Birds of Saudi Arabia: Tawny Pipit

Showing posts with label Tawny Pipit. Show all posts

22 October 2023

Pipits & others – Dhahran Cricket Field

Due to the number of good birds on the Dhahran Cricket fields recently I have spent more time than normal down there. This has allowed me to get good views of several unusual species for the fields. I have seen at least three Tawny Pipits of which a couple gave extremely close views. A single Tree Pipit was also noted on two occasions, although this bird was not so confiding, and the photographs were not great. An Isabelline Wheatear has been present for the last few weeks and this also kept its distance but luckily a Northern Wheatear was close enough for photography. The Whimbrel numbers are decreasing and now only two birds are present, but again these birds do not allow close approach and fly as soon as they see anyone. European Hoopoe numbers however are still high, and these birds are relatively tame. Trying to photograph the birds is relatively easy on the ground but in flight is a different situation and it’s not easy to get good photos.

Gull-billed Tern

Northern Wheatear

Tawny Pipit

Tree Pipit

Whimbrel

11 October 2023

Birds on Dhahran Cricket Field – Dhahran Hills

Whilst birding Dhahran Cricket Field over the last couple of weeks I have seen some quite good birds. A very close Tawny Pipit in a small group of Yellow Wagtails. Yellow Wagtails have been common with up to fifty birds present of a couple of days and this species, Common Myna and European Hoopoe the commonest species on the field. The only waders seen were Ruff, with three birds, Kentish Plover with fifteen birds the highest count and Whimbrel with six birds.

Eurasian Hoopoe

Ruff

Tawny Pipit

Whimbrel

Yellow Wagtail

14 February 2023

Birding the Judah and Hanidh areas

In late January Phil Roberts and I set out early to go to Judah and Hanidh. We stopped at Judah first, but it was very slow going without a bird being seen for the first thirty minutes excluding feral Rock Dove. The pivot fields that used to attract a lot of birds to this area are now dismantled and the vegetation around the bottom of the escarpment is either dead or dying and this is even after a lot of heavy rain in recent weeks. We did eventually see Desert Lark and Pale Crag Martin, two common birds in the area and as always in winter Desert Wheatear and Eastern Morning Wheatear. This is probably to best site to see the later species in the Eastern Province with birds being very confiding when found. We moved on Hanidh in the hope of seeing more birds with the total species count from Judah amounting to nine. We went to a couple of large pivot irrigation fields a couple of which we gained permission to look around. Best birds seen were nine Common House Martin, a very early migrant species in KSA, as well as European Stonechat, Daurian Shrike, Tawny Pipit, a single Northern Lapwing, several Eurasian Skylark, Asian Desert Warbler & Menetries’s Warbler. Whilst driving along a road we saw a single Steppe Eagle in flight, which along with a single Common Kestrel were our only birds of prey.

Desert Wheatear

Eastern Morning Wheatear

Steppe Eagle

Tawny Pipit

Asian Desert Warbler

05 February 2022

Larks in the Pivot Fields - Judah

An early morning trip to Judah, a limestone escarpment with three pivot fields we have access too, an hour and a half drive towards Riyadh from Dhahran where we live, was undertaken at the end of January. The pivot fields were green and short and looked promising for larks but we were a little disappointed with what we found. Larks were not as common as previous visits with only a few Lesser Short-toed Larks, several pale coloured Desert Larks and a single Eurasian Skylark for our troubles. A small number of Tawny Pipit were scattered around the field edges but not much else was seen. We did hear a Pharaoh Eagle Owl calling on arrival and several real looking Rock Dove were on the cliffs with a couple of Brown-necked Raven flying over, but otherwise not too much else. The large amount of rain recently may have made it easy for birds to feed elsewhere, but this is only a guess as to why the number of birds seen was lower than normal.

Desert Lark

Eurasian Skylark

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Tawny Pipit

Brown-necked Raven

05 March 2019

Winter birding - Haradh

Phil Roberts and I went for our normal winter birding trip to Haradh recently and saw a lot of good birds. Best was 14 Sociable Lapwings which I have already posted about but we also saw a number of other good winter visitors and early spring migrants. The first pivot field we stopped at had a hugh flock of over 500 Spanish Sparrows and a nice looking are of long grass next a freshly cut area. In the freshly cut area were a number of Yellow Wagtails with several White Wagtails alongside. Whilst looking at the Wagtails were heard several Common Quail calling from the nearby grass area and saw one bird in the short grass and four more were flushed from the long grass. Both Common Quail and Yellow Wagtail are early spring migrants. Whilst walking through the long grass we saw up to twenty Red-spotted Bluethroats, the largest number I have seen at a single site at the same time and several Siberian Stonechats along with European Stonechat. Several Namaqua Dove were in the same area and a few Common Kestrel were overhead and perched. Large numbers of Tawny Pipits were also in the fields and long their edges showing that migration was in progress.

Common Kestrel

Namaqua Dove

Tawny Pipit

15 February 2018

Larks and Pipits – Jubail Farm

Whilst birding a set of pivot irrigation fields near Jubail I came across quite a good number of Eurasian Skylark. They were all using the wet pivot fields for feeding and occasionally flying out into the dry edges before going back into the grass. Other birds seen in good numbers in these fields included both Water Pipit and Tawny Pipit. A few harriers were present over the fields, including both Western Marsh and Montagu’s Harriers