A good catch – Jasaer (Bahrain)

An early trip to Jasaer in Bahrain meant we had our five nets up by 06:00 hrs. We caught steadily all morning and ended up with 31 birds of eleven species. These included two Common Chiffchaffs, 10 Willow Warblers, three Common Redstarts, Upcher’s Warbler, four House Sparrows, two Rufous-tailed Scrub Robins, two Desert Lesser Whitethroats, Laughing Dove, three Turkestan Shrikes, two Common Whitethroats and a Menetries’s Warbler. Willow Warblers have now replaced Common Chiffchaff as the most common species caught. The Lesser Whitethroats appear to be Desert Whitethroat from measurements and tail pattern and I will try to get some DNA work done on loose feathers from the birds to try to ascertain if this is a correct identification.

Common Redstart - immature male

Common Redstart - female

Common Whitethroat

Desert Whitethroat

Desert Whitethroat - tail pattern

Menetries's Warbler - female

Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler - wing

Turkestan Shrike - adult male

Turkestan Shrike

Turkestan Shrike

Catching Good Migrants - Ringing at Jasaer (Bahrain)

We arrived at Jasear at 05:45 hrs and set up four of our five nets in their normal places. We moved one net to a location inside some bushes rather than on the edge of them to see if it would yield more results. Migration had been a bit slow in Saudi Arabia over the preceding week so I was not too confident we would have a good catch. As it turned out we caught 36 birds of various species including a number of good birds. Initially we caught quite a few Common Chiffchaffs all of which appeared to be of the sub-species abientinus. A few shrikes were also caught with Daurian, Turkestan and Woodchat Shrikes all being caught including a nice adult male Turkestan Shrike.

Common Chiffchaff

Turkestan Shrike

Woodchat Shrike

The best bird was a female Semi-collared Flycatcher which is an uncommon species in the region with most birds seen being males. Neither of us had ringed this species before so Nicole ringed the bird as she is the most experienced ringer. The typical wing pattern was quite obvious on this bird and rules out the very similar Collared Flycatcher. Other good migrants included two female Menetries’s Warblers and a blythi type Lesser Whitethroat very different to the Hume’s type caught the week before in the same site.

Semi-collared Flycatcher - female

Semi-collared Flycatcher - female

Semi-collared Flycatcher - female

Menetries's Warbler - female

Lesser Whitethroat

We also caught two female Common Redstarts but failed to catch the really smart male samamisicus bird that was seen near the nets all morning. The remainder of the catch was made up of House Sparrows but we had a really good day with a few really good birds.

Common Redstart

Ringing at Al Ali Farm – Bahrain

We went ringing at Al Ali Farm in the afternoon last weekend. I had only been ringing at this site once before and it looks like a great site. There are plenty of tall trees, shrubs and open fields and a lot of birds where about. In the trees we set three nets hoping to catch Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin and Common Redstart which were seen in good numbers as we were setting up the nets. We also hoped we could catch a few Ortolan buntings in the grass field as Brendan and Nicole had caught 21 birds there the weekend before in one attempt. As it turned out most of the Ortolan Buntings had moved on and plenty of House Sparrows were in the fields along with a number of Daurian Shrikes and Turkestan Shrikes. Abdulla came for an hour and hoped to catch a Lesser Grey Shrike that he had seen but it evaded the trap and was not caught. We did manage to catch a few Daurian and Turkestan Shrikes in the mist nets, where they were mostly caught chasing other birds.

Common Redstart - male



Common Redstart - male (left) & female (right)



Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin - tail pattern



Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin


We caught a number of species that I had not ringed before and Nicole also ringed a few new species. The new ones for me were Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin, Common Redstart, Thrush Nightingale, Whinchat, Great Reed Warbler and Crested Lark. Nicoles new species were Great Reed Warbler, Upher’s Warbler and Red-backed Shrike. It was a really good afternoons ringing and there were plenty of birds to extract from the nets, with me getting almost all the shrikes to extract one of which was particularly aggressive, but no blood was drawn. We only caught two Ortolan Buntings but managed about 100 House Sparrows all of which we released without ringing.

Red-backed Shrike - male



Red-backed Shrike - male



Thrush Nightingale



Ortolan Bunting


We caught 41 birds of which I ringed 21 and Nicole ringed 20. These include fifteen different species, 18 Willow Warblers, four Common Redstarts, three Turkestan Shrikes, two Great Reed Warblers, two Chiffchaffs, two Ortolan Buntings, two Rufous-tailed Scrub Robins, one Graceful Prinia, one Upcher’s Warbler, one Daurian Shrike, one Whinchat, one Red-backed Shrike, one Thrush Nightingale, one Crested Lark and one Barred Warbler. We ringed from 14:15 hrs until 19:30 hrs when it was completely dark.

Ringing at Jasaer – Bahrain

I stayed in Bahrain for the full day so went ringing with Brendan and Nicole again in the afternoon to a new site for me at Jasaer, Here we met up with Abdulla so had the entire Bahrain ringing group together in a single site. Abdulla had up a single net and had just caught a Barred Warbler which he let me ring as this was a new ringing species for me. Nicole ringed the one we caught at Alba Marsh as she had not ringed one either. Jasaer is an area of tallish trees and scrub with nice rides to set the nets up in. Whilst I was ringing the Barred Warbler Brendan and Nicole set up three more nets to see what we could catch.

Barred Warbler

Barred Warbler

Just after we arrived the weather changed and the wind got up and it looked like it might start raining. After an hour it was obvious it would start raining so Abdulla and Nicole started taking down the nets and I carried on ringing under the supervision of Brendan or Abdulla. We caught 12 birds, two Barred Wablers, one Eurasian Blackcap, five Willow Warblers, two Common Chiffchaffs, one Willow Warbler and a Common Redstart. The Common Redstart was a re-trap and had been ringed by Brendan at the same site four days previously. I just managed to ring the last bird before the weather turned to rain and as can be seen from some of the photos it was almost dark and I had to use a flash to take photographs. This was at 17:00 hrs in the afternoon a time when it should have been full daylight and sunny but due to the storm this was not the case.

Common Redstart (male)

Common Redstart (male)

Common Redstart (male)

Eurasian Blackcap (male)

Eurasian Blackcap (male)

Lesser Whitethroat

Lesser Whitethroat

All in all a very enjoyable days ringing with 51 birds caught of which I ringed 33 birds and two new ringing species – Red-throated Pipit and Barred Warbler.