Summer Breeders & Visitors – Jubail

Whilst in the Jubail area recently I photographed a number of the common breeding species as well as a few summer visitors. I managed to find a good place to stop and try to photograph Clamorous Reed Warbler as I heard a number of birds calling loudly. They find a nice reed and slowly move up the reed stem to get in a good position for calling their distinctive very loud call. This sometimes gives a good opportunity to photograph the birds. In the reeds there were plenty of Grey-headed Swamphen, a bird that I love seeing. They are far from elegant when they fly and try to land in the reeds but are great birds to see and watch. They have been expanding their range markedly in the Eastern Province over the last few years and can now be seen in many places. Little Terns breed in the area now and I managed to find a pair in a good position for photographs. Black-winged Stilts also breed commonly in the area with this one below against a nice sandy background. Non-breeding species seen include Caspian Tern, which is common bird year-round and the much scarcer Lesser Crested Tern. Greater Flamingo has bred at this location in previous years but only fifteen birds are currently present so looks unlikely this year.

Little Tern

Little Tern

Greater Flamingo

Grey-headed Swamphen

Grey-headed Swamphen

Grey-headed Swamphen

Lesser Crested Tern

Lesser Crested Tern

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Clamorous Reed Warbler

Clamorous Reed Warbler

White-cheeked Terns – Jubail

During September the number of White-cheeked Terns started decreasing although good numbers still remained in Jubail. Many spend time sitting on the coastal edges of flooded sabkha areas, some allowing close approach. White-cheeked Tern Sterna repressa is a common breeding summer visitor to the Gulf and Red Sea coast north to Jeddah. Birds start occurring in April and by June there are very large numbers as this is the start of their breeding season. White-cheeked Tern juveniles occur from late July and August and some remaining until October. Winter records are rare in the Eastern Province, although they have been seen occasionally. Birds breed offshore Jubail on small islands and use wetland areas of Jubail as feeding areas.  Amongst the White-cheeked Terns I also saw a single Lesser Crested Tern, a species seldom seen in the location I regularly birdwatch.

White-cheeked Tern

White-cheeked Tern

White-cheeked Tern

White-cheeked Tern

White-cheeked Tern

White-cheeked Tern

Lesser Crested Tern

Lesser Crested Terns – Abu Ali Island

Whilst birding Abu Ali Island in February we found a few Lesser Crested Terns sitting on some metal poles sticking out from the sea close to the shore. This species is seen irregularly along the Arabian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia in winter and return to breed on offshore islands in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in the summer. We have ringed more than 3000 birds so far in Bahrain with ring recoveries all coming from the east of Bahrain with birds recorded in India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

More Collared Kingfishers - Amaq Lagoons

After seeing Collared Kingfisher, a bird restricted to the mangrove patches in the southwest of the Kingdom, at Al Qahma and Either Mangroves, I decided to go north past Al Birk and look at a site near Amaq. Here there are two large lagoons surrounded by mangroves and both looked good for the species. One lagoon is south of Amaq and the other north and both sites held birds with a minimum of two seen at each location. Although the species is restricted in habitat and area of Saudi Aramco they appear plentiful in the area they do occur in which is great news. Most birders go the the same couple of sites to see the species and this two new sites plus Either Mangorves have extended the species range and known locations. The northern site is fenced off and no access is currently possible from the main road, but if you backtrack to the south lagoon and use the coastguard track you can enter the location through an open gate into the fenced area. The locations also held a few Greater Flamingos, Pink-backed Pelicans and various waders including Crab Plover, Lesser Sand Plovers and Common Redshanks. Terns seen included Caspian Terns, Gull-billed Terns, Lesser Crested Terns and two Swift Terns.

Collared Kingfisher

Collared Kingfisher

Collared Kingfisher

Collared Kingfisher

Greater Flamingo

Lesser Crested Tern

Pink-backed Pelican

Lesser Crested Tern Ringing Recovery in Indonesia

The ringing team in Bahrain lead by Professor Brendan Kavanagh have been ringing Lesser Crested & Bridled Terns for a number of years. I have been going on these ringing trips for the last three years and we will be going again in summer 2014 all being well. The majority of birds caught are flightless young and we have had a number of ringing recoveries of these birds. Brendan recently sent me details of a bird found in Indonesia.

Lesser Crested Tern
Ring Number: DE64207
Ringing date: 13-Jul-2012
Ringing Place: Al Jarim Island South, near Bahrain, Bahrain & Qatar (Co-ords: 26deg 23min N 50deg 28min E)
Ringer: B Kavanagh, 4736
Finding date: 27-Dec-2012
Finding Place: Barus, Sumatra, Indonesia (Co-ords: 2deg 0min N 98deg 23min E)
Finding Condition: Caught on fishing rod. Released alive.
Duration: 167 days
Distance: 5790 km
Direction: 118deg (ESE)
Finder: Bery Prasetya, Pantai Karang, Indonesia

All the birds have moved in an ESE direction with this one being the furthest travelled at 5790 kilometers. Other recoveries have come from India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives with a bird, probably one of ours seen and photographed with a ring in Malaysia (see ringing tab at the top of the page to find out more details on these birds).

Ringed Lesser Crested Tern in Malaysia – Bird records by Ronnie Ooi

Ronnie Ooi went pelagic birding of the coast of West Peninsular Malaysia recently when he spotted a Lesser Crested Tern Sterna bengalensis with a metal ring on one of its tarsus. It was seen on 16 November 2013 at 9.17 am, on a pole located in the sea that was about two kilometres from the shore facing the Straits of Malacca. Ronnie contacted me via my website, as he knew we ringed large numbers of Lesser Crested Terns on two small offshore islands in Bahrain. We have ringed more than 3000 birds so far there in the last five years and as we possible ring more Lesser Crested Terns than anyone and we are also probably the closest main ringing site to Malaysia it is possible the bird is one of ours. We ring with the type of ring shown and also on the left leg as this bird but obviously we cannot confirm it as one of ours as the ring details could not be read. Our recoveries so far have all come from the East of Bahrain, as Malaysia is, with birds recorded in India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Brown Noddy & Sooty Falcon - Farasan Offshore Islands

On one day we hired a boat from just south of the Farasan Coral Resort. We left at 06:00 hrs and kept the boat for five hours. The boats cost 150-200 SAR per hour which it may be possible to get for a cheaper rate as we were short of time and had no car so did not try to negotiate too hard although the original price was 250 SAR per hour. We started by looking for dolphins but failed to see any and then went to a rocky island to look for a few birds and found my two target species quite quickly, a Brown Noddy and a Sooty Falcon. I only saw one Brown Noddy but it was perched in full view on a rocky island, although taking photographs of it was not easy as it was almost directly into the sun.

Brown Noddy

Brown Noddy

 We also saw Pink-backed Pelican, Striated Herons, Brown Boobys, Lesser Crested Terns, Little Terns, Common Redshanks, Common Sandpipers and Sooty Gulls. We found a big feeding flock of terns but nothing unusual appeared to be in with them. After spending some time looking at the fish and collecting shells with the family, where I saw a Greater Hoopoe Lark, we returned to try to find the dolphins. Luckily I found a huge group, with a minimum of fifty animals, on the way back.

Brown Booby

Pink-backed Pelican

Sooty Gull

A very tired Whinchat landed on the boat but was so close I could hardly photograph it. The boat driver caught the bird by hand but we made him release it. It stayed on the boat for some time before flying off to a close by island. This was a real reminder of how difficult it is for small birds to migrate long distances and how tired they get in the process.

Offshore Island - Farasan Islands

Whinchat

Jizan Corniche

This site (16 55.10N, 43 32.70E) is one of the main birding locations in the region and has good wader habitat from Jizan south to the Yemen border approximately 45 kilometres away. Densities of birds are on average much higher in Jizan than at neighbouring sites, due to the sewage outfalls that enter the sea from Jizan city. As a result the area holds the highest concentration of shorebirds along the Saudi Red Sea coast. The main site is a four kilometre long by 500 metre wide stretch of muddy and mud-sand intertidal flats, stretching from Jizan Port to the northern edge of the city. The flats, enriched by sewage outfall from Jizan city, where in the past fringed by mangroves, but all these areas have now been destroyed by land reclamation projects. The site is easily viewed from the cornice road and in the early morning the sun is behind the observer allowing good viewing conditions. As a result of this we went to the location at first light on 1 July, the first morning of our trip, and although we did not arrive at the hotel until after midnight we were up before first light to check the site out. We went again on the afternoon of 6 July on the way to the airport when the tide was out and more waders could be seen.

Pink-backed Pelican

Caspian Tern

Crab Plover

Greater Flamingos

The site held small numbers of waders, due to the mid-summer time of year, with a good location being a large stream just north of the Jazan Inn Hotel where waders are pushed up when the tide was high. Here we saw six Eurasian Spoonbill, three Terek Sandpipers, 200+ Crab Plovers, three Bar-tailed Godwits, 100 Common Redshanks, three Spotted Redshanks, four Marsh Sandpipers, four Common Greenshanks, 20 Lesser Sand Plovers, 50+ Greater Sand Plovers of both sub-species, five Kentish Plovers, three Eurasian Curlews, two Whimbrels, three Eurasian Oystercatchers, three Grey Plovers and four Ruddy Turnstones. Other birds that were seen here included, Caspian Tern and my first new species in Saudi Arabia of the trip Pink-backed Pelican of which we saw over 200 birds. Two Black-crowned Sparrow Larks and a small party of six African Silverbills were also seen here along with Common Myna and House Sparrow. 

Eurasian Spoonbills

Eurasian Spoonbill

Greater Sand Plover

The seaward side of the Corniche had Western Osprey perched on a lamppost, with tens of Pink-backed Pelicans on the same posts, five Lesser Crested Terns, six Swift Terns, three Indian Reef Heron, 20+ Greater Flamingoes and several Sooty Gulls. Travelling further down towards the port we found a small fishing boat harbor near to the fish market that was full of gulls. Sooty Gull was common here with over one hundred birds seen, 10+ White-eyed Gulls, nine Baltic Gulls, three Caspian Gulls, 75+ Slender-billed Gulls and a Brown Booby flew overhead and landed on a nearby fishing boat. A few Lesser Crested Terns, Swift Terns and Greater Flamingoes were also present. Further south past the port we saw our only three White-cheeked Terns of the trip.

Western Osprey

Brown Booby

Sooty Gull

Slender-billed Gull

Baltic Gull

Lesser Crested Tern

Swift Tern

When the tide goes out some areas of exposed mudflats are attractive to the waders and extremely good views of the Crab Plovers can be had. Here we also saw Eurasian Spoonbill, 200+ Crab Plovers, Common Redshanks, Common Greenshanks, Lesser Sand Plovers, Greater Sand Plovers, Eurasian Curlews, Whimbrels, Eurasian Oystercatchers and Grey Plovers. Thirty House Crows and a Brown-necked Raven were seen along the Corniche scavenging for food.

Crab Plover