02 October 2015

Two unusual species from Sabhat Al Fasl – Bird Records by Mohammed Al-Ruqaya

Mohammed Al-Ruqaya a local birdwatcher and excellent photographer went back out to Sabkhat Al Fasl last weekend and managed to take a number of excellent photos of some of the birds he has seen there. Mohammed has kindly sent me some of his photos and allowed me to use them on my website which are reproduced below. The herons are quite common at the site with Little Bittern being very numerous and seen almost every trip there and Purple Heron less so although still seen regularly. The other two species Mohammed has sent photos of are much less common. Black Kite is seen yearly in small numbers but Masked Shrike is a much less common bird although seen most years. Having Mohammed birding the area and taking photos is helping add data ti the species of this site that would have otherwise gone unrecorded and is improving the data set of both Sabkhat Al Fasl and the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
Black Kite
Black Kite
Masked Shrike
Masked Shrike
Purple Heron
Purple Heron
Little Bittern - juvenile
Little Bittern - juvenile