Birding the Sharma Beach area - Sharma

The Sharma Beach area is now part of the NEOM complex and is thus difficult to access many previously available locations. The beach area is good in winter for waders and Gulls with some places where you can drive a four-wheeled drive vehicle along the beach edge. When we were there in January we located a Sanderling working its way along the beach. This is a species I do not see very often in the East of the country so spent some time trying to obtain a few decent photographs of the species. Only a handful of Large White-headed Gulls were found and most were Caspian Gull with a reasonable number of Sooty Gulls intermixed with them. The only other bird of note was a fly over Long-legged Buzzard. 

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sooty Gull

Long-legged Buzzard

Long-legged Buzzard

Long-legged Buzzard

Long-legged Buzzard

Long-legged Buzzard - Judah

Whilst birding along the bottom of the escarpment at Judah a Long-legged Buzzard flew off the cliff and circled around. It was very early morning and the light was not great for photography but I managed a couple of photos that are shown below. Long-legged Buzzard is a breeding resident in the Eastern Province although it is thinly distributed in small numbers. Bird numbers appear to increase I winter so there is either an influx from elsewhere or birds move from their breeding areas to more favourable wintering sites. This bird is probably a breeding resident but the time of year could also suggest it was on passage.

October birding – Talea Valley

I went birding in the Talea Valley in mid-October, but very few birds were seen. Many birds appear to move to lower elevations or at least out of the valley at this time of year and common birds in the summer such as Laughing Dove and Dusky Turtle Dove was almost absent. A few good birds were still seen such as five Steppe Eagles and a dark morph Long-legged Buzzard. Arabian Serin, Arabian Wheatear, Yemen Linnet and Shinning Sunbird were Arabian Endemics located during the day but unfortunately the Eurasian Scops owl found by Phil the day before could not be relocated. The wet pool held a Green Sandpiper and a Grey Wagtail with a few House Sparrows and Indian Silverbills coming down to drink with Crested Lark and a single Red-capped Lark.

Arabian Babbler

Northern Wheatear

Eurasian Hoopoe

Grey Wagtail

Grey Wagtail

Grey Wagtail

Little Rock Thrush 

Long-Legged Buzzard 

Long-Legged Buzzard

Montagu's Harrier

Montagu's Harrier

Winter Birds - Tabuk

Whilst birding the Tabuk area recently I saw a few good winter species such as Montagues Harrier. It was the commonest harrier although both Pallid and Marsh Harrier were also seen. Several Long-legged Buzzard were also around the large fields. Three Cream-coloured Coursers were seen along the edge of a large pivot irrigation field but trying to obtain good photos proved extremely difficult. Other birds seen commonly were Crested Lark and Eurasian Hoopoe.

Cream-coloured Courser

Crested Lark 

Eurasian Hoopoe

Eurasian Hoopoe

Long-legged Buzzard

Montagu's Harrier

Resident species – Talea Valley

Whilst birding the Talea valley near Abha in the southwest mountains I took the below photos of a few resident species. Arabian Serin is a common species in the Acacia scrub in the valley bottom with Cinnamon-breasted Bunting being common in summer but absent in mid-winter, where it presumably moves to lower elevations where the temperature will; be milder. Genuine Rock Dove is not so easy to see with feral pigeon being a cause of lack of good birds. The bird shown here looks good for a genuine bird and was in good habitat. Long-legged Buzzard in the southwest appear to be aminly dark morph birds whereas those seen in the Eastern Province where I live are the pale morph ones. Other birds seen were House Sparrow, which are a different subspecies to those I see in the east of the Kingdom and Streaked Scrub Warbler.

Arabian Serin

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting 

House Sparrow

Long-legged Buzzard

Rock Dove 

Streaked Scrub Warbler

Long-legged Buzzard in Dhahran – Bird record by Paul Wells

Paul Wells recently found a Long-legged Buzzard in Dhahran, an unusual occurrence t]for the location. In the Eastern Province it is a breeding resident, which is thinly distributed in small numbers. Bird numbers appear to increase in winter so there is either an influx from elsewhere or birds move from their breeding areas to more favourable wintering sites. This winter has been a very good one for the species with birds seen over a wide area of the Eastern Province and is the second good winter in a row.

Very quiet – Talea’a Valley

This winter I birded the Talea’a Valley, the first time I have done so in the winter. Many birds present in the summer are missing at this time of year and it was very quiet bird wise. The best birds seen were several wintering Chiffchaffs and a couple of Long-legged Buzzards. A small flock of the endemic Yemen Linnet were in a tree near to the dam and apart from that about the only other birds seen were White-spectacled Bulbul, Crested Lark and House Sparrow.

Common Chiffchaff 

Long-legged Buzzard

Long-legged Buzzard near Al Hassa – Bird record by Praleesh Prasannan

Praleesh Prasannan took the below photographs of Long-legged Buzzard near Al Hassa recently and has kindly allowed me to use them on my website. I also thank Vinu Mathew for getting me permission for there use. In the Eastern Province it is a breeding resident, which is thinly distributed in small numbers. Bird numbers appear to increase I winter so there is either an influx from elsewhere or birds move from their breeding areas to more favourable wintering sites. This winter has been a very good one for the species with birds seen over a wide area of the Eastern Province and more than normal seen in nearby Bahrain and Qatar. 

Long-legged Buzzards – Haradh

Whilst birding in Haradh in mid-January I saw at least five Long-legged Buzzards Buteo rufinus. These birds must be wintering in the area as there were too many in too small an area for them to be breeders. Long-legged Buzzard is an uncommon breeding resident in all areas of the Kingdom. In the Riyadh area it is a scarce resident as well as a migrant and winter visitor. It is not seen as often as it has been as it has retreated for breeding to remoter areas as urbanisation and farming have expanded. It remains a breeding resident in small numbers and sightings suggest a big increase in the winter population, with more sightings in the last few years than previously during this period. In the southwest it is regarded as an uncommon resident seen in all months except January. There is one recent record from the Empty Quarter of a bird coming to drink at an irrigation pipe at GOSP 2 although the bird is a resident of the Rub al Khali. In the Eastern Province it is a breeding resident, which is thinly distributed in small numbers. Although I have seen the species at Haradh before I have never seen this number so hopefully numbers are increasing.

Birding along the roadside - Bani Saad

Recently I was in Bani Saad and stopped along the roadside at a nice looking area of market garden fields with crops. This area had once held Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak where birds were seen sitting on a roof in Bani Saad but unfortunately I have never seen them in the built up areas. I did see a few good birds including a couple of Long-billed Pipits on one roadside bluff and nearby a few Cinnamon-breasted Buntings. The best bird seen, however, was a dark phase Long-legged Buzzard seen flying over. This phase is much commoner in the west of the Kingdom than in the east and are always good to see. Other species seen included Eurasian Hoopoe, Palestine Sunbird and Tristram’s Starlings.

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

Long-billed Pipit

Long-billed Pipit

Long-legged Buzzard - dark phase

Long-legged Buzzard - dark phase