Waterbirds - Dhahran

When out birding the Dhahran Hills Waste-Water Lake in mid-June I came across a few different water birds. There were eight Black-crowned Night Herons, with equal numbers of adults and juvenile, suggesting they must breed somewhere nearby. Three Glossy Ibis were again on the lakeside, after going missing for several months. A couple of Little Bittern were also present as were a single Western Great Egret, one grey phase Indian Reef Heron and two Grey Heron. Little Grebes with young were on the lake as were Common Coot and Common Moorhen. The only waders seen were three Black-winged Stilts. Birds around the lake were very few with a few Prinias calling and a number of White-eared Bulbuls the best.

Little Bittern

Black-crowned Night Heron - adult & immature

Black-crowned Night Heron - adult & immature

Black-crowned Night Heron - adult

Black-winged Stilt

Four Common Cuckoo & other migrants – Jubail

While birding the Jubail area in May we came across a Common Cuckoo in the very early morning. The bird appeared to be very tiered and allowed us to manoeuvre the car into a good position for photographs. This is a species I have not got many good photos of so I was well pleased with my efforts shown below. During the days birdwatching we found three more Common Cuckoo, indicating they were passing in good numbers overnight. Shrike numbers remained high with 50 seen throughout the day. Most were Red-backed Shrikes with 32 seen. Turkestan Shrike was next commonest with 17 birds and a single Daurian Shrike was also located. Other migrants seen included Barred Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat (late bird), Willow Warbler, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Whinchat, Common Redstart, Yellow Wagtail, Tree Pipit & Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin. A single Red-necked Phalarope was a nice addition to the days total. Egret and heron numbers were much lower than previous weeks suggesting they have moved off or are secretly breeding somewhere. 

Common Cuckoo

Common Cuckoo

Common Cuckoo

Common Cuckoo

Little Bittern - female

Red-backed Shrike - male

Red-backed Shrike - male

Red-necked Phalarope

Turkestan Shrike - male

Turkestan Shrike - male

Summertime birding - Jubail

Birding the Jubail area in June gave a few surprising migrants including Whinchat, European Bee-eater, Red-backed Shrike, Barn Swallow and Sand Martin. A Western Cattle Egret was also a surprise as they are a winter species that has normally departed by this time of year. A few summer plumage Squacco Herons were also present showing for the fifth year that they probably breed at the site, although no proof of this has been found yet. White-cheeked and Little Terns are back in large numbers for the breeding season and will remain around until September. Resident Gull-billed and Caspian Terns were also present in much smaller numbers to the previous two tern species. Over 2000 Greater Flamingo remain on one of the large sabkha areas where the first breeding in Saudi Arabia was noted a couple of years ago. Large numbers of singing Caspian Reed Warblers were present in the reed beds singing in competition with Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers. Little Bitterns were seen in flight several times as were a group of twelve Grey Herons.

Little Bittern

Little Bittern

Little Tern 

Red-backed Shrike

Spotted Flycatcher

Squacco Heron 

Western Cattle Egret

First ringing trip of 2018 – Sabkhat Al Fasl

We went ringing on 12 January and caught 29 birds of 10 species including Common Kingfisher, Clamorous Reed Warbler, Little Bittern, Graceful Prinia, Red-spotted Bluethroat, Moustached Warbler, Common Chiffchaff, White-eared Bulbul, Water Pipit and Daurian Shrike. White-eared Bulbul was a new species for us at our ringing site, although birds are common in the region they are scarce at the site itself with birds only being seen in the last year suggesting they may be colonising 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 and additional three nets along the edge of a reed bed as well as the normal ten nets we set every trip (11 x 18 metre and 2 x 15 metre). As normal, we arrived well before first light and set the nets during the hours of darkness. 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 five Clamorous Reed Warbler, two Red-spotted Bluethroat, a Graceful Prinia and a Little Bittern. The Clamorous Reed Warblers were from as early as 23 September 2016 with the Bluethroats only trapped this winter. The Graceful Prinia was trapped in November 2017 and the Little Bitter in March 2017. The number of birds was less than normal as it was the middle of winter and the weather was very cold with temperatures in the morning only reaching 5 degrees Celsius. Normally we have to take care of birds overheating but it was the opposite this time with care needed to ensure the birds did not become too cold.

Common Chiffchaff

Red-spotted Bluethroat

Common Kingfisher

Water Pipit

Little Bittern

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

Some spring migrants in northwest Saudi Arabia – Bird record by Euan Ferguson

Euan Ferguson was in Saudi Arabia with a couple of other birdwatchers in spring 2017, conducting an environmental survey and found a number of good birds and many migrants in the northwest if the Kingdom at Sharma on the Red Sea coast and further inland at Dumat. The survey team added a lot of knowledge to the birds seen in the area showing how valuable environmental surveys can be. Euan sent me a number of his photos and has kindly allowed me to use them on my website some of which are shown below.

Bluethroat

Little Bittern

Green Bee-eater

Ortolan Bunting

Common Quail 

Savi's Warbler

Spotted Flycatcher 

Turkestan Shrike

Wryneck

Black-headed Wagtail

First autumn Ringing tip of year? – Sabkaht Al Fasl

We went ringing for the first time this autumn on 15 September. This is early for us as the temperatures are very high still at this time of year. We caught 39 birds of 11 species including White-throated Kingfisher, Common Kingfisher, Eurasian (Caspian) Reed Warbler, Clamorous Reed Warbler, Great Reed Warbler, Willow Warbler, Savi’s Warbler, Little Bittern, Common Redshank, Graceful Prinia and House Sparrow. Common Redshanks was a new species for us at our ringing site as was White-throated Kingfisher making it a very good ringing trip. It was a very hot and humid day and taking down the nets at the end of the session was far from pleasant but the day was still very enjoyable. We set nets in the same locations each tip with some over water (catching both new ringing species) and other over land in rides between reed beds. We set nine nets this trip (7 x 18 metre and 2 x 15 metre).

Common Redshank

Little Bittern - male

Willow 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