Birding Jubail in January

In late January we went to Jubail but there had been lots of rain the previous few days and the area was flooded. Quite a few Western Great Egrets were present at one of the large water outlets, as normal and a little further down the reedbeds two Purple Heron were seen in flight. Plenty of Little Egrets and Squacco Herons were also around. Birds were quite scarce but the first two Siberian Stonechats of the winter were seen at this location by me with a smart male and a female. Daurian Shrikes were around in small numbers and a single Desert Wheatear was seen. Two barn Swallow were seen in flight but very little else.

Daurian Shrike

Daurian Shrike

Daurian Shrike

Little Egret

Purple Heron

Purple Heron

Purple Heron

Purple Heron

Purple Heron

Siberian Stonechat

Western Great Egret

Western Marsh Harrier

A few interesting birds on the Wastewater Pond – Dhahran Hills

Birding the Wastewater Pond in Dhahran at the end of November produced a few interesting birds. As always, the main birds were Great Cormorant and Little Grebe but also amongst the Little Grebe was a single Great Crested Grebe. This is a species that is uncommon with most records coming from the Half Moon Bay area where they remain quite distant. The pond allows relatively close approach and therefore some reasonable photos. Around the edge of the pond were two Western Great Egrets, plenty of Squacco Heron and five Little Egrets with a similar number of Grey Heron. Two Eurasian Coot and a Single Common Moorhen were seen. A single Whiskered Tern, two Gull-billed Tern, ten Common Black-headed Gull and a single Pallid Swift were seen in flight over the pond with a female Western Marsh Harrier also located. Walking around the pond and looking in the vegetation produced a few Delicate Prinia, several Clamorous Reed Warbler including two young birds and three Bluethroats. A male and female Siberian Stonechat were present near the water edge along with lots of White-eared Bulbuls.

Western Great Egret

White-eared Bulbul

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Grey Heron

Siberian Stonechat

Siberian Stonechat

Clamorous Reed Warbler

A few winter birds - Dhahran Lake

Whilst walking around the lake in Dhahran 20 January I spent some time looking in the relatively newly planted scrubby area. It was full of Bluethroats but is normally the case they were flighty and shy and no photos were obtained this time. The various grasses planted here are very attractive to Indian Silverbills and a small group has been around most of the year but now seems to have increased in numbers to well over twenty individuals. Tawny Pipits were running around on the rough ground along with Crested Larks with a Daurian Shrike, Great Grey Shrike and a Caspian Stonechat also seen perched up on the shrubs and grasses. The pond itself held a few Western Great Egrets, 50+ Western Cattle Egrets, 20 Mallard, one Eurasian Teal, three Ferruginous Duck and 50+ Great Cormorants including a few juveniles. A single Gull-billed Tern and ten Common Black-headed Gull were present along with 23 Little Grebe.

Siberian Stonechat

Siberian Stonechat

Western Great Egret

Indian Silverbill

Wintering birds and migrants - Jubail

Whilst birdwatching Jubail recently I came across a few good migrants and some remaining wintering birds. Migrants included a really smart male Citrine Wagtail was a good bird and was almost eclipsed plumage wise by a similarly smart male Black-headed Wagtail. Shrikes were around in good numbers including Daurian, Turkestan, Woodchat and Great Grey Shirkes. Woodchat & Turkestan Shirkes are certainly migrants, but the others could be either wintering birds or passage migrants as both occur in the area at this time of year. Siberian Stonechat could likewise be either a wintering bird or migrant whereas Steppe Gulls are winter visitors.

Citrine Wagtail

Great Grey Shrike

Siberian Stonechat - maurus

Steppe Gull - adult

Steppe Gull - 2nd Calendar Year

Woodchat Shrike

Siberian Stonechat –Bird records by Vinu Mathew

Vinu Mathew sent me some photos of a male Siberian Stonechat he saw in Saudi Arabia last week and I also received an e-mail from Arnold Uy who said he has seen a similar bird as well. As I saw a couple in Jubail the weekend before it seems certain they are passing through the Eastern Province at present. They are an uncommon passage migrant and winter visitor to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. I thank Vinu for allowing me to use his excellent photos on my website.

Eastern (Siberian) Stonechat – Jubail

Whilst birding at Jubail I came across a Stonechat with extensive white wing patches and a white rump but did not show any white down the side of the tail that many show, indicating it was not a variagata/armenicus type. These birds are uncommon winter visitors to the Eastern Province from late August until March with many birds thought to be maurus/stejnegeri but more from the Caspian Stonechat Taxons. The maurus/stejnegeri birds have a white rump, more extensive white on neck and larger white wing patches than European Stonechat, with the red more restricted to the centre of the breast. stejnegeri has rather less white on rump with these birds also having jet black underwing coverts. Wing length can also be helpful but the bird I saw was in wing moult. To ensure correct recial identification you need good views of the spread tail, rump and underwing as well as the upperparts and without this they can be difficult to assign with certainty.

A few birds from Bahrain - Bird records by Jehad AlAmmadi

Jehad AlAmmadi is a birdwatcher from Bahrain and he occasionally sends me details of birds he has seen in Bahrain. Recently Jehad sent a number of photographs of birds he has seen in the last couple of weeks including photos of female Northern Pintail, a species that has also been seen in the nearby Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia in recent weeks. Other birds photographed included a female/immature Pallid Harrier and a couple of Stonechats including what appears to be a European Stonechat and a Northern Caspian. The latest data on the Stonechat Saxicola torquatus has found convincing reasons for recognising three species: European Stonechat S. rubicola, Eastern Stonechat S. Maurus and African Stonechat S. torqatus. The taxa breeding in the Caspian region, both of which winter in Saudi Arabia, were revisited and after studying the type description and various museum specimens it was concluded that the name variegatus should not be applied to the taxon breeding north of the Caucasus but rather to the population in eastern Turkey and Transcaucasia presently named armenicus. This means the former variegatus, northern Caspian population, needed a new name with hemprichii being the oldest available and valid name for the population. The paper also called hemprichii (formerly variegatus) North Caspian Taxon (NCT) and variegatus (formerly armenicus) South Caspian Taxon (SCT). The northern population NCT has a very characteristic male plumage with white portions on each side of the outer tail extending to half to three-quarters of the tail feather length, similar to many Wheatears and Red-backed Shrike. This can be seen easily when perched birds spread their tail or when birds fly but on perched birds with tails closed it can often not be seen. NCT also has a large unstreaked pale rump patch, buffish when fresh becoming white when abraded. In comparison European Stonechat has a streaked rump with usually limited white.

Plenty of common migrants near Buraydah – Bird records by Ragu Shanbhogue

Ragu has been birding near to Buraydah over the last few weeks and has sent me a number of photographs of bird he has seen. Ragu has been seeing a very similar selection of species to the ones we have been seeing in the Eastern Province showing many of these birds pass on broad fronts through the Kingdom. One weekend all the photos of species Ragu sent I had seen that weekend as well but many hundreds of kilometers to the east of Ragu’s location. Good numbers of Tree Pipits and Yellow Wagtails have been passing through with other migrants including Rufous-tailed Scrub Robins, Turkestan Shrikes, Spotted Flycatchers and Whinchats. Two species seen may be either late wintering birds or passage migrants and were a Lesser Whitethroat and a Siberian Stonechat.

Turkestan Shrike

Tree Pipit

Yellow Wagtail - thunbergi

Yellow Wagtail

Whinchat

Spotted Flycatcher 

Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin

Lesser Whitethroat

Siberian Stonechat