Desert & Isabelline Wheatear – Ringing in Bahrain at the Chicken Farm

Whilst Brendan and I were considering where to put up the nets on Friday at the Chicken Farm, Abdulla arrived and he had a couple of worms for the spring traps. He had mentioned to me some time ago he would catch a Great Grey Shrike (Steppe Grey Shrike or Southern Grey Shrike) and a Desert Wheatear for me to ring and had caught both types of Great Grey Shrike on previous outings so his job today was to try to catch a Desert Wheatear. In the meantime Brendan and I put up the nets. Abdulla is a real expert at catching wheatears in the spring traps and true to his word he quickly returned with a first year male Desert Wheatear for me to ring. After ringing this bird Abdulla and I went off to try to catch another wheatear and found an Isabelline Wheatear that was favouring a pile of rocks as a perch. Abdulla set the trap by the rocks and almost immediately the Isabelline Wheatear saw the worm and was caught. This bird was ringed by one of the Birdqust group who was a ringer and had not ringed Isabelline Wheatear before, whereas I have ringed a few before.

 Desert Wheatear (1st Year Male)

 Desert Wheatear (1st Year Male) - Tail

 Desert Wheatear (1st Year Male) - Underwing

 Desert Wheatear (1st Year Male)

 Desert Wheatear (1st Year Male)

 Desert Wheatear (1st Year Male)

 Isabelline Wheatear

 Isabelline Wheatear (tail)

 Isabelline Wheatear (underwing)

Isabelline Wheatear

Bahrain - Ringing Wheatears at Busaiteen

On Friday I went ringing with Brendan and Abdulla at Busaiteen, with the spring traps, in search of Wheatears. We had plenty of worms this time but the weather was against us with a strong Shamal wind (north-westerly) blowing. As a result most of the birds were sheltering from the wind or where absent and we did not see too many Wheatears or many other birds. We managed to catch two Pied Wheatears, and adult male and a first year female, as well as two Isabelline Wheatears all in the spring traps. We had two other Pied Wheatears positioned right above two traps but they would not go for the bait unfortunately. I had not seen a female Pied Wheatear in the hand before and it was a valuable experience as a few pointers to the unidentified Wheatear from Sabkhat Al Fasl last weekend were noted showing this bird was almost certainly a Pied Wheatear rather than a Finsch’s Wheatear.  

 Isabelline Wheatear (adult)

 Isabelline Wheatear - Tail (adult)

 Isabelline Wheatear (1st year)

 Isabelline Wheatear - Tail (1st year)

 Pied Wheatear (adult male)

 Pied Wheatear (adult male)

Pied Wheatear - Tail (adult male)