Birds of Saudi Arabia: European Stonechat

Showing posts with label European Stonechat. Show all posts

05 December 2015

Waders, Winterers and residents – Sabkhat Al Fasl

My last trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl produced a number of waders of various species including the highest number of Marsh Sandpipers I have seen for a while. Most waders were Dunlins with good numbers of Common Ringed Plover scattered amongst them. A few smart plumaged Kentish Plovers were feeding around the shoreline and a single Grey Plover was also present. Waders seen inland included Green Sandpiper and Common Snipe. Wintering species seen included good numbers of Greater Spotted Eagles and Western Marsh Harriers and a single Water Rail although others were heard calling from the reed beds. A few European Stonechats, plenty of Water Pipits and White Wagtails plus several Bluethroats were all seen along the edges to the reed beds. Squacco Herons were still around in good numbers as were Grey Herons and a singe Purple Heron was located in amongst them. Three species of Kingfisher were also seen including Common Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher and White-breasted Kingfisher and good numbers of Grey-headed Swamphens made up the good birds seen.

Marsh Sandpiper

Dunlin

Common Ringed Plover

Grey Plover

Common Snipe

Greater Spotted Eagle

European Stonechat

Pied Kingfishers

Water Rail

Squacco Heron

Grey-headed Swamphen

30 November 2015

A few birds from Bahrain - Bird records by Jehad AlAmmadi

Jehad AlAmmadi is a birdwatcher from Bahrain and he occasionally sends me details of birds he has seen in Bahrain. Recently Jehad sent a number of photographs of birds he has seen in the last couple of weeks including photos of female Northern Pintail, a species that has also been seen in the nearby Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia in recent weeks. Other birds photographed included a female/immature Pallid Harrier and a couple of Stonechats including what appears to be a European Stonechat and a Northern Caspian. The latest data on the Stonechat Saxicola torquatus has found convincing reasons for recognising three species: European Stonechat S. rubicola, Eastern Stonechat S. Maurus and African Stonechat S. torqatus. The taxa breeding in the Caspian region, both of which winter in Saudi Arabia, were revisited and after studying the type description and various museum specimens it was concluded that the name variegatus should not be applied to the taxon breeding north of the Caucasus but rather to the population in eastern Turkey and Transcaucasia presently named armenicus. This means the former variegatus, northern Caspian population, needed a new name with hemprichii being the oldest available and valid name for the population. The paper also called hemprichii (formerly variegatus) North Caspian Taxon (NCT) and variegatus (formerly armenicus) South Caspian Taxon (SCT). The northern population NCT has a very characteristic male plumage with white portions on each side of the outer tail extending to half to three-quarters of the tail feather length, similar to many Wheatears and Red-backed Shrike. This can be seen easily when perched birds spread their tail or when birds fly but on perched birds with tails closed it can often not be seen. NCT also has a large unstreaked pale rump patch, buffish when fresh becoming white when abraded. In comparison European Stonechat has a streaked rump with usually limited white.

04 December 2011

Heavy Rainfall - Sabkhat Al Fasl

The large amount of rain we have had in the last two weeks has made Sabkhat Al Fasl very wet with all the sabkhat completely submerged in water. Driving around the site was difficult even with a four-wheel drive vehicle as the tracks had become huge puddles of mud. The number of Purple Swamphens at this site makes it hard to believe it is one of only two breeding sites for the species in Saudi Arabia (the other site known as Kahrah Marsh was only discovered earlier this year 25 kilometres south of Jubail) and the bird is rare in almost all Arabian Peninsula countries. Due to the wet nature of the ground passerines were few and far between today with the only real numbers being Water Pipits, although six European Stonechat and four Bluethroat were also seen along the reed edges. The water level was too high on the main shallow water area for any waders although a couple of Little Grebes and two Eurasian Coots were enjoying it. A single European Kingfisher was busy catching small fish as were 23 Western Great Egrets, 28 Little Egret, 50+ Indian Reef Herons and two Squacco Heron. Great Spotted Eagles were again seen in good numbers with seven birds located including four (three 1^st cy and a sub adult) seen together resting on the sabkhat. Unfortunately these birds are very wary and rarely allow close approach and are also out on the soft salt marsh and cannot be approached with the car due to very high risk of becoming stuck. A Western Osprey was also seen in the same area along with 11 Western Marsh Harrier. Waders were plentiful on the newly flooded sabkhat and included a massive flock (for Saudi Arabia) of 357 Pied Avocet. Little Stint where the commonest wader with well over 700 seen. Terns were also present with 10 Caspian Terns and 16 Whiskered Terns which is the highest number I have seen at Sabkhat Al Fasl. What would have been a new Saudi Arabian species for me, Gadwall, was found dead unfortunately, presumably shot as quite a few hunters were about again.

Little Stint

Purple Swamphen

Eurasian Coot

Little Grebe

Caspian Tern

Greater Spotted Eagle

Little Egret

European Stonechat (male)

European Stonechat (female)

Jubail

29 October 2011

Sabkhat Al Fasl

Another very early trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl and luckily there were no shooters present today. Maybe they knew something as the number of birds were considerably less than normal although there was still plenty to look at. The first bird I saw, as is often the case, was a juvenile Greater Spotted Eagle sitting on one of the street light posts. There were quite a few birds of prey about today with another two Greater Spotted Eagles both of which were adults, two adult Steppe Eagles and 10 Western Marsh Harriers. A few passerines were about with a Red-throated Pipit and two Water Pipits being the first of each species I have seen this autumn in Saudi Arabia. 20+ Blue-cheeked Bee-eater were making short work of the really annoying Horse Flys that frequent Sabkhat, four Daurian Shrike, two Turkestan Shrike, one European Stonechat, 10 White Wagtail and two Yellow Wagtail. Waders included 500+ Dunlin, 1000+ Little Stint, 200+ Black-winged Stilt, 50+ Common Redshank and 20+ Common Ringed Plover. Three Caspian Tern and a single Gull-billed Tern were flying about and at least six Common Kingfisher were seen.