saw lots of little lizards as well around six inches long, scurrying around; it was then that I thought of Jesus being amused by these little creatures.  Sitting, praying, watching, praying, meditating, watching more with possibly lizards becoming attuned to his presence and scurrying over his feet. It reminds me of when I was on a course in Castlewellan Forest Park in Northern Ireland about a decade ago and had been living in the forest for two weeks when a little bird possibly a sparrow came and perched on my foot. I just in my mind, see Jesus being in touch with his creation around him. People tend to associate this being in touch within  nature with Francis of Assisi, but now I relate it more to Jesus. Israel is a place I would like to go back to. I did get some tracking done in Israel when I traveled down to Ein Gedi near the Dead Sea, but that is for the next post.
Here is a pic or three of this place:





One of the older olive trees, dated at around the time of Christ


One of the younger olive trees