Juvenile Greater White-fronted Goose at Jubail – Bird records by Lou Regenmorter

Lou was in the Eastern Province for the weekend and after spending some time at Sabkhat Al Fasl ventured into Jubail towards Deffi Park. Here he found a small wetland area with a few birds on it including a juvenile Greater White-fronted Goose. Lou managed to take some nice photos of the bird as it was fairly tame but the fact it was a juvenile and the time of year points more towards a wild origin than a captive one. Lou has kindly given me permission to reproduce the photos on my website, two of which are shown below. This bird appears to be of the sub-species Anser albifrons albifrons, sometimes known as Russian White-fronted Goose. The confirmed records from the Eastern Province were two immature birds seen on a small treated sewage effluent pond at Dhahran Camp 14th November 1985, four birds at Sabkhat Al Fasl 16th November 2007 two of which were shot by a hunter, nine birds at Dhahran Hills percolation pond 13th to 22nd February 2008, a second calendar year Anser albifrons albifrons was at Sabkhat Al Fasl 17-18 February 2012 and nine shot by a hunter in early winter 2013 at Al Asfar Lake, Al Hassa.

Records from elsewhere in Saudi Arabia include the following:-

One near Jeddah prior to 1981

Immature, Jeddah, 24 December 1982 to 4 March 1983

Singles, Yanbu, 1 January 1983, with another photographed at Yanbu in January 1983 plausibly ascribed to A. a. erythrops, 17 December 1984 to 2 February 1985, and 25 December 1985

First-winter, Mansouriyah near Riyadh, 21 December 1984 to 25th January 1985

Up to 11 first-winters, Riyadh area, 8th November 1985 to late February 1986

One, Mecca bypass, winter 1987/88

Four, lower reaches of Riyadh watercourse, November 1990, had increased to 11 by 1st February 1991

One Jeddah 19 January 2011

The Birding Year 2012 (Part 1) – Eastern Saudi Arabia

357 Common Shelduck Tadorna tadorna, the largest flock for some years at the site, were at Sabkhat Al Fasl 6th January along with 19 Western Marsh Harriers Circus aeruginosus which was a high count. Six adult and two first year Eurasian Spoonbills Platalea leucorodia were at Dammam Port Mangroves 13th January with six adults still present 10th February. Thirteen Greater Spotted Eagles Aquila clanga at Sabkhat Al Fasl 2nd February was the highest count of the winter and were accompanied by two second calendar year Eastern Imperial Eagles Aquilla heliacal. Six Corn Buntings Emberiza calandra were at Dhahran 9th February with four still present the next day. Two adult Armenian Gulls Larus armenicus were at the Dammam–Al Khobar wader roost (south) 10th February, the status of this species in the Eastern Province is uncertain but it appears to be scarce or rare. A second calendar year Short-toed Snake Eagle Circaetus gallicus was over Dhahran 11th February. A single second calendar year Greater White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons was at Sabkhat Al Fasl 17th & 18th February which is a vagrant to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

Greater White-fronted Goose

A juvenile Crested Honey Buzzard Pernis ptilorhynchus was at Dhahran 29th March while an adult Black-winged Kite Elanus (caeruleus) vociferus was there from 29th March until 17th April. This bird appeared to be of the eastern sub-species Elanus (caeruleus) vociferus as it had very dark under-wing markings on the secondaries unlike the more western race Elanus (caeruleus) caeruleus and was the first record for the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

Black-winged Kite

Two adult male Little Crakes Porzana parva were at Dhahran 29th February with four (three males and a female) 4th & 5th March with singles seen until 20th March. An Egyptian Nightjar Caprimulgus aegyptius was seen in the evening of 4th March at Dhahran with an adult male Finsch’s Wheatear Oenanthe finschii at the same site in the evening of 7th March. An adult White-spectacled Bulbul Pycnonotus xanthopygos was at Sabkhat Al Fasl 30th March which appears to be only the second record for the Eastern Province. A Common Grasshopper Warbler Locustella naevia was at Dhahran 1st April. An adult Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia was at Sabkhat Al Fasl 4 May. A female Black-headed Bunting Emberiza melanocephala was at Dhahran 8th & 9th May and an immature Black Stork Ciconia nigra at the same site 23rd May.

Black-headed Bunting

Greater White-fronted Goose - Jubail

I have just recieved news from Andre Marais that he too saw the Russian Greater White-fronted Goose at Jubail the day after my sighting (18th February 2012), in the same place. He took a photograph of the bird and it looks to be the same individual from the markings. Andres kindly sent me his photographs and has allowed me to put them on the website. Andres also saw a Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark at the site, which although not uncommon in the area, I have yet to see at Jubail. He also took some photographs of a second calendar year Greater Spotted Eagle on the ground. There are a few people looking at Jubail now that more people know of its existance and hopefully as time goes on more and more good birds will be seen here as this is certainly the best single site I know in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

 Greater White-fronted Goose (2nd calendar year albifrons)

Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark (male)

Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons albifrons) – Sabkhat Al Fasl

On Friday 17^th February I found a second calendar year Greater White-fronted Goose of the sub-species Anser albifrons albifrons, sometimes known as Russian White-fronted Goose at Sabkhat Al Fasl. This is an extremely rare visitor to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, and in fact to Saudi Arabia as a whole. Over the last few days I have been trying to find out about the status of the species in the country and from what I know it is a vagrant to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia with three records of 15 birds prior to this sighting and is also a scarce visitor to rthe emainder of Saudi Arabia. There are several unconfirmed reports from Jeddah and the Gulf that are not thought to be good enough for acceptance. Thanks to Phil Roberts for supplying me with much of the data from the Eastern Province and to Guy Kerwin for supplying the records for elsewhere in Saudi Arabia.

The confirmed records from the Eastern Province were two immature birds seen on a small treated sewage effluent pond at Dhahran Camp 14^th November 1985 (Birds of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia - Bundy et al 1989), four birds at Sabkhat Al Fasl 16th November 2007 two of which were shot by a hunter and nine birds at Dhahran Hills percolation pond 13th to 22nd February 2008. 
Records from elsehwhere in Saudi Arabia include the following:-
One near Jeddah prior to 1981 (Jennings)
Immature, Jeddah, 24th December 1982 to 4th March 1983 (J. Saudi Arab. Nat. Hist. Soc. 2(3): 42)
Singles, Yanbu, 1st January 1983, 17th December 1984 to 2nd February 1985, and 25th Dec 1985 (Baldwin & Meadows 1988).
Another photographed at Yanbu in January 1983 was plausibly ascribed to A. a. erythrops.
First-winter, Mansouriyah near Riyadh, 21st December 1984 to 25th January 1985 (R. W. Burrough & A. J. Stagg)
Up to 11 first-winters, Riyadh area, 8th November 1985 to late February 1986 (R. W. Burrough et al.)
One, Mecca bypass, winter 1987/88 (P. Symens)
Four, lower reaches of Riyadh watercourse, November 1990, had increased to 11 by 1st February 1991 (D. Middleton, J. Norton & W. Sawyer)
One Jeddah 19th January 2011 (Phoenix 28)

The status of the species in the Middle East is as follows:-

Kuwait – Vagrant (2 records; February 2005 & November 2009)

Saudi Arabia – Vagrant (5 records - see details above)

Bahrain – Vagrant (November & December)

Qatar – Rare winter visitor mid-November to late February (5 records of 23 birds mainly juveniles)

UAE – Uncommon to rare winter visitor; extreme dates 3^rd November to 4^th April

Oman – Uncommon winter visitor

Israel – Rare to uncommon winter visitor in northern Israel, much less so in central & southern parts.

The bird I saw was of the sub-species Anser albifrons albifrons which breeds in the north-west Palearctic between Kanin Peninsula and Kolyma and winters in central and south Europe east into central Asia. In the Middle East it is a regular winter visitor to Turkey, Iran, Iraq, northern Syria and northern Egypt. Difference between the sub-species in juvenile plumage are albifrons (Russian White-fronted Goose) has a comparatively small and short pink bill with a dark tip (although is rarely orange) and flavirostris (Greenland White-fronted Goose) has a wedge shaped orange bill (although rarely pinkish). The tail on albifrons is brown and shows limited contrast with the upper-parts whereas flavirostris has a dark tail that is darker than the upper-parts and has a fine white boarder. The upper-parts of flavirostris are dark chocolate brown with buff tones to fringes of coverts and tertials whereas they are grey-brown on albifrons with contrasting  off-white fringes to coverts and tertials. Flavirostris is a bulky bird with a long neck and looks heavy chested whereas albifrons is a more compact goose with a comparatively short neck.

Initially I flushed the bird from the edge of a large open lake where it was hiding close in under a bank and out of sight of me. The bird flew very strongly away and over the reserve and appeared to keep going. On the views I had it was obviously a Goose and my thoughts were it was a Greater-White-fronted Goose, but I could not be certain it was not a Greylag Goose. This left me happy to have seen a goose but very disappointed in being unable to identify it. I went to the back of the reserve in the hope the goose may have landed again, but my hopes were not high as it did not appear to have done so. Fortunately for me I found the bird again on a bank between two large lakes, in the new area I have just found at the site. From these views it became clear the bird was a Greater White-fronted Goose and it looked quite tiered.

I did not want to flush the bird under any circumstances as there were a couple of hunters in a blind in the middle of the main flooded sabkha area and I was worried the bird may fly over that way and be shot, especially as Phil Roberts told me long ago that two of the thee birds he had seen at the same site, were shot and killed by hunters as he was watching them. I took a few photographs of the bird but they were all into the sun and I did not want to move to a better location in case I flushed the bird. After about five minutes a Western Marsh Harrier attacked the Goose and drove it off, and I got a few flight shots. The bird flew around and came right over the car and landed again behind me but again in a position looking slightly into the sun. I took a few more photographs and spent quite a while looking at the bird trying to work out what sub-species it was as I remember seeing something on Birding Frontiers website about eastern race White-fronted Goose in Israel recently. I then left the goose in place, hoping it makes it out of Sabkhat Al Fasl in one piece and does not end up on someone’s dinner table.