Birds of Saudi Arabia: Eastern Stonechat

Showing posts with label Eastern Stonechat. Show all posts

28 December 2024

Pallid Swift still – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

Numbers of Pallid Swift have dropped significantly over the last few weeks with only five birds being seen in recent days. These are still allowing good photos to be taken of them, however. House Crow numbers are increasing again with tens being seen on every visit. The scrub now has Lesser Whitethroat and Graceful Prinia calling continually with several Red-spotted Bluethroat doing the same. A minimum of five Eastern Stonechat are present around the lakeside vegetaion and tens of resident White-eared Bulbul are also making lots of noise calling to each other.

Pallid Swift

Eastern Stonechat

Great Cormorant

House Crow

White-eared Bulbul

20 December 2024

Winter birding – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

The Waste Water Lake in Dhahran has now started to get some regular winter species. The land around the lake is well vegetated but has been seriously lacking birds in the last couple of months. Now a few wintering species are turning up with Bluethroat and Daurian Shrike seen on every visit. Indian Silverbill are busy collecting nesting material and Graceful Prinia are singing loudly again after being quiet for a few months. Two Western Marsh Harrier are using the reeds for resting in and a minimum of three Eastern Stonechat are around, all in one small area with the regular Eurasian Sparrowhawk busy trying to catch any of the unwary birds. The lake itself has a few water birds with a juvenile Purple Heron, Western Cattle Egrets and Western Great Egret present. A few Gull-billed Tern are still present and Common Black-headed Gull drop in in very small numbers each day. Eurasian Collared Dove are again common in the area after reducing in number during the summer months.

Daurian Shrike

Eastern Stonechat

Eurasian Collared Dove

Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Purple Heron

Western Cattle Egret

Western Great Egret

Western Marsh Harrier

26 March 2023

Back birding in Jubail

I have just been given permission again to bird a restricted site in Jubail from the NCWD in Riyadh. As a result, I went back for the first time in a month. Birding was good with obvious migration occurring. The most obvious migrant was Common Chiffchaff wit 66 birds seen, mainly in the Tamerisk but also along all the red bed edges. In with all the Chiffchaffs was a single Plain Leaf Warbler in a Tameisk next to three Chiffchaffs. I saw and took a poor photo of a Caspian Reed Warbler that I had ringed three weeks earlier, in almost the same place it was trapped, so nice to know it is still doing well. Clamorous Reed Warbler were very vocal, singing from many different reed heads along the red beds and a single male maura Eastern Stonechat was also present. This is a species I have not seen so often this year bit they are always great to see. Shrikes were around in reasonable numbers with tens of Daurian Shrike, three Turkestan Shrike and a single Great Grey Shrike (Arabian Shrike). A group of five Common Myna were seen at the edge of the area, a species that was seldom seen here, but is now becoming more common. The wetlands held plenty of Grey-headed Swamphen, Squacco Heron and Western Great Egret. A group of 26 Common Pochard were very distant out on a flooded sabkha area. Birds of prey seen included five Western Marsh Harrier, three Greater Spotted Eagle and a single Western Osprey. The only other birds of note were a few small groups of waders scattered round including Common Greenshank, Common Redshank, Ruff and Green Sandpiper.

Squacco Heron

Turkestan Shrike

Grey-headed Swamphen

Great Grey (Arabian) Shrike

Eastern Stonechat

Common Myna

Clamorous Reed Warbler

Caspian Reed Warbler - ringed bird

06 March 2023

Same species – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

The pair of Tufted Duck and Great Crested Grebe that have been present for more than a month on the Dhahran Waste Water Lake were not seen on my last visit. The common species using the pond are Great Cormorants, and various herons including Grey Heron and Western Great Egret, where birds spend the entire day around the edge of the water. Steppe Gulls are still visiting the pond to drink and bath but seldom stay longer than a few minutes, whereas Common Black-headed Gulls tend to remain for most of the day. The newly planted native trees that Saudi Aramco have planted around the edge of the pond are growing nicely and have quite a few birds in them. The only species I managed to photograph was an Eastern Stonechat where both a male and female were present.