Birds of Saudi Arabia: Pied Wheatear

Showing posts with label Pied Wheatear. Show all posts

06 November 2023

Very few migrants – Salwa

We visited the areas in southeast Saudi Arabia near the Qatar and United Arab Emirates boarder to see if we could find anything unusual. After setting off at 02:45 we made it the areas the sun was rising at 06:00 hrs. We visited a few small allotment areas looking for migrants but only saw a two Great Grey Shrikes and a Common Chiffchaff, with virtually no birds present except White Eared Bulbul and House Sparrow. We then went to look at a couple of wet areas to see if we could locate any Prinias, which we had failed to do in the past. This time we also didn’t find anything but did record Clamorous Reed Warbler for the first time in the area as well as a few Common Chiffchaff, three Common Snipe and a Pied Wheatear. On the way onto one site, I saw a nice male Desert Wheatear but otherwise it was very quiet. We found a small lark that was very elusive but appeared to be either a Greater Short-toed Lark or Lesser Short-toed Lark and a warbler calling like a Lesser Whitethroat but very little else.

Great Grey Shrike

House Sparrow

Pied Wheatear

16 March 2023

An amazing barbed-wire fence – Al Uqayr

I arrived at first light at Al Uqayr in early March and as the sun was not up decided to drive along a fenced off area with a small area of trees enclosed. As I was driving, I came across a Great Grey Shrike sitting on the fence and this was closely followed by four Eurasian Hoopoe and a male Namaqua Dove. The light was not good as otherwise I may have got some good photos of these species. A few small warblers were also seen flitting about, but I could not get close to make any positive identifications. As it appeared migrants were about, I went to a nearby small farm for a few hours and returned to the fence at about 10:00 hrs. The light was better but not ideal and more birds were seen lined up along the fence. Two Asian Desert Warbler were noted and further down the fence a Daurian Shrike was perched. It took flight before I could get close but luckily flew straight towards me and perched almost directly beside the car. As I watched this bird another Shrike joined it which was a nice Turkestan Shrike also very close to the car. The amazing fence then had a male Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush on it that allowed me to get very close. This bird was even doing some sub-song that I recorded on my I-phone. Lastly three Pied Wheatears were also on the wires of the fence making an amazing hour or so of birding.

Turkestan Shrike

Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush

Pied Wheatear

Namaqua Dove

Great Grey Shrike

Eurasian Hoopoe

Daurian Shrike

Asian Desert Warbler

04 November 2022

Vary slow migrant wise – Jubail

My recent visits to Jubail have turned up very few migrants. The only migrants that have been about in numbers have been Barn Swallow and Bank Martin as well as Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters. Many have been flying over but other have stayed for a short period of time resting up. Very small numbers of Western Yellow Wagtails have been seen and Pied Wheatears are slowly building up in numbers. A few winter birds have been seen to liven things up including reasonable numbers of Northern Pintail, Daurian Shrike and still five Black-necked Grebe. Heron numbers are increasing as are Caspian Tern.

Pied Wheatear

Daurian Shrike

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater

Black-necked Grebe

12 March 2021

Migrants Arriving – Jubail

Whilst birding the Jubail area in early March I came across a good number of migrants including an early Woodchat Shrike, as well as a Masked Shrike and a Daurian Shrike both of which could be either migrants of overwintering birds. Other interesting species seen included a Spur-winged Lapwing, a species becoming much commoner in the Eastern Province over the last ten years and a large flock of 150+ Pied Avocet. A Grey Wagtail was located in a tree and the first Pied Wheatears of the spring were seen. As always, few Grey-headed Swamphens were seen during the visit.

Daurian Shrike

Grey Wagtail

Masked Shrike

Pied Avocet

Pied Wheatear

Grey-headed Swamphen

Spur-winged Lapwing

Woodchat Shrike

20 April 2020

The Northern Desert – Nayriyah area

Whilst birding the northern areas of the Eastern Province in spring we found good numbers of Wheatears. Most were Northern Wheatears with several Pied Wheatears amongst them. We also located a couple of Eastern Black-eared, Desert and Isabelline Wheatears. Careful checking of any tree fence-lines produced a few warblers with a big fall of Common Chiffchaffs and Lesser Whitethroat and Eastern Orphean Warbler also located. Eurasian Hoopoe, Daurian Shrike and Eastern Stonechat were also seen on the fences or nearby.

Common Chiffchaff

Daurian Shrike

Eastern Stonechat

Eurasian Hoopoe

Lesser Whitetroat

Isabelline Wheatear - female

Pied Wheatear - male

21 May 2019

Migrants - Jubail

A steady trickle of migrants have been passing through the Eastern Province in the last couple of weeks with several Red-backed Shrike appearing. Lesser Whitethroat, Spotted Flycatcher, Common Redstart, Pied Wheatear, Tree Pipit and Western Siberian Stonechat were also seen in small numbers. Very few Yellow Wagtails have been around recently compared to recent years but small flocks of European and Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters have been passing over mainly in the early morning.