Birds of Saudi Arabia: Eurasian Skylark

Showing posts with label Eurasian Skylark. Show all posts

02 March 2023

Khafra Marsh and nearby areas – Jubail

Whilst birding the Khafra Marsh and nearby areas of Jubail in February I saw a very nice immature Greater Spotted Eagle perched on the ground. This is a common winter visitor to Jubail in wetland areas with up to fifteen birds wintering in one particular site. They are often seen in flight or perched on power pylons but seldon on the ground at close range. The typical species were seen in the wetlands including a number of Squacco Heron and the reed beds were full of calling Clamourous Reed Warblers, Caspian (European) Reed Warblers and Prinias. The prinias at Khafra Marsh have a different call to those in other areas of Jubail and I am uncertain of their identity. There could be both Graceful and Delicate Prinia present but more work is needed to fully understand what is going on there. The farm fields held a nice flock of twenty plus Eurasian Skylark a species I had not seen previously in Khafra Marsh but a regular winter visitor to the Eastern Province. A Common Kingfisher was a nice sight perched in the open briefly and the resident Grey-headed Swamphens were seen in small numbers with others presumably hiding in the reed beds.

Eurasian Skylark

Graceful/Delicate Prinia

Greater Spotted Eagle

Squacco Heron

Common Kingfisher

Grey-headed Swamphen

05 February 2022

Larks in the Pivot Fields - Judah

An early morning trip to Judah, a limestone escarpment with three pivot fields we have access too, an hour and a half drive towards Riyadh from Dhahran where we live, was undertaken at the end of January. The pivot fields were green and short and looked promising for larks but we were a little disappointed with what we found. Larks were not as common as previous visits with only a few Lesser Short-toed Larks, several pale coloured Desert Larks and a single Eurasian Skylark for our troubles. A small number of Tawny Pipit were scattered around the field edges but not much else was seen. We did hear a Pharaoh Eagle Owl calling on arrival and several real looking Rock Dove were on the cliffs with a couple of Brown-necked Raven flying over, but otherwise not too much else. The large amount of rain recently may have made it easy for birds to feed elsewhere, but this is only a guess as to why the number of birds seen was lower than normal.

Desert Lark

Eurasian Skylark

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Tawny Pipit

Brown-necked Raven

13 March 2019

Buntings & Larks – Jebal Hamrah

Whilst birding the Jebal Hamrah pivot irrigation fields recently with Phil Roberts, we came across a huge flock of Corn Buntings. The total seen was a minimum of one hundred birds and possibly many more. They were feeding in the grassy pivot fields but a couple of times all took to the air and landed on rough ground under the pivot irrigation equipment allowing reasonable views. In amongst the Corn Buntings were several small groups of Eurasian Skylarks and Greater Short-toed Larks. Corn Buntings are uncommon winter visitors to the region but this winter we have seen a few large flocks, like one in Tabuk and this one. Eurasian Skylarks are regular winter visitors in small numbers often seen in pivot irrigation fields. Greater Short-toed Larks are common passage migrants with flocks of several hundred often seen in suitable habitat.

Corn Bunting

Eurasian Skylark

Greater Short-toed Lark

21 February 2019

Plenty of Larks – Judah

On a winter trip to Judah, also known as Jebal Hamrah, Phil and I came across a good number of larks. They were mainly on a rough stony area between large pivot fields and consisted of a new species for Saudi Arabia for me Temminck’s Lark. There were five birds present but they never allowed close approach so only record shots were taken of them. Also alongside them were Bar-tailed Larks a species seen almost every time we go to this site and one not easy to see elsewhere. Unfortunately no Arabian (Dunn’s) Larks could be located alongside them as has happened many years previously. Other larks noted were Eurasian Skylarks and Lesser-short-toed Larks making the trip and very enjoyable one.

Bar-tailed Lark

Eurasian Skylark

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Temminck's Lark

15 February 2018

Larks and Pipits – Jubail Farm

Whilst birding a set of pivot irrigation fields near Jubail I came across quite a good number of Eurasian Skylark. They were all using the wet pivot fields for feeding and occasionally flying out into the dry edges before going back into the grass. Other birds seen in good numbers in these fields included both Water Pipit and Tawny Pipit. A few harriers were present over the fields, including both Western Marsh and Montagu’s Harriers

Eurasian Skylark

Tawny Pipit

Water Pipit

02 February 2018

Winter birding in Jubail

I covered a few of my favourite locations in Jubail over the long weekend here and saw a few interesting birds. There were a number of Daurian Shrikes around as well as a few calling Common Chiffchaffs. A small flock of nine Euraisian Skylarks kept me bust until I got some views of them to ensure they were not Small Skylarks. Good numbers of Western Marsh Harriers and Greater Spotted Eagles were seen with one juvenile Greater Spotted Eagle showing plenty of spots and looking quite like an Eastern Imperial Eagle. Waders were building in numbers with several hundred Pied Avocets, Black-winged Stilts, Dunlin, Ruff, Common Ringed Plovers, Little Stints, Marsh Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Common Greenshank and Common Redshank seen. Thousands of Slender-billed Gulls with tens of Steppe Gull and Heuglin’s Gulls and a single Great Black-headed Gull were out on the wet areas along with White-winged Tern, Caspian Tern, Gull-billed Tern and Little Tern. Red-spotted Bluethroats were numerous as were calling Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers. A single Little Crake was scurrying around and tens of Common Snipe flushed from various wet areas. A single female Pied Kingfisher was at one place and up to ten Common Kingfishers also. Water Pipits, White Wagtails and a couple of Desert Wheatears were feeding on insects. One Purple Heron and up to one hundred Great White Egrets with over a thousand Greater Flamingos made up the majority of birds on flooded sabkha areas.

Eurasian Skylark

Desert Wheatear - female

White Wagtail

Pied Avocet

Greater Spotted Eagle

Slender-billed Gull

Daurian Shrike

21 November 2016

Eurasian Skylarks returning for winter - Jubail

The Eurasian Skylark is an uncommon winter visitor north of a line from Medina, Riyadh, Dhahran. Most records come from the large pivot irrigation fields in the north of the Kingdom but occasionally and especially on passage thy can be seen in rougher desert areas and spray fields or similar wet plant laden areas. I have seen them many times in Dhahran and a few times in Jubail but mostly in mid-winter. Last week in Jubail. I found a small flock of about twelve birds feeding about in a small weedy desert patch and managed to get a few photos of them, which is not easy as they are always partly hidden by plants. Although birds are not uncommon they are seldom seen as the farms are generally of limits to birdwatchers and those that can be seen have long vegetation and birds on the ground can seldom be seen.

27 November 2015

Highest site count of Greater Spotted Eagles - Sabkhat Al Fasl

Last weekends birding at Sabkhat Al Fasl produced a good number of winter visitors including the largest number of wintering Greater Spotted Eagles recorded at the site when 17 were seen in one morning. Birds normally arrive in September and stay until April or early May. Western Marsh Harrier is another wintering raptor seen regularly at the site with a minimum of twenty but probably many more seen each winter. They also occur and depart around the same time as Greater Spotted Eagles but tend to turn up a week or two earlier. The eagles were seen almost everywhere including five together sitting on the edge of the main flooded sabkha area. This area is also is now holding large numbers of wintering Greater Flamingos with well over a thousand birds present. Wintering passerines included large numbers of White Wagtail, smaller numbers of Water Pipits, twenty Eurasian Skylarks and three Daurian Shrikes.