Birds of Saudi Arabia: A good mornings ringing

03 February 2015

A good mornings ringing – Sabkhat Al Fasl

Nicole and I went ringing at Sabkhat Al Fasl on 23 January which was the first time this year as previously it has been too windy at the weekends or I was out of Kingdom. It turned out to be a very good morning’s work with three new ringing species for Saudi Arabia for us of which I have already posted or will post about later. Apart from these birds we also caught five Common Kingfishers that were again all females, three are shown below. We have caught eleven Common Kingfishers at this location of which only one was a male, so possibly males winter in a different location to females in eastern Saudi Arabia? A few Bluethroats of which one was a re trap from February last year showing it is site faithful for its wintering area as it was caught in exactly the same net as originally. A couple of re-trapped Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers were also caught that had been ringed in autumn 2014 at the same site although this species is resident or makes only very short distance movements so was not so surprising. We also caught a very finely plumage adult male Little Bittern that indicates they may be preparing for the breeding season already. We also caught three Water Pipits of the sub-species coutelli. This is a common bird but they are very difficult to catch as they see the nets and either fly over them of around them. We have found that the best nets for catching this species are the two panel nets rather than the larger five panel nets that catch the majority of the other species. At the end of the day we managed to catch 24 birds which is quite good for us in winter. This is partly due to knowing the best locations now to set nets and partly due to have a few more nets set now than last year. Let’s hope 2015 continues as well as this ringing session and we will be very happy.