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

Some interesting birds - Haradh

Phil Roberts and I went to Haradh in late April to look for migrants and other birds. We set off at 03:00 hrs and arrived at 06:00 hrs. Birding was not exactly stunning but a few good birds were seen in our day out. Birds we do not see often in the Eastern Province included three Black-crowned Night Herons. A Spur-winged Lapwing appeared to be defending a territory aggressively from other birds suggesting it might be breeding. This species has not been recorded breeding in the Eastern Province before. We also saw four more Spur-winged Lapwings in another area of Haradh. A small group of Common Swift were over a large pivot irrigation field and a small group of five Collared Pratincole were in another field. A single Pallid Harrier was seen but no other birds of prey. The most common birds were Namaqua Doves and Crested Larks.

Black-crowned Night Herons

Black-crowned Night Herons

Spur-winged Lapwing 

Collared Pratincole

Collared Pratincole

Common Swift

Crested Lark

Namaqua Dove

Rock Dove

Birding Tanoumah – Tanoumah

The Tanoumah area is probably the best area in the country for seeing the endemic species. It holds all the endemics occurring in Saudi Arabia with the exception of Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak as well as the three subspecies often also regarded as species, Arabian Magpie, Arabian Spotted Eagle Owl and Arabian Green Bee-eater. I saw all the endemics and the three subspecies with the exception of Arabian Partridge on my last visit to the area and saw the Arabian Partridge at the Raydah Escarpment near Abha as well. Apart from all the endemics, there are many other southwest specialities such as Arabian Warbler, Brown Woodland Warbler, Dusky Turtle Dove, Gambaga Flycatcher, Little Rock Thrush, Spectacled Bulbul and Tristram’s Starling. As the area is in the high mountains at around 2000 metres above sea level, some other interesting birds such as Alpine Swift and Rock Dove may be seen. As the tempertures are much lower in the mountains than the nearby plains and coast it is possible to spend the entire day birdwatching on foot making for a pleasant and enjoyable day in the field. 

Yemen Thrush

Yemen Warbler

Philby's Partridge

Tanoumah

Arabian Warbler

Arabian Wheatear

Arabian Wheatear

Brown Woodland Warbler

Dusky Turtle Dove

Gambaga Flycatcher

Little Rock Thrush

White-spectacled Bulbul

Rock Dove

Tristram's Starling

Some African species - Wadi Jaw

The main wadi at the bottom of the Raydah escarpment has a luxuriant mixture of wild figs and small gardens as well as large acacia tree and- other tall vegetation. The birds in the lusher tropical wadi bottom include a number of uncommon African species some of which are resident and others that are summer visitors. African Grey Hornbill, Violet-backed Starling, Bruce's Green Pigeon and Shining Sunbird were all found in this lush valley. This was the first time I had been down the wadi as I did not realise it was there until recently. Previously we went to the bottom of the Raydah Escarpment and stopped in the first village. The birding in the wadi was excellent with a number of very good birds seen including; Rock Dove, 10 Laughing Doves, White-browed Coucal, two African Grey Hornbills, six Grey-headed Kingfishers, two White-throated Bee-eaters, five Tristram's Starlings, three Violet-backed Starlings, three White-spectacled Bulbuls, five Abyssinian White-eyes, Blackstart, two Little Rock Thrushes, Palestine Sunbird, Shining Sunbird and two African Silverbills.

African Grey Hornbill

Rock Dove

Violet-backed Starling

White-throated Bee-eater

Eurasian Spoonbills - Sabkhat Al Fasl

An early morning trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl last weekend resulted in a few straggling migrants and four Eurasian Spoonbills. A single adult Eurasian Spoonbill was seen almost immediately on arrival at the first area of water but if flew off and was only seen again briefly in flight once until I was just about to leave when I found four adults together on the flooded sabkha. The flooded sabkha also had quite a few White-cheeked and Little Terns flying around feeding allowing some nice photos to be taken over the very smooth water. This area also held a single Caspian Gull, one Slender-billed Gull and about 1000 Greater Flamingos that have stayed very late this year. There were still quite a few waders at one end of the sabkha including 30+ Terek Sandpipers, five Ruddy Turnstones, 10+ Lesser Sand Plovers, 100+ Dunlin, 100+ Little Stints, 200+ Kentish Plovers, five Common Redshanks, three Marsh Sandpipers, a Eurasian Curlew and 20+ Little Ringed Plovers. Passerines were thin on the ground with a few Red-backed Shrikes, two Whinchats and several Barn Swallows and Sand Martins seen. A House Crow, plenty of Crested Larks and a few Rock Doves or feral pigeons? Were also seen. A new bird for me for the site was an Alexandrine Parakeet that flew over early morning but this is just as likely to be an escaped cage bird as a wild arrival.

White-cheeked Tern

White-cheeked Tern

White-cheeked Tern

White-cheeked Tern

White-cheeked Tern

Little Tern

Caspian Gull - 2nd Calendar Year

Slender-billed Gull

Terek Sandpiper

Little Ringed Plover

Crested Lark

Red-backed Shrike - male

Rock Dove

Cold Weather - Dhahran Hills

Cold weather reached Dhahran on Thursday night with temperatures in the early morning down to 6 degrees Celsius. This caused a bit of a change of activity for many of the local birds with Rock Doves fluffing up their feathers to keep warm rather than panting to loose heat. It also attracted a large number of Black-headed Gulls and Large White-headed Gulls (LWHG) to the percolation pond. These birds spent some time in the early morning bathing prior to flying off to their feeding grounds. Most of the LWHG were Steppe Gulls (85%) with Heuglin’s Gulls 13% and Caspian Gull (2%). A few duck were also present on the pond with seven Gadwall, nine Mallard and a single Wigeon which is the first one I have seen for a few weeks. The cold weather has also coincided with an increase in numbers of Great Cormorants roosting at the pond where numbers have now reached 50 birds. This is well short of last year’s 2000 but an increase from the one or two that have been here for most of the winter. I am hoping the cold weather will bring in some more good birds from further north as Israel has had a very cold spell with lots of snow falling.

Rock Dove

Caspian Gull - adult winter

Steppe Gull - adult winter 

Great Cormorant