A few migrants - Jubail

Whilst birding Jubail last weekend I came across a few migrants but things were fairly quiet. The best birds were a few Daurian and Turkestan Shrikes and two Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, although several waders were also seen like Green Sandpiper and Little Stint. Several Pied Avocets were seen and a couple of Marsh Sandpipers. Good numbers of herons in particular Grey Heron and Little Egret were about but also a few Squacco Herons. As always plenty of Grey-headed Swamphens were see but otherwise if was generally fairly quiet.

Isabelline Shrike 

Green Sandpiper

Little Stint

Little Egret

Grey-headed Swamphen

Plenty of waders – Dhahran Expro Wader Roost

A trip to the Dhahran Expro Wader Roost produced plenty of waders of a good variety of species. The tide was not ideal but plenty of birds were along the edges including both Lesser and Greater Sand Plovers in small numbers. Curlew Sandpipers, Eurasian Curlew, Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwits and Dunlins had the largest number of birds with lesser numbers of Ruddy Turnstones, Common Redshanks and Common Greenshanks. There were much smaller numbers of Green Sandpipers, Terek Sandpipers and Grey Plovers. Other birds seen included very large numbers of Slender-billed Gulls with many first calendar year birds along with adults indicating a good breeding season. Several Indian Reef Herons of both black and white morphs were present as well as lots of Gull-billed Terns and two Caspian Terns. The only passerines of note seen were several Isabelline Wheatears hiding from the sun under the small bushes long the edge of the wet areas.

Whimbrel

Bar-tailed Godwit

Common Greenshank

Common Redshank

Curlew Sandpiper

Eurasian Curlew

Lesser Sand Plover

Green Sandpiper

Ruddy Turnstone

Terek Sandpiper

The first signs of migration starting – Sabkhat Al Fasl

Migration starts very early in Saudi Arabia compared to my home country of the UK. Here migrants can be seen in January and by early February numbers are increasing. The first signs of migration are normally Barn Swallows and Pallid Swifts with small numbers of each seen in the last few weeks. Phil Roberts also saw a couple of House Martins that are also early migrants. A good number of singing Reed Warblers were also migrants as these are not resident in the Eastern Province although stay until November and are only absent for a couple of months. A few Purple Herons in the last three weeks may well also have been migrants but it is difficult to tell. A number of waders may also be moving as there are now a few more Green Sandpipers and Wood Sandpipers present. Another species it is difficult to tell if they are migrants or not are the Stonechats as some winter and some are on passage  We saw a few SCT Stonechats as well as a smart male NCT Stonechat this I failed to get any photographs of. Migration should start building over the next few weeks and peak in March and April. Let’s hope we get a good spring migration this spring as last year was relatively poor compared to other recent years.

SCT Stonechat - male

Citrine Wagtail

Common Kingfisher - male

Daurian Shrike

Green Sandpiper

Little Grebe

Purple Swamphen

Red-spotted Bluethroat

Slender-billed Gull

Lots of birds – Sabkhat Al Fasl

My trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl last weekend proved quite rewarding with lots of birds seen including a few good ones. The first bird we saw on arrival was a Mauryan (Steppe) Grey Shrike sitting on an electrical post with a Common Kestrel. It has not been a good year for this species of Shrike so far although I have seen a few in the last couple of weeks. Over my time at the site I saw about five more shrikes with all the ones I got good views of appearing to be Daurian Shrikes. As normal, Grey-headed (Purple) Swamphens were common, with a newly burnt section of reeds holding 17 birds. Although they are common at Sabkhat Al Fasl this and Khafrah Marsh nearby are the only sites for the species in the country. Quite a few winter visitors are around now including White Wagtails, Water Pipits, Bluethroats and Eastern Stonechats and a Desert Wheatear was an unusual species for the location. The flock of Spanish Sparrows and the four Eurasian Penduline Tits, already posted about earlier, were also good winter visitors. As normal Greater Spotted Eagles were seen but this time only two with one a standard juvenile and the other a slightly odd looking bird with some features of Lesser Spotted Eagle although the bird was not seen well enough to claim such a rare species. Unfortunately the fulvescens bird was not seen. Another good bird of prey seen was a Long-legged Buzzard, a resident but uncommon species in the region and one I had not seen at the location before, although I have seen them just outside the reserve. As always the majority of birds were herons and egrets with good numbers of Grey Herons, Little Egrets and six Western Great Egrets. Squacco Heron numbers are building up with well over twenty birds seen during the day. A few waders were seen but numbers were low with Green Sandpiper seen in a few places and 37 Pied Avocets also present. Greater Flamingo numbers are increasing with more than 200 birds now on the flooded sabkha and Slender-billed Gulls are also increasing in numbers with 100 or so birds seen. Otherwise a few species of tern were seen including Caspian, Gull-billed, Whiskered and White-winged.

Mauryan Grey Shrike

Daurian Shrike

Eastern Stonechat

Grey-headed Swamphen

Greater Spotted Eagle

Long-legged Buzzard

Little Egret

Western Great Egret

Squacco Heron

Green Sandpiper

Slender-billed Gull

Birds still thin on the ground – Dhahran Hills

Birding the ‘patch’ the last week has been slightly more interesting than the previous weeks although birds still remain thin on the ground. There have been a few shrikes about with most being Daurian Shrikes but a Red-backed Shrike was also present. Most of these birds have been in the spray fields although a few have been in the recently cleared scrubby desert. Other birds seen in the spray fields have been the winter first Stonechats with three European Stonechats and one female Eastern Stonechat. An Isabelline Wheatear was also on one of the spray heads one evening. Waders have been plentiful and the settling pond has had a good number including two Marsh Sandpipers, eight Wood Sandpipers, three Green Sandpipers, ten Little Stints, one Common Redshank, one Common Sandpiper and two Dunlin. The wet ditch also has had a few waders with four Common Snipe, one Green Sandpiper and one Wood Sandpiper. A few Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters are still passing through and the Red-tailed Wheatear is still present on its favourite boulders.

Daurian Shrike

Daurian Shrike

Eastern Stonechat

Green Sandpiper

Common Snipe

Not much change – Dhahran Hills

Birding the patch the last few days has produced very little of note and not much change to the birds that have been around earlier in the week. Ferruginous Duck numbers have dropped to 16 birds, but White-winged Tern numbers have increased too seven, a very high number for the pond. A small number of yellow wagtails have been passing through, as have Pied Wheatears, Northern Wheatears and Isabelline Wheatears. Waders have been the majority of birds seen with Little Stints, Temminck’s Stints, Dunlins, Curlew Sandpipers, Marsh Sandpipers, Common Redshanks, Kentish Plovers, Little Ringed Plovers, Green Sandpipers and Wood Sandpipers all recorded in the last week.

Little Stint 

Temminck's Stint

Little Ringed Plover

Green Sandpiper

Temminck’s Stint on wet ditch – Dhahran Hills

The wet ditch has been producing a number of good birds over the last few weeks after months of having nothing on it. On 17 September there was a nice Temminck’s Stint there. The species is a passage migrant and winter visitor that is a regular migrant in small numbers almost always away from the coast. It occurs in April and May and again from September to November. Some birds do winter in very small numbers at some suitable inland sites such as Sabkhat Al Fasl near Jubail. They are seen quite regularly on the ‘patch’ but normally are seen at some distance on the settling pond or percolation pond although I have seen them before on the wet ditch in previous years. Other birds seen on the ditch at the same time were Wood Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper and Little Stint. A group of European Bee-eaters flew over whilst I was there and a Tawny Pipit was feeding nearby.

Temminck's Stint

Temminck's Stint

Temminck's Stint

Temminck's Stint

Wood Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

Little Stint