Great Black-headed Gulls & more – Al Asfar Lake

Whilst birding Al Asfar Lake near Al Hassa on 25 February we found three Great Black-headed Gulls on a wetland area. Two were adults in full summer plumage with the third bird an immature. The Great Black-headed Gull is an uncommon winter visitor to the Arabian Gulf and southern Red Sea coastal areas that is also rarely seen inland including at wetland sites like Dhahran and Al Asfar Lake. The first birds are normally not seen until December or January, with March probably the best time to see the species. A few migrants were located including Greater Short-toed Larks and Turkestan Shrike, but most birds were still wintering species including Great Grey and Durian Shrikes, Caspian Stonechat, Greater Spotted Eagle and 40+ Western Marsh Harrier. A Spur-winged Plover was present and plenty of Pallid Swifts were flying around the area. A large number of Graceful Prinia hufufae were singing and showing well.

Great Black-headed Gulls

Great Black-headed Gull

Graceful Prinia

Caspian Stonechat

Daurian Shrike

Great Black-headed Gulls – Jubail

Whilst birding the Jubail area the last few weekends we have come across up to thirteen Great Black-headed Gulls sitting on a flooded area of sabkha. Most birds were adults in full summer plumage with up to three being second calendar year birds. Jubail has turned out to be a good site to see the species in the last few years with birds seen each winter. The Great Black-headed Gull is an uncommon winter visitor to the Arabian Gulf and southern Red Sea coastal areas that is also rarely seen inland including at wetland sites like Dhahran and Al Asfar Lake. The first birds are normally not seen until December or January, with March probably the best time to see the species. 

Two Great Black-headed Gulls – Jubail

Whilst birding the Jubail area last weekend we came across two Great Black-headed Gulls sitting on a flooded area of sabkha. One bird was an adult in full summer plumage with the other being a second calendar year bird. Jubail has turned out to be a good site to see the species in the last five years with birds seen each winter. The Great Black-headed Gull is an uncommon winter visitor to the Arabian Gulf and southern Red Sea coastal areas that is also rarely seen inland. The first birds are normally not seen until December or January, with March probably the best time to see the species. Apart from Sabkhat Al Fasl the other good location for seeing the species is the causeway to Bahrain where birds can often be seen hanging in the wind over the road and up to ten adult summer birds have been seen on recent crossings.

Three Great Black-headed Gulls – Jubail

Whilst birding the Jubail area last weekend we came across three Great Black-headed Gulls sitting on a flooded area of sabkha. One bird was an adult in full summer plumage with the other two being second calendar year birds. Jubail has turned out to be a good site to see the species in the last four years with birds seen each winter. The Great Black-headed Gull is an uncommon winter visitor to the Arabian Gulf and southern Red Sea coastal areas that is also rarely seen inland. The first birds are normally not seen until December or January, with March probably the best time to see the species. Apart from Sabkhat Al Fasl the other good location for seeing the species is the causeway to Bahrain where birds can often be seen hanging in the wind over the road and up to two adult summer birds have been seen on recent crossings.

Birds in flight – Sabkhat Al Fasl

Taking photographs of birds in flight is tricky and results can be disappointing but if you get it right the photos can be very satisfying. I had a go at a few birds, with all these photos being grab shots. That is I saw a bird flying and grabbed my camera and tried my luck. None of the photos are very good but show some interesting aspects of the birds behavior. At some stage I will try to actually concentrate of taking some proper photos of flying birds as I have some good results in the past. The photos below show Purple Swamphen a common breeding resident, Western Marsh Harrier a common winter visitor, Great-black-headed Gull and uncommon winter and spring passage migrant and Squacco Heron a common passage migrant and winter visitor.

Purple Swamphen

Great Black-headed Gull

Steppe Gull

Squacco Heron

Western Marsh Harrier

A flock of Great Black-headed Gulls – Sabkhat Al Fasl

I saw and adult summer Great Black-headed Gull Larus ichthyaetus fly over whilst birding Sabkhat Al Fasl and it flew and landed in an area of dry sabkha. It landed with a group of other gulls which turned out to include one further adult summer and seven second calendar year Great Black-headed Gulls. There were also five Steppe Gulls in the group. Sabkhat Al Fasl has turned out to be a good site to see the species in the last four years with birds seen each winter although this group is the largest I have seen so far in Saudi Arabia. The Great Black-headed Gull is an uncommon winter visitor to the Arabian Gulf and southern Red Sea coastal areas that is also rarely seen inland. The first birds are normally not seen until December or January, with March probably the best time to see the species. Apart from Sabkhat Al Fasl the other good location for seeing the species is the causeway to Bahrain where birds can often be seen hanging in the wind over the road.

Great Black-headed Gull - adult summer

Great Black-headed Gull - adult summer

Great Black-headed Gull - second calendar year

Plenty of Gulls & Shrikes – Sabkhat Al Fasl

My weekend trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl with Phil Roberts produced a few good birds but nothing exceptional. Great Black-headed Gulls have been seen more regularly at the site this winter than in previous years and we saw a small group with one adult summer and five second calendar year birds in the concrete bunded area of the location. We managed to get quite close to them by driving down a bund but unfortunately the sun was in the wrong direction for better photos. Other Large White-headed Gulls seen included Caspian Gulls, Steppe Gulls and a single Hueglin’s Gull. The largest gathering of Black-headed Gulls I have seen in Saudi Arabia were also present with 2000+ present, mainly adults in full breeding plumage. Despite extensive searching, nothing unusual could be located amongst them. Apart from the gulls the next most obvious birds were shrikes. There were tens of Turkestan Shrikes and a few less Daurian Shrikes but also a single Arabian (Southern) Grey Shrike and two Mauryan (Steppe) Grey Shrikes. A very smart ‘keralini’ type Turkestan shrike was also seen but the couple of photos I took only show the front and none of the real features, a second much less well defined bird was also seen in a different part of the location.

Great Black-headed Gull - adult summer

Great Black-headed Gull - second calendar year

Caspian Gull

Daurian Shrike

Turkestan Shrike

Turkestan Shrike

Mauryan Grey Shrike

A few other migrants seen were a couple of Common Chiffchaffs, three Barn Swallows, one House Martin and good numbers of Yellow Wagtails including Black-headed and Blue-headed types. A really smart male Citrine Wagtail was also seen with one group but evaded having his picture taken. A singling male Red-spotted Bluethroat was a nice bird to see and the first time I have seen one singing in Saudi Arabia and a White-spotted Male Bluethroat was also located later feeding along the bottom of the reeds at the track edge. A single Savi’s Warbler was heard reeling and plenty of Eurasian Reed Warblers were also heard amongst the many Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers. A small group of Meadow Pipits was slightly unusual and three Tawny Pipits were also seen all in the scrubby desert area of the site.

Red-spotted Bluethroat

Winter visitors were much reduced with only a single Greater Spotted Eagle although Western Marsh Harriers were still around with more than ten seen during the day. There were many less White Wagtails and Water Pipits and the Greater Flamingo flock had reduced to about 1000 birds. A group of 114 Pied Avocets were about the only unusual waders seen and two Brown-necked Ravens were also slightly unusual at the site, although they are resident and reasonably common in their favoured habitat of jebals in the desert. As always several Purple Swamphens were also very visible around the edges of the wet areas.

Purple Swamphen

Purple Swamphen

Great Black-headed Gulls – Sabkhat Al Fasl

Whilst birding at Sabkhat Al Fasl last weekend I found a small group of six Great Black-headed Gulls. One was a superb adult in full summer plumage, one was an adult in partial summer plumage and the other four were 2nd calendar year birds. This is the first time I have seen the species at Sabkhat Al Fasl and they were in amongst the large group of gulls that has been using the concrete bunded area for the winter to rest. Although views are good here through a telescope the birds are still some distance away and when you go around the other side the birds are directly into the sun although closer. Other Great Black-headed Gulls, all adults mostly in summer plumage, have been seen regularly on the crossing from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain on the Saudi Arabian side with the highest count being 17 individuals near to Al Khaobar. Other single birds have been seen along the coast in the Dhahran/Dammam/Al Khobar area in the last few weeks. Great Black-headed Gull is a fairly common winter visitor to the Arabian Gulf coast and occurs between December and March. Most records occur during March when birds are presumably on passage through the region, and at this time of year individual birds can sometimes be located inland on lakes and pools. Adults appear to be more common than younger birds, but this may be due to ease of identification of the striking adults. I am very interested in gulls and this species is one of my favourite gulls of the many varieties worldwide.

A Great Evenings Birding on the ‘Patch’ – Dhahran Hills

Yesterday I spent the evening after work on the ‘patch’. The weather had been quite overcast and windy the previous few days and although the wind had dropped there was still a lot of dust in the air and conditions did not look too good. I drove across the scrubby desert area on the way to the percolation pond and did not see much of interest with the exception of two Tawny Pipits. This is a wintering species and they will be moving off in the next couple of months. When I got to the pond there did not seem to be too many birds about as it was too early for the Great Cormorants to arrive and the gull numbers were significantly down on previous days. There was, however, one really obvious bird sitting amongst the smaller Common Black-headed Gulls and that was an adult Great Black-headed Gull in full summer plumage. This is an unusual bird inland and although Dhahran is only ten kilometres from the coast it is far enough to make the species very rare here, although I was lucky enough to see an adult in full summer plumage in March 2011 at the same site. The bird seemed quite unsettled and continually took to the air and circled around settling on the pond only briefly before flying again. After only five minutes the bird flew off over the base towards the sea and I did not see it again. You can see from the last two photographs on the bird sitting on the water how much bigger than Common Black-headed Gull the Great Black-headed Gull is.

 Great Black-headed Gull (adult summer plumage)

 Great Black-headed Gull (adult summer plumage)

 Great Black-headed Gull (adult summer plumage)

 Great Black-headed Gull (adult summer plumage)

Great Black-headed Gull (adult summer plumage)

The pond also held four Common Pochards including one adult male. This is a species that was previously common on the pond but is now uncommon with my last sighting in December last year. The four birds looked like they were quite happy on the pond and were still there at last light. This pond is one of the only really safe habitats for birds as no hunting is possible in the camp is it is very well protected and guarded by security, so it is always nice to see duck here as they will not be shot.

Common Pochard (adult male centre)

After spending an hour looking at the pond where there was little else out of the ordinary, with the exception of six Common Morehens which have reappeared after being missing for several weeks, I went for a walk around the pond looking to see if any migrants may have arrived. At the main wet corner outside the pond I was surprised to see that a fall of migrants had occurred and the Tamarisk trees and bushes were full of warblers. I saw 55 Common Chiffchaff, one Lesser Whitethroat and one Desert Whitethroat here as well with two Bluethroats were flitting around the wet area. After spending at least thirty minutes looking at all the warblers I moved on to see if birds were present elsewhere and Common Chiffchaffs were thinly spread around the whole pond edge in the trees. I counted 105 birds in total during the walk, but that will be a minimum as others were calling which I did not count as I did not see all of them. Whilst walking around after looking at the warblers, I saw a large bird of prey flying along the tree edge at the far side of the pond. This is where I had seen Crested Honey Buzzard before and the bird appeared to be large with well barred under-wings but the views were brief and into the setting sun. The bird appeared to land as I did not see it come out of the end of the trees so I walked around to see if I could get better views. As I was walking I flushed a large Eurasian Sparrowhawk from the trees. The bird flew across the pond and landed in a tree on the far side close to where the other bird of prey had landed. The next bird I saw was a Common Kestrel flying away that landed in the top of the only large tree in the scrubby desert area. There seemed to be birds everywhere as I walked to look for the birds of prey and I got good views of a Moustached Warbler sitting out in the open. This is only the second time I have seen the species in Dhahran with the last time being March 2011. After looking at a few more Common Chiffchaffs I saw the large bird of prey sitting in a tree, but unfortunately the bird also saw me a flew a short distance into the scrubby desert area. This time the bird did not look like a buzzard and I was slightly confused as to what it was. The Eurasian Sparrowhawk then took to the air and flushed the larger bird of prey from the scrubby desert area and I could see it better even though it was flying into the setting sun. It was a second calendar year Short-toed Snake Eagle and I managed to get a couple of poor shots as it flew off. This is a very scarce bird for the area although I have now had three different sightings in the same location in less than a year, one second calendar year 31^st March 2011 and two juvenile birds together 22^nd October 2011.

 Short-toed Snake Eagle (second calendar year)

 Short-toed Snake Eagle (second calendar year)