Bird's the word

In keeping with Israel's Shabbat oriented work week, most weeks we will not have class or work on Fridays, and instead we work on Sundays. This week, however, we did some maintenance at the Bird-reserve in the morning yesterday (cutting alfalfa, managing compost piles, and catching lady-bugs for relocation... so they would not all be eaten by the birds, and would eat the aphids in our garden instead).
Kibbutz Lotan happens to be located on the major path of migration for most bird species that regularly travel to and from Europe, Asia and Africa each year, and more and more birds are arriving each day for the spring migration. Kibbutz Lotan maintains a large bird-park for the purposes of education and preservation, since there are not many places left for most birds to stop on their long journey.

(#1. Morning Chi-gong in bird reserve)

(#2. The bird look-out)

(#3. G.A.'s hard at work)

(#4. Me smiling invisibly over a pile of shit)

(#5. Benja eating shit)

(#6. Taking a load off in the alfalfa, from left: Mikey, Ronny, Ashley, Nate, Me)

(#7. A bucket full of lady-bugs)

(#8. The lady-bugs in their new home... happily eating our aphids)


After our morning in the bird reserve we ended the day early to prepare for shabbat. I decided to take a little shabbat break from taking pictures so I have none to share of services, dinner, and (the best part) Israeli dancing with kibbutz-kids. We also all headed to the pub last night after the kids were off to bed, and dancing and revelry ensued.
Today, our lovely enjoyment of shabbat-rest continued with a trip to 'the lake'. Now some of you astute readers may wonder... the lake? I thought Julia was in the desert... well I still am, but after flash floods a pond-like quantity of water gathers and does not seep into the ground because there is such a large layer of clay where the water collects. The pond will evaporate by summer-time but for now it is a nice watering hole, and surprisingly cold. An interesting tidbit about this region is that it is actually one of the driest deserts in the world. In ordert to be classified as desert an area must get 440 mm of rain or less per year, we get only 25 mm if we are lucky.

(#1. Chen by the lake)

(#2. Sierra taking a break... note the didgeree-doo's on the right)

(#3. Yigal, Ronny and Marc playing frisbee near the lake)


After our day of rest, Marc and I had dinner at our 'adopted family's house (they actually live across the street from us so it is very convenient). They were very nice, Aliza, Daniel, and their two kids Amalia (who is being Bat-mitzvahed in a few weeks) and Reuven.