Upcher’s Warbler – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

Whilst birding the scrubby area at the side of Dhahran Waste Water Lake at the end of April I came across an Upcher’s Warbler busily feeding in the abundant vegetation that has been recently planted by Saudi Aramco. Even though I was on foot, as the bird was busy feeding I managed to get quite close and took the below photos, The species is an uncommon passage migrant through the Eastern Province that is rare in summer. The main identification points to separate Upcher’s Warbler and Eastern Olivceous Warbler are that Upcher’s Warbler is generally bigger and has a stockier appearance although this can be difficult to judge on a lone bird if unfamiliar with them. Wings, legs, tail and bill are all longer on Upcher’s Warbler than on Eastern Olivaceous Warbler with the legs and bill being thicker on Upcher’s Warbler. The tail on Upcher’s Warbler is long and ‘full’ and darkens towards the tip, which is not the case in Eastern Olivaceous Warbler. This darkening of the tail can be seen in the below photographs. The tail is also moved in a rather lazy swinging motion often sideways and also upwards and is also fanned, which is not often if ever shown by Eastern Olivaceous Warbler. The exaggerated tail movements of Upcher’s Warbler are often the first thing that draws attention to the species, especially if they are deep in cover. 

Summer Upcher’s Warbler – Jubail area

Whilst birding the Jubail area in late-June I came across an Upcher’s Warbler. This was a very unusual sight as the birds are passage migrants in the Eastern Province as far as we are aware. I have seen birds in the summer months in the west of the Kingdom but never in the east. The main identification points to separate Upcher’s Warbler and Eastern Olivceous Warbler are that Upcher’s Warbler is generally bigger and has a stockier appearance although this can be difficult to judge on a lone bird if unfamiliar with them. Wings, legs, tail and bill are all longer on Upcher’s Warbler than on Eastern Olivaceous Warbler with the legs and bill being thicker on Upcher’s Warbler. The tail on Upcher’s Warbler is long and ‘full’ and darkens towards the tip, which is not the case in Eastern Olivaceous Warbler. This darkening of the tail can be seen in the below photographs. The tail is also moved in a rather lazy swinging motion often sideways and also upwards and is also fanned, which is not often if ever shown by Eastern Olivaceous Warbler. The exaggerated tail movements of Upcher’s Warbler are often the first thing that draws attention to the species, especially if they are deep in cover. This bird did not move its tail like this and just did a single downwards movement that is similar to Eastern Olivaceous Warbler. Unfortunately, the bird did not stay on the open for very long and good views could not be obtained.

Birding Jabal Ibrahim

I visited Jabal Ibrahim recently, the first time I had been to the location. This massive Jabal is located between Taif and Al Baha in the western mountains and is an excellent site for birds. The habitat looks very good and held some good birds, such as Black-crowned Tchagra, Arabian Serin and Arabian Partridge. Other good birds seen included Long-billed Pipit, Abyssynian White-eye, Palestinian Sunbird and Gambaga Flycathcer. We also saw a few migrants such as Upcher’s Warbler and plenty of lizards that were mainly Anderson’s Rock Agama.

Arabian Sunbird

Upcher's Warbler

Gambaga Flycatcher

 

Early migration through Zulfi – Bird records by Mansur Al Fahad

Mansur Al Fahad is a very good Saudi Arabian birdwatcher, as well as all round naturalist, who currently lives in Riyadh, but who is originally from Zulfi (north-central Saudi Arabia). Mansur has previously sent me photographs of a number of lizards he has seen in the region as well as helped me with the identification of a lizard I saw at Sabkhat Al Fasl in the Eastern Province. Recently he sent me some excellent photographs, which he has kindly allowed me to reproduce here, taken with his new camera set up of a Canon 7D and 600mm F4 ISII which he took when on holiday in his original home town of Zulfi in August. Copyright of the below photos remains with Mansur.

Zulfi consists of five main environments:
1 - Sand dunes with some shrubs and palm oases constitute two-thirds of the area and are mainly in the north and west.
2 – The eastern plateau with high ground and valleys with some acacia trees and shrubs.
3 – The sharp western edge of the plateau overlooking the city with good vegetation cover and valleys.
4 - Farms around the city consisting mostly of palm plantations, animal feed fields and vegetables
5 - Large farms in western Zulfi (in the sandy plains), for grain and animal feed (pivot irrigation) with some new palm plantations.

Central Saudi Arabia has quite a different birding fauna to the Eastern Province and birds pass through the region and slightly different times and in slightly different numbers. Mansur photographed a number of birds that have yet to come through the Eastern Province this autumn, as far as I am aware, including White-throated Robin and Greater Short-toed Lark. White-throated Robin is a very scarce autumn migrant through the Eastern Province with only two documented records until 1989 (Bundy et al) although it is more regular in spring. Large numbers of this species have recently been seen in the Abha region of South-west Saudi Arabia indicating it has a westerly migration route in autumn through Saudi Arabia. Greater Short-toed Lark is seen in autumn from September until October in the Eastern Province, but again is commoner in spring, showing this species passes earlier through central Saudi Arabia than the east of the country. These records appear to show that Zulfi is on a migration route of a number of birds that do not occur as regularly further east in the country.

White-throated Robin

Greater Short-toed Lark

All the other birds Mansur sent me photographs of have been seen in the Eastern Province this autumn with some resident bird numbers increasing due to passing migrants. Eurasian Hoopoe, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler and Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin are examples of three species whose breeding numbers are greatly increased by passing migrants. European Reed Warbler may or may not breed in the Eastern Province but is an early passage migrant with both races including the eastern race Caspian Reed Warbler fuscus passing through. Marsh Warbler is a difficult bird to identify in the field but has been recorded by both Mansur and birders in the Eastern Province this autumn.

Upcher's Warbler

Eurasian Hoopoe

Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin

European Reed Warbler

Marsh Warbler

I would like to thank Mansur for allowing me to use his excellent photographs and hope to have a few more of his excellent photos to post in the coming days.

Upcher's Warblers - Dhahran Hills

Whilst birding the ‘patch’ in the spring a number of Upcher’s Warblers have been seen with the highest daily count five birds. They are mainly seen in the scrub and bushes near to the spray fields and percolation pond with the below photos taken at the edge of the spray fields. The main identification points to separate Upcher’s Warbler and Eastern Olivceous Warbler are that Upcher’s Warbler is generally bigger and has a more stocky appearance although this can be difficult to judge on a lone bird if unfamiliar with them. Wings, legs, tail and bill are all longer on Upcher’s Warbler than on Eastern Olivaceous Warbler with the legs and bill being thicker on Upcher’s Warbler. The tail on Upcher’s Warbler is long and ‘full’ and darkens towards the tip, which is not the case in Eastern Olivaceous Warbler. This darkening of the tail can be seen clearly in the below photographs. The tail is also moved in a rather lazy swinging motion often sideways and also upwards and is also fanned, which is not often if ever shown by Eastern Olivaceous Warbler. The exaggerated tail movements of Upcher’s Warbler are often the first thing that draws attention to the species, especially if they are deep in cover.

The wing is fairly dark and contrasts with the mantle and also has quite a long primary projection and the wing has a pale whitish secondary panel in Upcher’s Warbler, with Eastern Olivaceous Warbler having a paler less contrasting wing with shorter primary projection and a pale buffish secondary panel which is much less obvious and more difficult to see than the panel in Upcher’s Warbler. Another quite obvious difference is the spacing on the tertial feathers, with the tip of the middle terital closer to the outermost tertial than it is to the innermost one on Upcher’s Warbler and these being evenly spaced on Eastern Olivaceous Warbler.

The general plumage of Upcher’s Warbler is quite greyish, rather than the brownish and yellowish tone of Eastern Olivaceous Warbler and the lores appear quite bare on Upcher’s Warbler. Lastly the bill is relatively stout looking and has a pale pinkish base on Upcher’s Warbler, and is less stout with a yellowish base on Eastern Olivaceous Warbler.

Bird numbers dropping - Dhahran Hills

Bird numbers have decreased significantly over the last few days with the only migrant still in good numbers being the Willow Warbler. There are still a few Red-backed Shrikes about and surprisingly a nice adult male Turkestan Shrike, which is the first male of this species I have seen for more than two weeks. The scrubby desert area had two European Bee-eaters and an Upcher’s Warbler showing very well in the low bushes.

Upcher's Warbler

Red-backed Shrike

Turkestan Shrike

The spray fields had an immature Purple Heron and a late Western Cattle Egret that was oiled and looked slightly odd at a distance. A female Eurasian Blackcap and several Common Whitethroats were also present and a Namaqua Dove was sitting briefly in a tree at the edge. Two Little Terns were also on the wet pool on the spray fields along with three Black-winged Stilt and a Wood Sandpiper. The only interesting birds on the percolation pond were two Squacco Herons and the Great Crested Grebe. The late migrating Spotted Flycatcher is still around with six birds seen in the trees around the pond where four Eastern Olivaceous Warblers were also present. Good numbers of Sand Martins and Barn Swallows were over the settling pond and spray fields and a single Eurasian Sparrowhawk also flew over.

Namaqua Dove

Namaqua Dove

Sand Martin

Some late birds - Sabkhat Al Fasl

Arrival at Sabkhat Al Fasl just after first light indicated that a few migrants were present but the large numbers of the last two weeks had decreased significantly. Signs of migration were thin on the ground but there was a single Yellow Wagtail, one Ortolan Bunting, several Willow Warblers, two Common Whitethroats and two Upcher’s Warblers. Upcher’s Warbler has had a great spring with plenty of birds seen and very good views being obtained of many of the birds present. Two Whinchats were still about but not much else. Shrikes were still the commonest sight with Red-backed Shrike being the commonest with over thirty birds seen. Other shrikes included five Turkestan Shrikes, four Lesser Grey Shrikes, three Daurian Shrikes and one very late adult male Woodchat Shrike.

Upcher's Warbler

Ortolan Bunting

Ortolan Bunting

Waders were also much reduced with three Common Snipe, several Common Ringed Plover and Little Stints, one Temminck’s Stint and one Curlew Sandpiper about all that was seen. A late group of 300+ Greater Flamingos, mainly juveniles, was seen out on the flooded Sabkha and was a pleasant surprise. A late Spotted Crake was walking around an area of water where someone had illegally dumped some building rubbish. Clamorous Reed Warblers were still in full song and today were joined by a number of singing European Reed Warblers. Little Bitterns have been a scarce sight this spring foe me but today I had nine sightings of the species. Other herons included plenty of Little Egrets, several Indian Reef Herons and ten Squacco Herons.

Common Snipe

Common Snipe

Common Snipe

Purple Swamphen

Egyptian Nightjar and more – Sabkhat Al Fasl

An early morning trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl last Thursday produced an unusual record of an Egyptian Nightjar. The bird was flushed from below a Tamarisk bush and flew a short distance allowing identification in flight as an Egyptian Nightjar. It was then located out in the open and a couple of photos taken to confirm its identification. Egyptian Nightjar is a regular visitor to the site and can been seen most years, but these record are from the summer months of June and July. As far as I know there are no spring records, but I am sure they must pass through each spring. It would be interesting to know if the birds breed in this area. There are no confirmed breeding records for Arabia, but the regular occurrence of birds in summer in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait lead to the suspicion they may breed in the region.

Egyptian Nightjar

The drive into the site produced 20 Red-backed Shrikes and a stunning European Roller sitting in a bush. European Roller is not a common sight at Sabkaht Al Fasl but this is the third record of the spring for me this year. Other good birds seen included a flock of Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters catching insects and allowing me to try to photograph them in flight, not an easy job. A few European Bee-eaters were also flying about. Turkestan Shrikes were seen in reasonable numbers but only two Daurian Shrikes were noted amongst them.

Red-backed Shrike - adult male

European Roller

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater

European Bee-eater

Turkestan Shrike

Other migrants included four Upcher’s Warblers, continuing the good spring for this species and many Willow Warblers. Several Red-throated and Tree Pipits were still present but more surprisingly a late Tawny Pipit. Good numbers of the late arriving Spotted Flycatcher are now in and more than ten were seen during the day. Whinchat numbers still remain high with again about ten birds seen. A juvenile Purple Heron was flushed from the reeds and landed briefly in the open before flying off again back into the reed beds. Other herons included a few Little Egrets and 20+ Squacco Herons.

Upcher's Wabler

Spotted Flycatcher

Whinchat

Purple Heron - juvenile

Squacco Heron

The large amount of rain that has occurred in recent days made the water levels high and plenty of wet pools had been created that were to the liking of the migrating waders. Three Temminck’s Stints were quite unusual for this time of year but Little Stints and Curlew Sandpipers were not. There were at least 500 Curlew Sandpipers and 300+ Little Stints but only a handful of Wood Sandpiper.

Temminck's Stint

Curlew Sandpiper