Breeding birds and migrants – Jubail

Whilst birding the Jubail area in mid-May it is becoming more obvious birds are starting to breed. Little Ringed Plovers and Black-winged Stilts are common, some with young already and others on nests. Caspian Reed Warbler and Clamorous Reed Warblers are in full song and Little Terns are back in good numbers at one site where they bred in last two years as are Pied Avocets, again breeding for the third year in succession. At this time of year good numbers of migrants are also passing through including Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, Spotted Flycatchers, Shrikes, Yellow Wagtails, Tree Pipits, Common Redstarts, Sand Martins and Barn Swallows. Waders are passing in small numbers with good numbers of Wood Sandpipers and a single Spotted Crake was located in a small wet area. Unfortunately, the light was poor and I could not get in a good position for photos so the below shot is not very good. Birds of prey have now mainly left for their breeding grounds but Common Kestrel is a breeding resident and a single pair seem to be in residence this spring and will hopefully breed.

Common Kestrel

Pied Avocet

Spotted Crake

Wood Sandpiper

Amazing migration – Az Zulfi

From September 23 – 25, we had an amazing number of migrants in and around some parks in Az Zulfi. Phil Roberts and I spent three days in Zulfi over the Saudi National Day weekend with Graham Gordon. It was amazing birding with hundreds of migrants in the parks and gardens. I have not seen numbers like this ever before and certainly not in Saudi Arabia. These numbers have not been recorded in Az Zulfi either as far as I am aware. In one park alone we saw 75+ Common Whitethroat, 20 Lesser Whitethroat, 5 Barred Warbler, 5 Great Reed Warbler, 5 Reed Warbler, 2 Garden Warbler, 5 Wryneck, 3 Masked Shrike, 3 Rufous Scrub Robin, 3 Black Scrub Robin, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Spotted Flycatcher, Spotted Crake, Black Redstart and Eastern Orphean all jumping about on the grass lawns or in the trees, but mainly on the lawns. In a nearby park were smaller numbers of Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Reed Warbler, Great Reed Warbler, Menetries’s Warbler, Blue-rock Thrush, Red-backed Shrike, Great Grey Shrike, 40 European Bee-eaters and six Spur-winged Lapwing. On 25 September about 50% of the birds had moved on but still tens of birds were present, with numbers of Lesser Whitethroat increasing despite most species departing overnight. It was incredible birding and will be back in the spring to see what other migrants could be seen. The parks were well watered and relatively quiet first thing in the morning, allowing birds to feed freely under the tress and in the grass. 

Spotted Crake

Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin

Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin

Lesser Whitethroat

Lesser Whitethroat

Eurasian Wryneck

Eurasian Wryneck

Eurasian Wryneck

Common Whitethroat

Common Whitethroat

Spotted Crake - Jubail

Whilst birdwatching the Jubail area in early April, we found a Spotted Crake on the edge of a large wet puddle and took the below photographs. Spotted Crake is an uncommon passage migrant with a few birds overwintering in some years. It is probably an overlooked species, due to its secretive nature with birds in spring from late February to mid-May and in autumn occurring from September to December but mainly in October and November. The Birds of the Riyadh Region (Stagg 1994) says they are a spring and autumn passage migrant, passing late February to mid-May with main movement occurring in April. Return passage extends from late August to early November, peaking in October. Sightings have increased considerably with the increase in wetlands in the region with up to 30 in a day being seen in April along the Riyadh watercourse. These numbers have not been seen in recent years although birds are still seen quite commonly at the correct time of year.

Spotted Crake at Jubail – Bird record by Munzir Khan

Whilst birdwatching the Jubail in mid-October, Munzir Khan came across a Spotted Crake at the edge of a reed bed area and took the below photograph which he has kindly allowed me to use on my website. Spotted Crake is an uncommon passage migrant with a few birds overwintering in some years. It is probably an overlooked species, due to its skulking nature with birds in spring from late February to mid-May and in autumn occurring from September to December but mainly in October and November. The Birds of the Riyadh Region (Stagg 1994) says they are a spring and autumn passage migrant. Passes late February to mid-May with main movement occurring in April. Return passage extends from late August to early November, peaking in October. Sightings have considerably increased with wetland expansion in the region. Up to 30 in a day have been seen in April along the Riyadh watercourse. These numbers are no longer seen in the Riyadh area although birds are still seen quite commonly at the correct time of year.

Migrants arriving in good numbers – Jubail

Whilst birding the Jubail area in late March, it became obvious a good number of migrants had arrived. There were a good number of Tree Pipits scattered around, several late Water Pipits and a single Spotted Crake wandered out onto dome vegetation near the edge of a wet area, briefly. More than ten birds of both Daurian Shrike & Turkestan Shrike were seen and plenty of Pied Wheatears were also located. Seven Greater Spotted Eagles and ten Western Marsh Harriers were still present, but will be leaving very shortly back to their breeding grounds. Small groups of Snipe were seen occasionally but every bird we got close views of turned out to be Common Snipe. Several very bright male Black-headed Wagtail were also located indicating the start of passage for the species where many different subspecies should turn up in the next few weeks.

Black-headed Yellow Wagtail

Black-headed Yellow Wagtail

Common Shrike

Daurian Shrike

Turkestan Shrike

Spotted Crake

Migrants in Dhahran - bird records by harald Ris

Harald Ris has been back in Dhahran recently and has been driving around in main camp and Dhahran Hills most of the time and managed to see some good birds. He saw 15 Ortolan Buntings along with other migrants such as Willow Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat and Pied Wheatear. Harald also saw a Spotted Crake at the small pond on the golf course. I thank Harald for sending me the details and allowing me to use some of his photos on my website.

Ortolan Bunting

Masked Shrike

Spotted Crake

Spotted Crake

Spotted Crake – Jubail

Whilst birdwatching the Jubail area I came across a Spotted Crake at the edge of a flooded reed bed area. This is the first Spotted Crake I have seen this spring. Spotted Crake is an uncommon passage migrant with a few birds overwintering in some years. It is probably an overlooked species, due to its skulking nature with birds in spring from late February to mid-May and in autumn occurring from September to December but mainly in October and November. The Birds of the Riyadh Region (Stagg 1994) says they are a spring and autumn passage migrant. Passes late February to mid May with main movement occurring in April. Return passage extends from late August to early November, peaking in October. Sightings have considerably increased with wetland expansion in the region. Up to 30 in a day have been seen in April along the Riyadh watercourse. These numbers are no longer seen in the Riyadh area although birds are still seen quite commonly at the correct time of year.

Spotted Crake in Jubail – Bird records by Phil Roberts

Phil Roberts saw and photographed a Spotted Crake on a wet area in Jubail last weekend and has kindly sent me his photo and allowed me to use it on my website. It has been a good year for Spotted Crakes this spring with quite a few scattered sightings in the Eastern and Central provinces of the Kingdom. Spotted Crake is an uncommon passage migrant with a few birds overwintering in some years. It is probably an overlooked species, due to its skulking nature with birds in spring from late February to mid-May and in autumn occurring from September to December but mainly in October and November. The Birds of the Riyadh Region (Stagg 1994) says they are a spring and autumn passage migrant. Passes late February to mid May with main movement occurring in April. Return passage extends from late August to early November, peaking in October. Sightings have considerably increased with wetland expansion in the region. Up to 30 in a day have been seen in April along the Riyadh watercourse.

Crakes and rails near Tabuk – Records by Viv Wilson

Viv has been seeing some good birds in Tabuk in recent weeks and recently has seen a few crakes and rails. He had a Spotted Crake feeding out in the open in a wet area and a Water Rail at the edge of a reed bed. He also saw a few other birds associated with wet areas including a smart Citrine Wagtail, a flock of Garganey, Glossy Ibis, Western Cattle Egrets, Western Marsh Harrier and a Pied Avocet. A few raptors were also seen including Pallid Harrier, Common Kestrels and Black Kites. Some non-wetland birds seen included Desert Larks, Northern Lapwing, Common Chiffchaffs and Sand Partridge.

Spotted Crake

Water Rail

Black Kite

Citrine Wagtail

Common Chiffchaff

Desert Lark

Desert Lark

Northern Lapwing

Pallid Harrier

Pied Avocet

Sand Partridge

Western Cattle Egret

Some interesting bird near Zulfi – Bird records by Mansur Al Fahad

Mansur Al Fahad has just sent me some amazing photos of a few birds he saw around Zulfi in the north of the Kingdom during September and early October (Hajj holiday) 2014. Masur has kindly allowed me to use the photos on my website which are reproduced below. The Eurasian Turtle Dove was seen at some Farms just north of Zulfi with the Spotted Crake seen about 60 kilomentres northeast of Zulfi in Al Haski Vale where Acacia trees were present. The Steppe Buzzard was at Al Thweer Road about 35 kilometres northwest of Zulfi with the Menetries’s Warbler in an Acacia tree just south of Zulfi.

Spotted Crake

Eurasian Turtle Dove

Steppe Buzzard

Steppe Buzzard - Dark Phase

Menetries's Warbler

An amazing number of birds – Sabkhat Al Fasl

My weekly trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl proved to be a really amazing birding spectacle with migrant birds everywhere. Signs that is was going to be good was the sighting of eight Red-backed Shrikes along the track you drive in to get the first real birding area. Often I do not see anything down here and certainly not the number of birds I saw on Thursday. Other birds that were seen down the track included Barred Warbler, two Common Redstarts, Common Whitethroat and two Little Ringed Plovers.

Red-backed Shrike - adult male

Red-backed Shrike - adult male

Once at the concrete bunded area and surrounding scrub it became apparent that there were literally thousands of migrant birds around. Here we saw our first three Whinchats of well over 25 seen during the day and plenty of European Bee-eaters were seen flying about. We found a small bush with 29 European Bee-eaters in it and a few more flying about overhead and more birds were seen in various places throughout the site. Whilst birding this area it became apparent that the largest numbers of birds were Red-throated Pipits and Yellow Wagtails of various sub-species. The majority of birds were beema (Blue headed) and thunbergi (Grey headed) although a few feldegg (Black headed) were also seen. A minimum of 250 birds of both Red-throated Pipit and Yellow Wagtail were seen but these are certainly underestimates of what was about. An Eastern Olivaceous Warbler was a new species for the site for me in the scrubby area at the end of the track around the concrete bunded area.

Whinchat

Whinchat

European Bee-eater

Yellow Wagtail - beema

Yellow Wagtail - thunbergi

Due to the number of birds seen it took a long time to move from one place to another in the site, but on the way around it became clear there were also a good number of Tree Pipits associated with the Red-throated Pipits. The Tree Pipits behaved quite well allowing good photographs to be taken but the Red-throated Pipits were continually on the move or hiding behind objects making it difficult to photograph them.

Red-throated Pipit

Tree Pipit 

Tree Pipit

The wet scrape area had a good selection of birds and a stop just before this in the area where I had seen Spotted Crake the previous two weeks provided a Corncrake and presumably the same Spotted Crake, this time feeding out in the open and allowing better photos to be taken than the last two trips. A Little Ringed Plover flew over and scared the crake, and it was amazing to see how fast the bird could run. The scrape had a few waders including Little Stint and Wood Sandpiper and a badly injured Collared Praincole that looked like it had been shot, although there were no hunters apparent at the site. The bird could still fly but had lost one of its eyes. Why someone would want to shoot such a beautiful bird is beyond me. A Great Reed Warbler and an Upcher’s Warbler were in the reeds with the Great Reed Warbler being the first bird of that species I have seen this spring.

Spotted Crake 

Wood Sandpiper

Shrikes were everywhere with a minimum of 30 Red-backed Shrikes, 10+Turkestan Shrikes, five Daurian Shrikes and two Lesser Grey Shrikes seen. A single White-spotted Bluethroat was seen and several Rufous-tailed Scrub Robins. Several Blue-cheeked bee-eaters were present and two Western Marsh Harriers were late staying winter birds. The fooded Sabkha area had 200 Greater Flamingos, several Little Terns, a Caspian Tern and a few White-winged Terns. There was a group of ten interesting looking Pratincoles that I need to look into further and will post details about at a later date.

White-winged Tern