Juvenile Sociable Lapwing – Dhahran Cricket Field

At first light on 9 October 2023 I found the first Sociable Lapwing ever recorded on my local path of Dhahran. It was feeding on beetles on the Cricket Field but was disturbed by workers repairing the field and flew off. It returned later in the morning where Phil Roberts also saw and photographed it. The bird returned in the afternoon and came very close to the car allowing some good photographs to be taken. The bird stayed around until 11 October before departing overnight. This is a very rare species worldwide and according to the IUCN Red List; Sociable Lapwing is Critically Endangered based on severe population declines across its range. It is also listed in Column A of the action plan under the African-Eurasian Migratory Water-bird Agreement (AEWA) and in appendix 1 of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). Research in central Kazakhstan on the species’ demography has shown that current levels of productivity are not particularly low, and that low adult survival is more likely to be the cause of recent population declines. The species status in Saudi Arabia is a locally scarce passage migrant and winter visitor with historical records from north of Jeddah near the coast, north of Yanbu, near Riyadh, and from Haradh farm – Eastern province and near Taif. During the last two decades most of the sighting of the species in Saudi Arabia have been in pivot irrigated fields around Tabuk & Tayma in the north, Sabya/Jazan in the south-west, Wadi Ad Dawasir in central Saudi Arabia (southwest of Riyadh) and Haradh farms in the east. Recent satellite tracking of Sociable Lapwings from their breeding grounds in central Kazakhstan has suggested that Saudi Arabia is an important stop-over and wintering area with Tabuk and Haradh in the Easter Province the main locations along with possibly Wadi Ad Dewasir. The species has a status as a scarce passage migrant & winter visitor to Saudi Arabia. I see Sociable Lapwing in most years but put in effort to see them by visiting suitable fields at the correct time of year. Most birds like large, ploughed pivot fields but this on was enjoying the lush wet grass of a cricket field.

Sociable Lapwing – Al Jouf

Phil Roberts and I have found wintering Sociable Lapwings at Haradh & Qarat Al Ulya in the Eastern Province in recent years as well as at Wadi Ad Dewasir. These birds use the extensive pivot irrigation fields and particularly like the ploughed one. As we knew birds were present, from satellite tagging data, in the north of the Kingdom we kept a close eye out to see if we could find some in Al Jouf in late December 2022. We searched many fields paying attention to the ploughed ones without luck until I managed to locate a single bird in a field with some Spur-winged Lapwings and a single Northern Lapwing. Phil then located a White-tailed Plover in the same field making a nice collection of good species. Sociable Lapwing is listed as Critically Endangered because its population has undergone a very rapid reduction, for reasons that are poorly understood. This decline is projected to continue and increase in the future. Unfortunately, the bird we found kept its distance and was only really photographable when the sheep herder flushed the group on a number of occasions.

Sociable Lapwing – Al Sikak Farms

I went birding to the Salwa area 9 October in the hope of finding a few migrants. I set off at 2:30 am and arrived just as the sun was rising at 05:15 hrs. I went to the farms at Al Sikak and spent over six hours walking the paths and field edges. It was hard work as the temperatures were high at 39 Celsius, as was the humidity. Bird numbers were not high, however, but there were a few migrants and it felt as if there could be a good bird lurking somewhere. My efforts were rewarded with a few migrants including a nice Jack Snipe in a wet area in an irrigated allotment as well as a few Ortolan Bunting, Lesser Whitethroat, Eurasian Hoopoe, Turkestan Shrike, Daurian Shrike, Great Grey Shrike (Arabian), Sand Martin, one Eurasian Crag Martin, Barn Swallow, Willow Warbler, one Barred Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Spotted Flycatcher, Isabelline Wheatear, Desert Wheatear, one Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, Western Yellow Wagtail and one Corn Bunting. The best bird however was a Sociable Lapwing in a small set of allotments. Initially it was hiding in the crops and all I could see was it head, where it gave the impression, on a very quick view, that it may be a Eurasian Dotterel. I moved closer and the bird came out of the crops and turned out to be a Sociable Lapwing. This is the earliest autumn date for Sociable Lapwing in Saudi Arabia with the previous earliest one being the 16 October 2020. It appeared very tired as I was able to move quite close, hidden by the trees along the allotment edge. A farmer was working in the fields and the bird remained feeding for over 15 minutes, relatively close to where he was working. Eventually the farm worker moved too close, and the bird flew a short distance, circled around, and tried to come back and land in the field. Unfortunately, the farm worker again unsettled it before it landed and it flew a short distance and landed in the desert, where a small pool had formed due to a water pipe discharging water. It remained here until I left 30 minutes later. Sociable Lapwing had only a single record in the Eastern Province prior to a few years ago when Phil Roberts and I found wintering birds at Haradh that have wintered every year since. We have also seen them in pivot fields near Jebal Nariyah. The species is normally wary and keeps well away from people, normally in ploughed fields but this bird allowed relatively close approach and thus I managed to get the best photos I have taken of Sociable Lapwing in Saudi Arabia, so was very happy with my long trip.

 

More Sociable Lapwings – Wadi Ad Dewasir

As Phil Roberts and I had found wintering Sociable Lapwings at both Haradh (for fifth year) and Qarat Al Ulya in the Eastern Province this winter and I had a long weekend from work, I suggested we go to Wadi Ad Dewasir. This has extensive pivot irrigation fields and had not been looked at since 1999. We hoped to locate more Sociable Lapwings here during the trip as well as to see if we could find anything else interesting. We spent most of our time checking the fields and particularly the ploughed ones for Sociable Lapwing. On day one, we were not successful in finding Sociable Lapwings but on the second day I located three birds in a ploughed field. It was near to midday and the light was harsh, combined with the flighty nature of the birds meant only the below poor photos could be taken before we left the bird in peace. This looks like another wintering area for the species and suggests Saudi Arabia could be an extremely important wintering ground for the critically endangered species. We asked farmers we came across about Sociable Lapwings and showed them pictures to see if they had seen them and all said no. This suggests that although they occur there they must do so in very low numbers, also supported by us only seeing them once despite spending two full days looking entirely at the pivot fields.

Sociable Lapwings continue to winter in Eastern Province of KSA - Haradh

On 16 October 2020, Phil Roberts and I set out from Dhahran at 3:00am to drive the 300km south to Haradh for a day’s bird watching with our primary objective to see if we could once again find any Sociable Lapwings. In addition to desert, Haradh has large areas of modified habitat created by pivot irrigation fields, growing primarily fodder crops.  In the winters of 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019 Phil and I found wintering Sociable Lapwings in this area an amazing discovery as previous to us finding the birds in 2016 there had only been a single record of a single bird in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom. That bird was also at Haradh. We know that recently ploughed fields hold a great attraction to the Sociable Lapwings, but checked the grassy fields as well. We soon located several Spur-winged Lapwings and then a single Sociable Lapwing. One additional searching we located six birds in a grassy field. Moving on towards some ploughed fields nearby, we located a flock of five Sociable Lapwings blending in extremely well with the soil and keeping partially hidden down the furrows. Whilst searching we came across a few Northern Lapwing. This is now the fifth successive ywinter that we have found Sociable Lapwings in this location, showing Haradh has become an established new wintering location for this Critically Endangered species.

Lapwings of various species – Haradh

Haradh is a well known wintering location for Northern Lapwing, with flocks of several hundreds seen in recent winters. This trip we located many birds scattered around the fields, but no large flocks and probably saw more than 100 Northern Lapwings in total. The species is an uncommon winter visitor to the northern areas of the Kingdom where they favour the large pivot irrigation fields. Interspersed amongst them were a few Spur-winged Lapwings. This species was a vagrant to the Eastern Province of the Kingdom until a few years ago but is now established as a resident at Haradh where birds probably breed. In the west of the Kingdom Spur-winged Lapwing is a common resident breeder. The last Lapwing we saw were 14 Sociable Lapwings, a critically endangered species worldwide and a rare winter visitor to Tabuk (in the north-west of the Kingdom) and now Haradh. This is the fourth winter in succession we have found wintering birds at this location making it an extremely important location for its continued survival.

Northern Lapwing

Sociable Lapwing

Spur-winged Lapwing

Fourteen Wintering Sociable Lapwing - Haradh

On 25 January 2019, Phil Roberts and I set out from Dhahran at 3:00am to drive the 300km south to Haradh for a day’s bird watching with our primary objective to see if we could once again find any Sociable Lapwings. In addition to desert, Haradh has large areas of modified habitat created by pivot irrigation fields, growing primarily fodder crops.  In the winters of 2016, 2017 & 2018 Phil and I found wintering Sociable Lapwings in this area an amazing discovery as previous to us finding the birds in 2016 there had only been a single record of a single bird in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom. That bird was also at Haradh. On previous visits we have driven straight to a set of large pivot fields along the road to Al Kharj and birded these on foot for a number of hours, but this time we went straight to the area where have seen Sociable Lapwings in previous winters. We could not enter the normal location where we had seen birds before in the early morning as the gates were locked, but after looking at some nearby pivot irrigation fields and seeing some good birds, we returned to the best area and found the gate open. We know that recently ploughed fields hold a great attraction to the Sociable Lapwings, but checked the grassy fields as well. We soon located a few Northern Lapwings, several Spur-winged Lapwings and then a single Sociable Lapwing. Moving on towards some ploughed fields nearby, we located a flock of ten Sociable Lapwings blending in extremely well with the soil and keeping partially hidden down the furrows. After a while, the birds flew off towards some more ploughed and grassy fields and we went to look for them again. Whilst searching we came across four more birds in a field with Northern Lapwing, a field situated well before the area where the ten had flown to making a total of 14 birds. As the birds were very flighty and not allowing close approach, we left them in peace. We managed to get a few photos of the birds on the ground and in flight but the light, heat haze and distance caused problems with getting good photos. My best ones are shown below. This is now the fourth successive year that we have found Sociable Lapwings in this location, showing Haradh has become an established new wintering location for this Critically Endangered species.

Five Sociable Lapwing - Haradh

Whilst birding the pivot irrigation fields of Haradh on 3 February 2017 we came across a minimum of five Sociable Lapwings Vanellus gregarius. Some were in breeding plumage with others still in their winter dress. The birds were associating with large numbers of Northern Lapwings and were probably part of the seven we saw two weeks previously indicating the birds are wintering in the area. The Sociable Lapwing is globally threatened, and categorised as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red-list of threatened species. It is a migratory species breeding in the central steppes of Kazakhstan, with small numbers in southern Russian. The majority of the population migrate through south-west Russia, into Turkey, through the Middle East region including Saudi Arabia, before spending the winter in north-east Africa (mainly Sudan) and the Arabian Peninsula. There is an additional flyway where birds migrate south-east through central Asia into Pakistan and north-west India. The birds that winter in the Arabian Peninsula do so mainly in Oman with others in the United Arab Emirates. A few winter in Saudi Arabia with birds mainly in the northwest of the Kingdom around Tabuk. The birds we have seen in the Eastern Province in the last two winters constitute a new wintering area for the species. They frequent large pivot irrigation fields where they favour newly ploughed areas. This type of habitat is becoming more frequent in the Kingdom and probably explains the increasing numbers of birds wintering in Saudi Arabia.

Sociable Lapwing wintering in Eastern Saudi Arabia - Haradh

On 13 January Phil Roberts and I travelled to Haradh an area of extensive pivot irrigation fields three hours drive from Dhahran. We were primarily looking to see if we could prove Sociable Lapwing wintered in the area as we had seen birds here in February 2016 but were uncertain if these were wintering birds or very early migrants. We left at 03:30 hrs to allow us to be at the site at first light. We tried a set of fields off the main road some distance and eventually found some access to some very good looking fields in various stages of growth from ploughed to fallow to newly growing. We eventually came across a newly ploughed field that had over 100 Northern Lapwing in it, a habitat and species that were used by associated with by lasy years Sociable Lapwings . After a couple of minutes I saw two Sociable Lapwings in flight in the flock that flew around and landed in the ploughed field. We drove around to the area where the access track was to the pivot irrigation bars and moved down this into the middle of the field. Here we scanned through the Northern Lapwings we could see and eventually found three Sociable Lapwings. The three Sociable Lapwings eventually flew off and we went looking for further birds. Another filed that was in the process of being ploughed also held several hundred Northern Lapwings and four Sociable Lapwings making a total of seven birds. The birds never came close enough for good photos and were very timid when we were on foot so the below poor photos are all that I obtained. These birds are only the third time the species has been recorded in the Eastern Province after an adult at Haradh farm on 25 February 1982 and our 16 at Haradh on 5 February 2016. These birds seen on 13 January are much too early to be passage migrants and show that Haradh is a new wintering location for the species. This is not the first place for the species to winter in Saudi Arabia as other winter in the northwest of the Kingdom at Tabuk and others still in the southwest near Jizan.