Warblers breeding – Jubail area

Whilst birding the Jubail area in late-June I sat for an hour or so watching the movements of warblers in a small section of reeds that was easily viewable. There were quite a few warblers calling with most being Clamorous Reed Warblers or Caspian Reed Warblers although Graceful Prinias were also singing occasionally. The birds were not performing well but rather staying out of sight when singing although occasionally one would climb up a reed stem and allow some photos to be taken. All three species mentioned are common breeding birds in Jubail and all now are resident in the area. Another species seen was Great Reed Warbler, which is a common passage migrant but not so regularly seen in summer. The only other species that was visible was House Sparrow with a small flock of about twenty birds in the reeds.

Caspian Reed Warbler

Caspian Reed Warbler

Clamorous Reed Warbler

Great Reed Warbler

House Sparrow

A good autumn ringing trip - Jubail

We went ringing on 17 November and caught 53 birds of 11 species including Common Kingfisher, Eurasian (Caspian) Reed Warbler, Clamorous Reed Warbler, Great Reed Warbler, Little Bittern, Graceful Prinia, Red-spotted Bluethroat, Moustached Warbler, Common Chiffchaff, Common Moorhen and House Sparrow. Common Moorhen was a new species for us at our ringing site, although birds are common in the area. We set nets in the same locations each tip with some over water and other over land in rides between reed beds. We set ten nets this trip (8 x 18 metre and 2 x 15 metre). As normal, we arrived well before first light and set the nets during the hours of dark. The best time for catching birds for us are the first couple of hours of day and this was the case this trip. We retrapped 11 birds including nine Clamorous Reed Warbler and two Red-spotted Bluethroat. The Clamorous Reed Warblers were from as early as 9 October 2015 with the Bluethroats only trapped the previous ringing trip to the site on 3 November.

Common Kingfisher

Common Moorhen

Great Reed Warbler

Red-spotted Bluethroat

Ringing in Jubail

Nicole and I went ringing in November and caught 44 birds of seven species including Common Kingfisher, Clamorous Reed Warbler, Great Reed Warbler, Willow Warbler, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Red-spotted Bluethroat, Graceful Prinia and House Sparrow. We set nine nets (7 x 18 metre and 2 x 15 metre) as normal in the same locations each tip with some over water and others over land in rides between reed beds. The birds were mainly caught just after first light although birds continued to be trapped until around ten o’clock when the temperature became too high and we closed the nets. We had nine retraps this ringing session a higher number than before with most being retrapped Clamorous Reed Warblers with three from 2015 and one from 2014. This is a resident species.

Willow Warbler

Little Bittern

Great Reed Warbler

Common Kingfisher

Winter ringing - Jubail

Whilst ringing at Jubail recently we have started to catch typical winter species. These include Common Kingfisher, Water Pipit and Bluethroats. Water Pipits are not easy to catch as they normally see the nets and skillfully avoid them but occasionally we get lucky. The subspecies seen in Saudi Arabia is coutelli. Bluethroat numbers are steadily increasing with them making up the majority of birds caught and involving adults and juveniles as well as males and females. Common Kingfishers are always great to catch as they are beautiful birds and are very gentle when in the hand. A more unusual bird for late November was a Great Reed Warbler that is late for the species. They normally move through in September and October with late birds seen in early November. Other species trapped and ringed were resident ones such as House Sparrow, Graceful Prinia and Indian Reed Warbler.

Water Pipit

Water Pipit

Common Kingfisher

Red-spotted Bluethroat

Red-spotted Bluethroat

Great Reed Warbler

Great Reed Warbler

House Sparrow

Graceful Prinia

Indian Reed Warbler

Ringing typical east coast wetland birds - Jubail

Nicole and I went ringing at Sabkhat Al Fasl 28 October and caught the typical wetland birds we normally catch with plenty of Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers and a few Common Kingfishers. We also caught a single Great Reed Warbler, two Caspian (European) Reed Warbler, several Graceful Prinias and two Little Bitterns. Other birds trapped included a Turkestan Shrike and the first Bluethroats of the autumn. It was quite hard work ringing in the high humidity but we ended up with 34 birds trapped and ringed in total so not too bad. Numbers decreased markedly around 10:00 hrs as normal so we left the site by 12:00 hrs.

Graceful Prinia

Graceful Prinia

Great Reed Warbler

Great Reed Warbler

Little Bittern

Common Kingfisher - male

Common Kingfisher - female

European (Caspian) Reed Warbler

European (Caspian) Reed Warbler

Turkestan Shrike

Turkestan Shrike

House Sparrow

Ringing - Jubail

Whilst ringing in September at Jubail, we trapped and ringed 34 birds of thirteen species which was a good return as we could only ring for the first few hours of daylight as the wind soon got up and made ringing impossible. Luckily we arrived well before first light and had most nets up by daybreak, where we set eight 18 metre nets and a single 15 metre net in various areas including between reed beds and over water. The largest number of birds caught were Great Reed Warblers with ten birds trapped and ringed followed by Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warbler with five birds caught. Most birds were either resident or passage migrants although a couple of winter visitors in Daurian Shrike and Common Kingfisher were caught. We also caught a Common Ringed Plover, a species we had not caught in Saudi Arabia before making the trip well worth while.

Great Reed Warbler

Graceful Prinia

Little Bittern - adult female

Common Kingfisher

Common Ringed Plover

Plenty of migrants near Tabuk – Bird records by Viv Wilson

Viv went birding to his local wetland area that is now growing significantly in size. It has started attracting good numbers of birds including plenty of migrants. Whilst there he saw a good number of water birds including both Grey Heron and Black-crowned Night Heron, the later species not so common in the Kingdom although regular in small numbers. Other water birds seen included mixed flocks of waders and terns as well as ducks with Northern Pintail being the commonest. Also a few Spur-winged Lapwings were present in the area. Both Common Kestrel and Lesser Kestrel were in the trees and flying over as well as two or three Montagu’s Harriers. Passerine migrants included Ortolan Bunting and Great Reed Warbler.

Grey Herons

Black-crowned Night Heron

Wetland 

Wader Flock

Duck flock including Northern Pintail

Glossy Ibis

Spur-winged Lapwing

Lesser Kestrel

Lesser Kestrel

Montagu's Harrier

Montagu's Harrier

Ortolan Bunting

Great Reed Warbler