Birds of Saudi Arabia: Bahrain

Showing posts with label Bahrain - Kentish Plover. Show all posts

28 May 2012

Ringing Kentish Plover Chicks - Alba Marsh (Bahrain)

I went ringing at Alba Marsh at the weekend with Brendan. As we arrived, Brendan noticed two young Kentish Plovers running around with their parents looking on. Brendan asked me to look at one of the young birds as he got out of his car so we could see where it went to. It ran into a small bush of low vegetation, but when we went to eh bush that could not have been more than 1.5 metres in diameter we could not see it due to the fact it was sitting very still and was incredibly well camouflaged. Eventually after about three or four minutes of looking I found the bird and we took it out and ringed it. I had ringed adult Kentish Plover before but never a young bird like this and it was a really cute looking bird.

Kentish Plover (chick) - photo by Brendan Kavanagh

Driving back to our normal ringing site I saw the second young bird running with an adult near to the a small pool at the side of the main reed beds, and informed Brendan. This bird made a run for the reeds and water and tried to hide but Brendan found it straight away and we ringed this bird too. Not a bad start to our ringing session with two Kentish Plover Chicks ringed before we had even set up any nets.

12 September 2011

Bahrain - Greater Spotted Eagle at Tubli Bay Mangrove

A couple of hours birding before we started ringing at Alba Marshes with Brendan turned up a juvenile Spotted Eagle sitting in the mangrove trees with quite a number of Indian Reef Heron. The bird was quite distant and not very active but I managed to get a poor shot showing some of the features at least. This is a very early record for Greater Spotted Eagle in the Middle East of what appears to be this years bird? They occupy a fragmanted range, breeding from Finland through Russis, Kazakhstan to mainland China with a maximum global population estimated at only 13200 individuals. Satellite tracked birds from the Middle East breed in Kazakhstan and often winter in the Middle East but the only September record from the entire region was 29th September 2006 in the United Arab Emirates (Tommy Pedersen) and this appears to be the first September record from Bahrain and is a very early one at that. The habitat type is ideal for the species as they like wetland areas with trees. This is also the first record of Greater Spotted Eagle since 11/2/2010 in Bahrain according to Brendan and Howard King who are active Bahrain birders.

Greater Spotted Eagle (juvenile)

Other birds seen in Bahrain whilst birding included Southern Grey Shrike, Red-backed Shrike, many 'Flava' Wagtails, good numbers of common waders, Steepe Gull, eight Black-crowned Night Heron, seven Caspian Tern and a Marsh Harrier and Common Kingfisher at Alba Marshes. The photograph of the bottom gull shown here could be an Armenian Gull Larus armenicus as the mantle colour may be too dark for Steppe Gull Larus babarensis and the bill seems very stout, and the head rather rounded. The bill may, however be foreshortened as the bill is facing slightly towards the observer and it is likely to be just a Steppe Gull. I appreciate the help of Yoav Perlman and AbdulRahman Al-Sirhan with help in the identification of this bird.