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