Birds of Saudi Arabia: Eurasian Curlew

Showing posts with label Eurasian Curlew. Show all posts

27 January 2024

Very few birds – Al Uqair

My most recent trip to Al Uqair resulted in very few birds. It is not very good for shorebirds, even though it looks good and is on the coast. This trip I saw a single Eurasian Curlew and a small flock of flying Common Redshank and Common Greenshank. On the coast were a small number of House Sparrow, lots of White-eared Bulbul and two Great Grey Shrike. The most unusual bird was a flying Long-legger Buzzard, a species that is uncommon in the region but one I had not seen at this site before.

Eurasian Curlew

Great Grey Shrike

House Sparrow

29 September 2023

September waders – Jubail

My last visit to Jubail turned up a few waders, but nothing unusual was in amongst them. It is a great location for getting close to the birds, but the harsh sunlight makes getting good photos a challenge, as I normally go to this location after having spent the best early morning hours looking for migrants. The number of waders feeding along the edge of the sabkha was not too high compared to the numbers in August but there were plenty of Black-winged Stilt, Kentish Plover & Little Stint, with a couple of Dunlin and a single Ruddy Turnstone. On the way to the location, I saw a photographed a single Eurasian Curlew, but the light was not good, although the bird was close.

Black-winged Stilt

Eurasian Curlew

Kentish Plover

Little Stint

Ruddy Turnstone

Dunlin

06 December 2022

Plenty of Water Pipits – Dhahran Hills

Birding the football and cricket fields in Dhahran Hills recently produced more than twenty Water Pipits. This species is a common winter visitor occurring from October until April, but they are mainly seen next to large water bodies. I recently saw some on grass fields in Deffi Park and these were happily feeding on the short grass of the football fields. As I could drive the car close to the pitch, I was able to get close to one bird as it moved from the centre of the field to the field edge. The light was a bit harsh, but I managed one good photo. Also feeding on the field were several Western Cattle Egret, which are also a common winter visitor like the Water Pipit and a single Eurasian Curlew a much less common visitor to the camp although common on the coast. The Curlew was busy pulling large black grubs from the soft ground but remained at quite a distance.

Water Pipit

Eurasian Curlew

Western Cattle Egret

11 October 2022

Wader numbers building - Jubail

Wader numbers in Jubail have been fluctuating quite a bit week by week with Little Stint always the commonest species seen. Recently the number of Dunlin have increased slightly with a few juvenile birds in with the adults. Numbers of Ruddy Turnstone appear to be increasing in the Eastern Province in recent years with birds normally hard to get good photos of, but the last few weeks I have managed to get a few nice shots of a few different birds. Eurasian Curlew is another species I find it difficult to get good photos of, with only one or two birds seen in recent visits.

Ruddy Turnstone

Little Stint

Eurasian Curlew

Dunlin

13 January 2022

Birding the Gayal area - Gayal

Gayal is an area on the Red Sea coast, north of Sharma towards the Jordan boarder, where it is possible to access the coast. Here some shallow intertidal areas exist and some large bays that contain a lot of waders. When we were there we saw Dunlin, Eurasian Curlew, Greater Sand Plover and Ruddy Turnstone. Other birds seen included Great Grey Shrike in some shrubs close to the coast and Western Osprey.

Ruddy Turnstone

Great Grey Shrike

Greater Sand Plover

Eurasian Curlew

10 November 2021

Eastern Imperial Eagle - Jubail

Whilst birding in the Jubail area 5 November we came across good numbers of Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters with more than 30 seen, continuing the good passage of this species this autumn. A single Great Grey Shrike was located with Daurian Shrike numbers still quite high and White Wagtail and Water Pipit numbers both increasing. Two Mallard were located hiding in the reeds, with Great White Egret numbers increasing to 132 birds with over 300 Caspian Terns still remaining from last weeks count of over 500. A lone Black-tailed Godwit and a few Eurasian Curlew were seen on the sabkha edge but wader numbers were down on the last couple of weeks. We counted ten Great Spotted Eagle, either sitting on the power masts or in the reeds, with a single, much scarcer Eastern Imperial Eagle with three Greater Spotted Eagles on one mast.