Caspian Gulls – Sharma Beach

Whilst birding Sharma Beach in December I came across a small number or large White-headed Gulls. I was looking to see if I could find Yellow-legged Gull that had been recorded in this area previously but was only able to identify Caspian Gulls. The photos below show four different birds from top to bottom as follows:

Bird 1: Probably a Caspian Gull but immature gulls are always extremely tricky.

Bird 2: A pale-eyed variant Caspian Gull with characteristic shape and palish legs. Klaus Malling Olsen mentioned to me previously that the bill colour and pattern in more eastern Caspian Gulls are brighter than seen in the western part of the range.

Bird 3: Caspian Gull with typical wing-tip pattern; complete white tip to p10 and large white spot on p9 as well as long black tongues in mid primaries.

Bird 4: Caspian Gull showing the white tip to p10.

Odd Caspian Gull – Sabkhat Al Fasl

On 15 May I found an unusual looking gull at Sabkaht Al Fasl in the concrete bunded area of the site. The bird appeared healthy and could fly but allowed reasonably close approach allowing a few reasonably photos to be taken. My first thoughts when I saw the bird fly was it was a Caspian Gull but the odd looking bill caused me to check my thoughts with Gull expert Jan Jorgensen. Jan very kindly sent me his thoughts as follows “The immediate impression is Caspian Gull, with an aberrant bill though. If this bird is somewhat reasonable healthy, the wear would fit Caspian better than other candidates in the area. In the flight shot the tail and inner primary pattern sits well with Caspian”. This is quite a late date for this species in the Eastern Province with most large white-headed gulls having moved on by late march to early April.

Eurasian Spoonbills - Sabkhat Al Fasl

An early morning trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl last weekend resulted in a few straggling migrants and four Eurasian Spoonbills. A single adult Eurasian Spoonbill was seen almost immediately on arrival at the first area of water but if flew off and was only seen again briefly in flight once until I was just about to leave when I found four adults together on the flooded sabkha. The flooded sabkha also had quite a few White-cheeked and Little Terns flying around feeding allowing some nice photos to be taken over the very smooth water. This area also held a single Caspian Gull, one Slender-billed Gull and about 1000 Greater Flamingos that have stayed very late this year. There were still quite a few waders at one end of the sabkha including 30+ Terek Sandpipers, five Ruddy Turnstones, 10+ Lesser Sand Plovers, 100+ Dunlin, 100+ Little Stints, 200+ Kentish Plovers, five Common Redshanks, three Marsh Sandpipers, a Eurasian Curlew and 20+ Little Ringed Plovers. Passerines were thin on the ground with a few Red-backed Shrikes, two Whinchats and several Barn Swallows and Sand Martins seen. A House Crow, plenty of Crested Larks and a few Rock Doves or feral pigeons? Were also seen. A new bird for me for the site was an Alexandrine Parakeet that flew over early morning but this is just as likely to be an escaped cage bird as a wild arrival.

White-cheeked Tern

White-cheeked Tern

White-cheeked Tern

White-cheeked Tern

White-cheeked Tern

Little Tern

Caspian Gull - 2nd Calendar Year

Slender-billed Gull

Terek Sandpiper

Little Ringed Plover

Crested Lark

Red-backed Shrike - male

Rock Dove

Plenty of Gulls & Shrikes – Sabkhat Al Fasl

My weekend trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl with Phil Roberts produced a few good birds but nothing exceptional. Great Black-headed Gulls have been seen more regularly at the site this winter than in previous years and we saw a small group with one adult summer and five second calendar year birds in the concrete bunded area of the location. We managed to get quite close to them by driving down a bund but unfortunately the sun was in the wrong direction for better photos. Other Large White-headed Gulls seen included Caspian Gulls, Steppe Gulls and a single Hueglin’s Gull. The largest gathering of Black-headed Gulls I have seen in Saudi Arabia were also present with 2000+ present, mainly adults in full breeding plumage. Despite extensive searching, nothing unusual could be located amongst them. Apart from the gulls the next most obvious birds were shrikes. There were tens of Turkestan Shrikes and a few less Daurian Shrikes but also a single Arabian (Southern) Grey Shrike and two Mauryan (Steppe) Grey Shrikes. A very smart ‘keralini’ type Turkestan shrike was also seen but the couple of photos I took only show the front and none of the real features, a second much less well defined bird was also seen in a different part of the location.

Great Black-headed Gull - adult summer

Great Black-headed Gull - second calendar year

Caspian Gull

Daurian Shrike

Turkestan Shrike

Turkestan Shrike

Mauryan Grey Shrike

A few other migrants seen were a couple of Common Chiffchaffs, three Barn Swallows, one House Martin and good numbers of Yellow Wagtails including Black-headed and Blue-headed types. A really smart male Citrine Wagtail was also seen with one group but evaded having his picture taken. A singling male Red-spotted Bluethroat was a nice bird to see and the first time I have seen one singing in Saudi Arabia and a White-spotted Male Bluethroat was also located later feeding along the bottom of the reeds at the track edge. A single Savi’s Warbler was heard reeling and plenty of Eurasian Reed Warblers were also heard amongst the many Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers. A small group of Meadow Pipits was slightly unusual and three Tawny Pipits were also seen all in the scrubby desert area of the site.

Red-spotted Bluethroat

Winter visitors were much reduced with only a single Greater Spotted Eagle although Western Marsh Harriers were still around with more than ten seen during the day. There were many less White Wagtails and Water Pipits and the Greater Flamingo flock had reduced to about 1000 birds. A group of 114 Pied Avocets were about the only unusual waders seen and two Brown-necked Ravens were also slightly unusual at the site, although they are resident and reasonably common in their favoured habitat of jebals in the desert. As always several Purple Swamphens were also very visible around the edges of the wet areas.

Purple Swamphen

Purple Swamphen

Gull numbers increasing – Abqaiq Landfill

On the way back from Shedgum Escarpment we called into the Abqaiq Landfill site in the hope of seeing an unusual gull or two. The number of birds had built up since my last visit and now number approximately 5000 birds. As we arrived at about 10:30 hrs the majority of birds were sitting in their favoured resting area, which unfortunately you cannot get close enough to, to photograph them at. The area is viewable with a telescope and although there were thousands of birds we could not find anything out of the usual. We did locate an extremely dark bird which was back on and looked like it maybe a Baltic Gull but when it turned around slightly it was a dark Heuglin’s Gull. Despite all the searching of gulls in the local area I have still not found a Baltic Gull yet. The majority of the Large White-headed Gulls were Steppe Gull (70%) with Caspian Gull (15%) and Heuglin’s Gull (15%). Hundreds of Common Black-headed Gulls were also present. The only other bird of note was a fly over Black-crowned Sparrow Lark.

Caspian Gull

Caspian Gull

Steppe Gull

Steppe Gull

Heuglin's Gull

Large White-headed Gulls - Al-Khobar Corniche

A return to the Al-Khobar Corniche after a few weeks was met by the fact that the area used by the roosting gulls had been made into a building site. Luckily the birds had only moved a short distance to an area of scrubby desert and some were using the new street lighting to rest on. Most bids seen here were Heuglin’s Gulls with a few Caspian and Steppe Gulls intermixed. 50+ Common Black-headed Gulls were also with the LWG flock and a single House Crow was also seen. This site affords the best viewing of the LWG I have found so far, and although the numbers are significantly lower than those seen on Abqaiq Landfill, the views and photographic opportunities are much better at the Corniche.

Heuglin's Gull

Heuglin's Gull

Steppe Gull

Caspian Gull

Caspian Gull

Caspian Gull

Caspian Gull

Caspian Gull (left) Steppe Gull (right)

Mixed Gull Flock, Heuglin's, Steppe & Caspian Gull

Good numbers of Caspian Gulls – Abqaiq Landfill

At Abqiaq Landfill I saw about 50 Caspian Gulls which is the highest number of Caspian Gulls I have seen since I have been in Saudi Arabia. As the light was good, due to the cool north-westerly wind having cleared much of the dust out of the air, I managed to get a few decent photographs of birds in flight. It will be interesting to see if the number of Caspian Gulls build up in late winter or if they are birds arriving due to the cold weather? The normal numbers of Caspian Gulls I have seen so far are about 2% of the Large White-headed Gulls population but at Abqaiq last visit this had increased to about 5%.