Wintering birds and migrants - Jubail

Whilst birdwatching Jubail recently I came across a few good migrants and some remaining wintering birds. Migrants included a really smart male Citrine Wagtail was a good bird and was almost eclipsed plumage wise by a similarly smart male Black-headed Wagtail. Shrikes were around in good numbers including Daurian, Turkestan, Woodchat and Great Grey Shirkes. Woodchat & Turkestan Shirkes are certainly migrants, but the others could be either wintering birds or passage migrants as both occur in the area at this time of year. Siberian Stonechat could likewise be either a wintering bird or migrant whereas Steppe Gulls are winter visitors.

Citrine Wagtail

Great Grey Shrike

Siberian Stonechat - maurus

Steppe Gull - adult

Steppe Gull - 2nd Calendar Year

Woodchat Shrike

Some good birds in the pivot fields – Wadi Ad Dewasir

Wadi Ad Dewasir has several thousand pivot irrigation fields and is situated in central Saudi Arabia 1000 kilometes southwest of Dhahran. We spent three days birding the area in November and located some very interesting species. One species which had not been recorded there before but which we found in many places in small flocks totaling over 150 birds was Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse. A local farmer I asked about the birds suggested they were common in the area, and this proved to be correct from our observations. Other species that were common were Cream-coloured Courser with over 50 seen each day and in one field a very large winter gathering of Caspian Plover totaling 36 birds. This is the largest winter group for many years in the Kingdom although hundreds were recorded in the Eastern Province in the 1980’s. Greater Hoopoe Lark was found feeding around the edge of several pivot fields with Great Grey Shrike (aucheri) seen occasionally perched in trees, shrubs or on hay bales. Commoner birds included House Sparrow, Indian Silverbill, Crested Lark, Yellow Wagtail, Arabian Green Bee-eater and Western Marsh Harrier. Lastly, at last two Pharaoh Eagle Owls were noted on the escarpment edge.

Arabian Green Bee-eater

Caspian Plover

Caspian Plover

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse

Cream-coloured Courser

Cream-coloured Courser

Crested Lark

Crested Lark

Great Grey Shrike

Great Grey Shrike

Greater Hoopoe-Lark

Greater Hoopoe-Lark

Greater Hoopoe-Lark

Yellow Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail

Mahazat as-Sayd Protected Area

In August, my family and I went to Mahazat as-Sayd Protected Area with the kind permission of the Saudi Wildlife Authority and other government agencies to who we extend our heartfelt appreciation and thanks. We entered at first light in our own four-wheel drive car and had a Mahazat ranger with us at all times to help guide us and show us the best wildlife and prevent us getting lost in the large reserve. Mahazat as-Sayd Protected Area is a 2,244 sq. km fenced area located on the arid plains of western Saudi Arabia, 170 km north-east of Taif. It has been protected since 1988 and was surrounded by about 220km of chainlink fence, topped with barbed wire to a height of 2.1m by March 1989. Owing to the perimeter fence, Bedouins and their livestock have no access to the Reserve preventing livestock overgrazing the plants and as a result the habitat has become much improved over the years. It was protected mainly as a reintroduction site in Saudi Arabia for the Arabian Oryx Oryx leucoryx, Arabian Sand Gazelle Gazella subgutturosa marica, Macqueen’s Bustard Chlamydotis macqueenii and North African Red-necked Ostrich Struthio camelus camelus. Mahazat as-Sayd is a hot and semi-arid to arid desert steppe habitat, typical of the central plateau of the Arabian Peninsula, gently undulating at elevations of 900–1050m above sea level. Three distinct substrates occur; a gravel plain, a basalt undulating plain, and a chert area interspersed with basaltic outcrops. Sand and fine gravel are the dominant surface substrates covering over 95% of the Area. Mean monthly maximum temperatures range from 19°C to 42°C and minimums from 6°C to 25°C. Rainfall averages 100 mm a year, and typically occurs between March to May each year, but with occasional important rain events at other times. There is no permanent source of water above ground level in Mahazat as-Sayd but ephemeral pools exist for short periods after heavy rain. After completion of the fence 156 vascular plant species were identified, 16 mammal species have been recorded and 159 species of birds, of which 17 have been confirmed as breeding. We saw many animals including large numbers of Arabian Oryx Oryx leucoryx, possibly twenty Arabian Sand Gazelle - Gazella subgutturosa marica, one Mountain Gazelle Gazella gazella or “Idmi” and a single Ruppell's Fox Vulpes ruppelli sabea. Over ten different Arabian Spiny-tailed Lizard Uromastyx aegyptia were located almost always close to their large burrows. Bird wise we saw plenty of Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark, Greater Hoopoe-Lark and Lappet-faced Vultures as well as North African Red-necked Ostrich Struthio camelus camelus. We also saw a few Great Grey Shirkes and several flocks of House Sparrows.

Black-crowned Sparrow-lark

Black-crowned Sparrow-lark

Great Grey Shrike 

House Sparrow

Great (Arabian) Grey Shrike - Ushaiqer

Whilst birding the Ushaiqer area I found a Great Grey Shrike Lanius excubitor in some bushes in a valley near the edge of the escarpment. The Grey shrikes in Saudi Arabia are very confusing and there is often healthy debate between the birders of the region over what species, and subspecies, individual birds are. Great Grey Shrike subspecies that occur in Saudi Arabia, aucheri (mainly eastern areas) and elegans (extreme west), have been reported from areas where they occur in close proximity, such as south-west Israel, eastern Egypt and north-east Sudan indicating the possibility of gene flow between them. These hybrids are likely in western Saudi Arabia as well as the range overlaps here. Mauryan Grey Shrike (Steppe Grey Shrike) pallidirostris occurs regularly in the region as a fairly common migrant and winter visitor, with peak migration in mid-March and September to October. This complicates matters with Great Grey Shrikes further as interbreeding occurs freely between pallidirostris and the locally breeding Great Grey Shrike subspecies aucheri with an intermediate population occurring in north-east Iran. These birds could quite easily occur in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia as well.

Birding Jubail

A day out in the Jubail area produced a few interesting birds. As mentioned in a previous post whilst birding the Jubail area on 11 December I saw four Black-necked Grebes. A single bird was seen initially followed by two together and then a partially summer plumage bird made it four. I went back to the same location two weeks later and the numbers of Black-necked Grebes had increased to 21 birds. This is the largest count of the species seen in the Eastern Province for many years and as it is the start of winter numbers may continue building. The Black-necked Grebe is an uncommon but regular visitor to the Eastern Province from late August (normally November) through March but becomes scarce in April and May and rare in the summer. A few harriers including a male Pallid Harrier and several Western Marsh Harriers including a male were good to see as were tens of Common Kestrels. A Steppe Buzzard and an adult Greater Spotted Eagle completed the raptors. A few pipits including plenty of Water Pipits, several Tawny Pipits and a few Meadow Pipits were in and around any grass area found and several Eurasian Skylarks were also present. A single White-winged Tern was seen flying around a large lake and an Arabian Grey Shrike on a fence.

Arabian Grey Shrike

Western Marsh Harrier - male

White-winged Tern

Several species of migrants – Dhahran Hills

Bird numbers remain quite low this autumn but there are now several different species of migrants about the camp. The percolation pond still has 23 Ferruginous Ducks, the highest count ever for the ‘patch’ but they remain distant unless they fly around after being disturbed when they, with luck, fly overhead as was the case last night. The pond also had good numbers of waders with four Common Greenshank, 25 Little Stints, one Marsh Sandpiper, three Wood Sandpipers, two Green Sandpipers and a Ruff. The settling pond had a few different waders with four Common Snipe and several Ruff and Wood Sandpipers. The Wet ditch also had a few waders with single Temminck’s Stint, Little Stint, Wood Sandpiper and Green Sandpiper. Other migrants around the spray fields and scrubby desert included several Ortolan Buntings, 25+ Sand Martins, seven Barn Swallows, one Isabelline Wheatear and a Southern Grey Shrike. Just as it was getting dark and I was about to leave, a commotion in the spray fields caught my attention and a female/immature Pallid Harrier flew through chasing a few birds on the way., a nice way to end the evenings birding.

Ferruginous Duck

Wood Sandpiper 

Little Stint

Temminck's Stint

Sand Martin

Arabian Grey Shrike

Arabian Grey Shrike - Dhahran Hills

Whilst birding the ‘patch’ last week I found a Shrike on top of a dead date palm in the disused spray fields. The Grey shrikes in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia are very confusing and there is often healthy debate between the birders of the region over what species, and subspecies, individual birds are. This is partly caused by most of the sub-species being clinal in nature and more than one subspecies occurring in Arabia, but I think the bird below is an Arabian (Southern) Grey Shrike Lanius m. aucheri. This is due to the bill being deeper based than a typical Mauryan (Steppe) Grey Shrike Lanius m. pallidirostris. The dark lores appear too dark for pallidirostris, which normally show a slightly paler mask, the bill, however, is not really jet black like typical aucheri. The mask of this bird extends over the bill a typical character of aucheri and although it can be seen on occasional palidirostris it is not normally this obvious. The grey mantle colour is difficult to judge on this bird. The wings are sooty black which is a character of aucheri rather than pallidirostris.
The amount of white in the closed secondaries is less on the Arabian Grey Shrike compared to the Mauryan Grey Shrike and this bird, although only seen flying once appeared to have the white almost entirely restricted to the primaries.

Arabian & Mauryan Grey Shrikes – Dhahran Hills

Whilst birding the ‘patch’ I was lucky enough to locate an Arabian (Southern) Grey Shrike in the scrubby desert area. After taking a few poor photos of the bird a dog walker flushed it and it flew into the small bushes at the edge of the spray fields. Whilst looking for the bird I found a second shrike this time a Mauryan (Steppe) Grey Shrike. This allowed for some good comparisons between the two as well as allowing some decent photographs to be taken. Below are photographs of the two species for you to compare yourselves.

Arabian (Southern) Grey Shrike

Arabian (Southern) Grey Shrike

Arabian (Southern) Grey Shrike

I think the bird above is an Arabian (Southern) Grey Shrike Lanius m. aucheri as the bill is deeper based than a typical Mauryan (Steppe) Grey Shrike Lanius m. pallidirostris. The dark lores and black bill are too dark for pallidirostris, which normally show a slightly paler mask even in adults in the spring and the bill is not really jet black like aucheri. The mask of this bird extends over the bill a typical character of aucheri and although it can be seen on occasional palidirostris it is not this obvious. The mantle is slightly darker grey than that shown by the majority of pallidirostris but this can be difficult to judge on lone birds. The wings are sooty black which is a character of aucheri rather than pallidirostris.
The amount of white in the closed secondaries is less on the Arabian Grey Shrike compared to the Mauryan Grey Shrike which is shown in the photographs below.

Mauryan (Steppe) Grey Shrike

Mauryan (Steppe) Grey Shrike

Mauryan (Steppe) Grey Shrike

As I have mentioned before the shrikes in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia are very complex and not easily assignable to sub-species as most of the sub-species are clinal in nature. These two birds seem to show what I believe are the main points for the two sub-species.

Some good birds about – Dhahran Hills

On the way back from work as I was driving home, at the bottom of the golf course, I saw a bird of prey land on a roadside light out of the corner of my eye. I could not identify the bird as the view was so poor and very brief, but I turned the car around and came back to see if it was still there. Luckily it was and there was a parking area close by. I always carry my binoculars with me so they were in the car and I was able to get very good views on the bird which turned out to be an adult male Crested Honey Buzzard. This species was unrecorded until the 20th Century but has been seen fairly regularly since I have been in Saudi Arabia. It is certainly far more common then European Honey Buzzard, although I have seen this species as well here.  The Arabian (Southern) Grey Shrike is still present in the same area of the jebals where it has been sitting regularly in the same bush for two weeks. A few Isabelline Wheatears are also now scattered over the jebals and rough desert areas showing the migration is slowly starting to take place.  The female Blue Rock Thrush remained in place the day after it was found and the Red-tailed Wheatear was also in the same place, looking like it did not mind sharing its home with the new arrival.