Birding Wadi Wadj – Taif

Wadi Wadj in Taif is a wet area with flowing water in the centre of Taif. It attracts a good number of birds and is a great place to see Graceful Prinia in the reeds that grow along the waters edge. Other good birds are often seen here and during my last visit I saw a pair of Eastern Olivaceous Warblers a species I have not seen here before. If you have a four wheel drive it is possible to drive down the wadi through the water but it is better to bird on foot and jump across the flowing water when required to get to the bottom of the wadi.

 

Migrants passing – Jubail area

The last few weeks a few more migrants have been passing through with plenty of warbler seen. Most have been Eurasian Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat and Barred Warbler but also a few Eastern Olivaceous Warbler have been seen and one or two Asian Desert Warblers. Wheatears have also arrived with Black-eared and Pied being the most numerous with the Asian Desert Warblers almost always associated with the Wheatears feeding in close proximity to each other. Eurasian Bee-eaters and Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters have also been plentiful with small groups seen regularly over the last few weeks. Shrikes have been seen in small numbers but many less than previous years. Woodchat Shrike has been the commonest with a few Mauryan Grey Shrikes also seen with the odd Red-backed Shrike also present. 

Asian Desert Warbler 

Barred Warbler

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Mauryan Grey Shrike

Pied Wheatear

Pied Wheatear

Woodchat Shrike

Migrants finally arriving – Jubail

There were plenty of migrants around in early September with a Whinchat being the first bird we saw. A few shrikes of various species were also seen including Turkestan Shrikes, two Woodchat Shrikes, two Lesser Grey Shrikes and a Red-backed Shrike. Several Marsh Warblers and an Eastern Olivaceous Warblers were new in as was a couple of Rufous-tailed Scrub Robins. Fifty plus Sand Martins and tens of Bard Swallows were flying around as were up to ten European Bee-eaters. Two Yellow Wagtails and hundreds of Squacco Herons and Little Egrets were also present, with the Little Egret numbers being the highest I have seen at the site. Waders were made up almost entirely by Common Ringed Plovers but a few Little Stints, Black-winged Stilts and Wood Sandpipers were also present.

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Woodchat Shrike

Common Ringed Plover

Wood Sandpiper

Migrants appearing in Al Hassa – Records by Arnold Uy

Whilst birdwatching in the Al Hassa area Arnold Uy saw a few good birds including a number of migrants. The Egyptian Nightjars that Arnold saw a few weeks ago are still present with at least five birds seen. This site, like the one in Jubail, seems to hold Egyptian Nightjars throughout the summer now indicating birds may be breeding somewhere nearby. Migrants also included the first Lesser Grey Shrikes of the autumn as well as Isabelline Wheatears. An Eastern Olivaceous Warbler may have been a migrant or possibly a still present breeding bird. I thank Arnold for sending me the details of his trip and for allowing me to use his photos on my website.

Egyptian Nightjar

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Lesser Grey Shrike

Isabelline Wheatear

Birds of the Tabuk area – Bird records by Viv Wilson

Viv Wilson a birder from Tabuk who goes out almost every weekend and photographs birds has sent me a number of photos recently of what he has been seeing. Most birds are common passage migrants at this time of year and have included good numbers of Barn Swallows and European Bee-eaters. European Bee-eaters have passed through the country in much higher numbers than usual this year, possibly indicating a good breeding season last summer. They have also been seen throughout the Kingdom from the southwest to the northeast. Viv also photographed a Graceful Prinia a species that is a common breeding resident and an Eastern Olivaceous Warbler an uncommon summer breeder. Viv has kindly given me permission to use his photos on my website some of which are shown below.

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

European Bee-eater

European Bee-eater

Graceful Prinia

Some very good larks – Thumamah

Phil and I set off from Dhahran at 02:30 hrs to go to Thumamah a location just north of Riyadh. The journey took over four hours and we were in search of larks. We went as there was very little in the Eastern Province and the ‘patch’ had had nothing for a few days and we had not had much luck looking for Larks in the north of the Eastern Province on previous trips. I had seen on Brian James website that he and Lou Regenmorter had seen Thick-billed Lark, Bar-tailed Lark and Temminck’s Lark at Thumamah a month previously and as it sounded like there were a few good birds and many species we do not see in the Eastern Province at this location we decided to go and do a days birding there. I would like to thank Lou for sending us the grid reference of where he had seen the Thick-billed Larks and we soon found the wadi where they had been seen. It was already 07:00 hrs and we set off walking the wadi looking for the larks. Immediately we located a number of Desert Larks, that were a sandy brown colour rather than the whitish birds we get in the Eastern Province and over the next couple of hours we located at least 20 Desert Larks. A small party of Bar-tailed Larks then put in an appearance, a new Saudi Arabian bird for me that was quickly followed by another new species in Trumpeter Finch. There were well over 100 Trumpeter Finches seen during the day with most keeping to the shade of the trees when the temperature rose above 35 degrees Celsius. Several Eastern Olivaceous Warblers were in the trees along with five Blackstarts, three White-crowned Wheatears and a Little Green Bee-eater. After a lot of walking and the temperature rising we still had not seen either Thick-billed Lark or Temminck’s Lark. After a drink and a rest we moved across the road to another small wadi where I will tell you about my third new species in Saudi Arabia for the day in the next blog.

Desert Lark

Desert Lark

Desert Lark

Trumpeter Finch

Trumpeter Finch

Trumpeter Finch

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Blackstart

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler a new ringing species – Sabkhat Al Fasl

Whilst ringing at Sabkhat Al Fasl over the weekend of 18 April I caught an unusual pale looking warbler. It looked like an Eastern Olivaceous Warbler but appeared small and seemed to have the wrong tertial spacing for that species. Thoughts then turned to Booted Warbler but as we can get both of the former Booted Warbler species, Booted Warbler and Sykes’s Warbler, with Sykes’s probably more likely as they occur in the mangroves just north of Jubail. We took all the measurements and they appeared too big for Booted Warbler but we had no details of Sykes’s Warbler. Measurements did fit for Eastern Olivaceous Warbler so we tentatively put it down as that species. When I got home I sent an e-mail and photos to Yoav Perlman and very experienced ringer from Israel and he kindly told me it was an Eastern Olivaceous Warbler a new ringing species for me. This species is a common migrant to all areas of Saudi Arabia and is a summer breeder in varying numbers. I have only see the species once at Sabkhat Al Fasl before although they are common on my local ‘patch’ 125 kilometres south of Jubail.

Raghadan Forest - Baha

Raghadan Forest covers an area of 600,000 square meters in Al-Baha Province and is one of more than forty reserved zones called (Hema) which is a traditional sustainable recourse management system. Tribal people live in this region and traditionally every tribe have their own (Hema) or reserved zone. The reserve is well signposted with brown tourist signs and is quite popular with the local people for picnics. Although it is quite disturbed the area is still very good for birds and is the most wooded area in Baha that we found. Hamadryas Baboons also occur in the area but guards with sticks keep them away from the general public.  There are a few wadis nearby that are less disturbed and a number of regional endemics have been seen in them including Yemen Thrush, Arabian Wheatear, Arabian Serin, Yemen Serin and Arabian Waxbill. As I was with the family we went to the main reserve area and as a result, out of the regional endemics, I only saw Arabian Wheatear at this site but plenty of other good birds were seen. Twenty Yellow Wagtails mainly Syke’s Wagtail were feeding around on the grass roadside fringes and Spotted Flycatcher and Ortolan Bunting were feeding amongst the trees. A single Dusky Turtle Dove was flushed from cover and gave reasonable views as it flew and landed some distance away. Striolated Bunting was seen on the rocky ground at the top of the reserve and Little Rock Thrish, Arabian Wheatear and Isabelline Wheatear were also in the same area. Common Redstart and Eastern Olivaceous Warbler were plentiful in the taller trees and Fan-tailed Raven was even more common with up to fifty in the air together. Red-backed Shrikes, Woodchat Shrikes and Masked Shrikes were also near the top along with Palestinian Sunbird and a small flock of Crested Larks of a different subspecies to the one that is present in the Eastern Province. Other birds of interest were Spectacled Bulbul and Siberian Stonechat.

Arabian Wheatear - male

Crested Lark

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Masked Shrike

Northern Wheatear

Red-backed Shrike

Stonechat

Sykes's Yellow Wagtail

White-spectacled Bulbul