General

The c. 6000 ha valley situated in north-east Israel, within the African Rift Valley, at the crossroads of Eurasia and Africa, possesses a wealth of habitats and diverse wilderness area of fish ponds surrounded by reed beds and agricultural fields.
Two Montana regions overlook the area; in the west, the Galilee Mountains, and to the east, the Golan Heights dominated by the permanently snow-capped Mount Hermon. Several freshwater rivers join on the slopes of the latter to feed the Jordan River that is in turn the main water source of the Hula Valley wetlands.
A nature reserve - the first such protected area to be created in Israel and one of the world’s most important national parks, encompasses an ancient area of marsh and papyrus beds, and the last vestiges of the Hula Lake that once covered 1415 ha.
In 1994, in an attempt to restore additional natural habitat within the valley, a relatively large area of poor agricultural land, just north of the existing Hula Reserve, was re-flooded. Not much time elapsed, before this newly created wetland had become the focus for tens of thousands of waterfowl, raptors and waders.

Cranes Grus grus

The ornithological year

The Hula Valley is governed by a typical middle latitude four-season climate; summer, autumn, winter and spring. It is difficult to select one of these periods as being the ornithological highpoint. Autumn migration commences in July with waders returning from their Arctic breeding grounds, but peaks during September - October when, in addition, many species of passerines, raptors and storks occur. Particularly impressive are the huge numbers of water birds that utilize the area - up to 20,000 White Pelican and up to 30,000 Common Crane have been known to occur on a single day in the first half of November. Many winter visitors do not arrive in Hula until late autumn, and spectacular movements of migrants occur well into December.
Winter (December to February) when most species’ numbers stabilize and massive roosts of several species form is a particularly unique and dramatic period of the year in the valley. Approximately 30 minutes prior to sunset, Common Cranes (c.20000), hundreds of White Pelicans and Great Cormorants can be seen flying to roost in the newly created lake. In addition, Night Herons are leaving their daytime roost to be replaced by thousands of Great White and Little Egrets that occupy this area during the night. Black Storks and up to ten species of wildfowl can also be seen at they seek the safety of their roosts.
Of international importance are the raptor roosts found in the valley of Spotted and Imperial Eagles. Separate roosts of Marsh and Hen Harriers form in the Lake Reed beds and 1000's of Black Kites roost in a poplar tree grove to the north of the protected area. Twenty-nine species of raptor have wintered in the Hula Valley, and for some the area is the most important site in Israel and / or the Middle East. Until recently, many wintering raptors were poisoned by agricultural pesticide sprayed on the surrounding fields, but with the development of modern pesticides and stronger controls over their use, the poisoning of wild birds is now scarce in Hula. As the hunting and persecution of raptors is now illegal in Israel, the rich habitat of the valley has especially important for its high numbers of globally endangered species such as Spotted and Imperial Eagles.

Cranes Grus grus

Wintering cranes and other waterfowl

Wetland habitats in Hula can be separated into three main types. Open water is usually represented by the new re-flooded area just north of the reserve, fish ponds, with three main groups of ponds These are usually surrounded by reeds and are maintained at differing water-levels providing a range of micro-habitats for a variety of bird species. These are complemented by the Nature Reserve with its extensive marshy habitat, the remains of the Hula Lake. The principal area of open marsh and mud is usually around the re-flooded area and the fishponds, such as along the water channel and in the near-empty fishponds. After heavy rain the fields can become very muddy and when partially flooded provide excellent open wetlands habitat for many waterbirds. The wintering population of Common Cranes has grown enormously from a few 100s in the 1970s to more than 20000 birds.
Hula also provides important winter quarters for the east European and Russian populations of many species of duck -over 20000 Mallard, 10000 Shoveler and 31500 Common Teal have occurred, and the site is internationally recognized for the conservation of these species. Ten other species of duck winter in significant numbers in the valley. They are joined by 100s of Black and White Storks and Glossy Ibis, and 1000s of herons -especially Great White and Little Egrets. Great Cormorants and hundred of Pygmy Cormorants are also very common during the winter.
Approximately 40 species of waders have been recorded overwintering, including several rarities, such as Sociable Plover. Another species, once scarce in Israel, but for which Hula has become an important wintering area in recent years, is Citrine Wagtail. It is also one of the key wintering places in Israel for localised breeding birds, from the north, such as Armenian and Great Black-headed Gulls.
From mid-February wintering birds commence their northward departure, but overall numbers of birds using the area do not significantly decrease due to the massive spring passage that continues into May.
Summer is hot and relatively humid but c.100 breeding species occur, some in large numbers, including rarer species such as Golden Oriole, Pygmy Cormorant and Moustached Warbler. Clamorous Reed Warbler, Black Francolin and White-breasted and Pied Kingfishers are resident in the valley and the area’s heronries—principally consisting of Night Heron and Little Egrets with smaller numbers of species such as Little Bittern and Squacco Heron—are among of the largest in Eurasia.

Endangered species and conservation

Among wintering species, two raptors are regarded as globally threatened: Imperial Eagle (up to 23 birds each winter) and Spotted Eagle (up to 72 birds each winter). This concentration of eagles in such a relatively small area is unique and makes the Hula Valley a key area for their protection. Three endangered ducks winter, two of which also breed in the valley in relatively small numbers. Marbled Duck and Ferruginous Duck both breed but their numbers are augmented substantially in winter, when several hundred of each may be present, while White-headed Duck only appears in the area in winter in varying numbers. Collared Pratincole is currently declining rapidly throughout much of its range, but the Hula Valley maintains a population of a few tens of pairs that breed in fields near the reserve during May–August. Two additional species, seriously threatened at national levels which, in Israel, breed almost solely in Hula, are Black Francolin and Clamorous Reed Warbler.

White Pelican Pelecanus onocrotalus

History

Our knowledge of the area before the mid-19th century is comparatively weak, but we do know that the Hula Valley once contained one of the largest (5770 ha) and most diverse wetlands in the Middle East. Tristram, writing in 1864, described it as the most vast and impenetrable swamp he had visited. Until the late 1930s, the human population, kept at a low level by persistent malaria, lived in relative symbiosis with the Hula environment. In the 1830s the population of the area largely consisted of Bedouin (the Ghawarna), Egyptian soldiers, Mesopotamian Arabs and slaves, many of whom had been forced to move to the area by Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian governor. These people subsisted through keeping cattle, agriculture (corn, wheat and rice) and principally by harvesting the paper reeds. One potential origin for the name Hula is the talmudic word, hilat, meaning paper reed. Rice-growing contributed to the spread of malaria, requiring as it does large quantities of water. Many of villages established in the area were impermanent, and it was not until 1883 that the first modern Jewish settlement, Yesud Hama’ala, founded by immigrants from Poland and Safed, was established. Further Jewish immigrants, this time from Germany, arrived in the mid-1930s, eventually founding Kibbutz Hulata and subsisting by fishing.
With the creation of the Jewish state, a determination to rid the area of disease and to drain the area was born, and in 1934 the concession to complete this task was assigned to the Jewish National Fund. During the 1930s it was estimated that 60–80% of adults were infected with malaria, and in some villages few, if any, children lived beyond the age of two. Only the constant influx of refugees and new settlers ensured that the human population did not become extinct. From 1940, new measures -irrigation canals were purged of their vegetation and the water dosed with kerosene -coupled with improvements in health care began to take effect, but it was not until 1945, with the introduction of DDT that the war against the swamp really began to go the settlers’ way. However, it was not until 1955 that the work was completed and former wetland could be turned over to agriculture. The scheme also sought to eradicate malaria (achieved during the early 1940s), increase water supplies for human use, mine peat (not implemented), create a new energy source (hydroelectric power, however, did not become a reality until 1992), and to develop new transportation routes; another idea that has not become reality.
Agriculture still dominates the Hula Valley, but some remnant swamp has fortuitously been preserved due to the foresight of the INRPA. With the establishing of Hula Nature Reserve, in 1961, and the construction of many fish ponds, the area continues to be one of the most important marsh habitats in the region.
Several local authorities dedicated to farming, tourism and nature protection are now working cooperatively in order to recreate wetland habitat by flooding parts of the valley for birds, fishing and to renew the aquatic filtering ecosystem that cleans the Jordan river and hence the Sea of Galilee water source (the most significant water supply for both Israel and Jordan). These activities also have the additional benefit of reducing the effect of poisonous gases that emanate deep within the organic soil of the former marsh. As many species in the area, especially wintering cranes and raptors, use open habitats there is still a need for extensive undisturbed open areas to be maintained for birds. The reserve is relatively small in size; its dense vegetation is principally important for some of the breeding species and as an undisturbed roost site for wintering waterfowl.
At present, the forces for nature and tourism in the area are working very positively for the future—extending the area of marsh and creating undisturbed open water and field habitats—and ensuring the Hula Valley continues to be one of the most bird-rich places in the Middle East.

Clamorous Reed Warbler
Acrocephalus stentoreus