A few waders - Dhahran Hills

On the way across the scrubby desert area I came across a pair of Little Ringed Plovers. One bird was trying to lead me away from where the other bird was positioned which is a good indicator they may have a nest in the area. I did not stay around too long as I did not want to disturb the birds, but I will check in a few days’ time to see if they are still present in the same area.

 Little Ringed Plover

Waders have been scarce on the camp this spring so two Black-winged Stilts were nice to see on the edge of the percolation pond and later on the flooded wet area in the spray fields. Hopefully a few more waders will be passing through at the end of March and early April as this was the best period for them last year. The other wader seen on the flooded area of the spray fields was a Green Sandpiper with a second bird on the muddy edge of the percolation pond.

 Black-winged Stilt

I have been seeing quite a few waders on flooded pools on the way to Jubail / Manifa over the last couple of weeks, mainly Ruff, Common Redshank, Common Greenshank and Black-winged Stilt but they have either not found the percolation pond area or found it and decided it was not to their liking for some reason.

Pipits – Dhahran Hills

The area around the spray fields are getting better for pipits which are just starting to move through the area. The resident Tawny Pipits have been joined by a few migrating birds as numbers are much higher now than they have been throughout the winter. Up to 20 birds are now being seen on each visit to the area whereas in the winter four birds was the norm. A few Red-throated Pipits are also passing through with some being very smart males in breeding plumage. Water Pipits should be moving off soon to their breeding areas to the north, but they are still the commonest birds with up to 30 being flushed from the spray fields every time I enter the area.

 Tawny Pipit

Tawny Pipit

The spray fields also hold a few Tree Pipits which are just starting to pass through again. They are very skulking and are difficult to see unless flushed from the long grass, when they sometimes sit up on the tall grass or flowers. There were at least six birds seen in the fields yesterday.

 Tree Pipit

Tree Pipit

There is also a nice group of Yellow Wagtails numbering over 30 birds in the spray fields by the flooded area. They are mainly Black-headed Wagtails (M.f.feldegg) but a couple of other sub-species are involved, unfortunately I have not been able to get good enough views to see what they are as they spend all their time in the long grass unless disturbed and then you can only see them in flight.

Black-winged Stilt nest & eggs - Alba Marsh (Bahrain)

Whilst in Bahrain over the weekend Brendan found a Black-winged Stilt nest with four eggs. There were quite a number of adult Black-winged Stilts around again with a pair calling vocally nearby.  The site is quite undisturbed apart from the reed-cutters and a stray dog that will, hopefully, not disturb the birds or eat the eggs. A pair of Black-winged Stilts bred at the same site last year so if all goes well this year we may be able to catch and ring the young. Black-winged Stilt chicks are very fast runners and brilliant at hiding so there is absolutely no certainty we will be able to catch the young but it will be fun trying.

Black-winged Stilt is a reasonably common breeding species in the region and I found a nest with four eggs present in Dhahran last year. Although there are four eggs, generally only two young survive.

Eastern Woodchat Shrike (niloticus) - Alba Marsh (Bahrain)

A post by Laurie asking if we get badius Woodchat Shrike in Saudi Arabia prompted me to look into the eastern race birds a bit harder. This combined with the fact I have ringed three birds in the last three weeks in Bahrain prompted me to post a few images of Woodchat Shrikes Lanius senator of the eastern race niloticus. They occur from Cyprus, Levant & eastern Asia minor eastwards to Iran and winter in southern Egypt & Sudan.

 Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator niloticus) - Second calendar year female

 Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator niloticus) - Second calendar year female

Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator niloticus) - Second calendar year female

Adults are told from nominate senator by extensive white on tail base measuring 25-35 millimetres and have whiter under-parts with the buff colouration restricted to the flanks. The white patch on the primaries is larger, being 17-20mm beyond the primary coverts in the closed wing of adult males compared to 10-16mm in the nominate sub-species. The female niloticus often has no black on the face even in adult plumage. Juveniles shown extensive moult of the body feathers, particularly the median and greater coverts on migration, with the equivalent moult in the nominate race occurring on the wintering grounds after migration. They are normally paler than nominate with greyer upper-parts. Birds average smaller to the west of their range and larger to the east.

 Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator niloticus) - Second calendar year male

 Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator niloticus) - Second calendar year female

 Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator niloticus) - Second calendar year female

Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator niloticus) - Second calendar year male

The last bird we caught we measured the white tail base which measure 32 millimetres and the white patch on the primaries which measure 20 millimetres fitting nicely inside the niloticus range. The other measurements of wing length and bill length also fitted for all three birds caught.

Andrea Corso kindly pointed out the following......"I underline that niloticus is easy (to identify) only when typical...however, around the Eastern Mediterranean basin and Middle East there are several clinal populations with birds which are very hard to be positively ID. In the Sicilian Channel islands, for example, we used to see several birds which have really mixed or intermediate characters .... same in SE Italy, in Turkey etc etc"

As is normally the case this shows that birding is not as simple as it at first appears!

Birds of Prey – Dhahran Hills

There was another big dust storm in Dhahran over two days ago and this time it closed all the local schools for two days. The winds were strong (50 km/hr) and blew all day from the north-west and the temperature dropped from 36 degrees Celsius on Friday to 16 degrees Celsius on Sunday. I went out on Monday evening with some hope of good birds being grounded in the Dhahran area but was disappointed to see very few birds on the way to the spray fields. As I approached the percolation pond I saw a large bird of prey in the air, circling in amongst a large flock of Red-rumped Swallows, Barn Swallows and House Martins. This bird looked like a Greater Spotted Eagle but had warm under-wing coverts and breast indicating it was a fluvescens type bird, which is the first time I have seen a bird like this in Saudi Arabia. As soon as this bird had drifted off I located a Western Marsh Harrier quartering the reed beds of the pond and disturbing the few birds that were on the pond.

Western Marsh Harrier

The Western Great Egret was still on the pond looking for food and a single adult male Little Crake showed well in the very thin reeds by one of the fences. A single Spotted Crake and three Common Moorhen were in the only pool left outside the pond and were joined by a Common Snipe and a Grey Wagtail, which are being seen almost daily now. The only other bird of interest whilst walking around the pond was a male samamisicus Common Redstart. I then started walking towards the spray fields and a male Pallid Harrier flew over and towards the field, which is the first one I have seen this year in Dhahran although I saw two birds at Alba Marsh in Bahrain last weekend.

Pallid Harrier (adult male)

Pallid Harrier (adult male)

The Pallid Harrier was soon followed by a female Common Kestrel and it was beginning to look like a few birds of prey may be on the move. This was confirmed when two Eurasian Sparrowhawks and a Eurasian Hobby flew over and late in the evening another Common Kestrel and Eurasian Sparrowhawk were seen at the jebals. Unfortunately there were few other birds associated with the birds of prey, but there is always tomorrow for more things to turn up as the weather has improved though it is still a bit cool.

Eurasian Sparrowhawk (adult male)

More Shrikes – Dhahran Hills

Birding has been a bit quiet over the last couple of days probably due to the continuing poor weather. There was a strong Shamal with 50 kilometre/hour winds and large amounts of dust. Visibility was down to about 500 metres and conditions were very poor for birding but hopefully good for grounding some good migrants. I have seen little sign of large scale movements of birds in recent days with only shrikes and wheatears being seen in reasonable numbers. Shrikes have been mainly Woodchat Shrike with up to five being seen each day. Single Daurian, Turkestan and Southern Grey Shrikes have also been seen, mainly in the spray fields and tress in the scrubby desert. The photogrpahs of Woodchat Shrike are of two different birds with the top bird one individual and the next two, another bird.

 Woodchat Shrike (niloticus)

 Woodchat Shrike (adult male)

Woodchat Shrike (adult male)

 Southern Grey Shrike

 Southern Grey Shrike

Birds on the percolation pond are very thin on the ground with only Squacco Heron and Great Crested Grebe being seen. Only a single Great Crested Grebe has been seen for some weeks now so, hopefully, the female is sitting on a nest hidden from sight?

Great Crested Grebe

Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin have been seen daily and look like they are setting up territories and small numbers of Red-throated Pipits are passing through. I am still waiting for the large fall of birds other than Common Chiffchaff, whose numbers have really declined over the last few days to single figures. Good numbers of Barn Swallow have been arriving in the last three days with Sand Martin, House Martin and Pallid Swift all joined in groups with them.

Red Thumb (Cynomorium coccineum) - Dhahran Hills

The Red Thumb (Cynomorium coccineum) is a parasitic, leafless plant without chlorophyll. It is a fleshy, reddish, club-shapped perennial herb that can grow up to 30 centimetres high and is parasitic on the roots of desert shrubs. It is only visible above ground during its spring flowering period. The flowering stems may emerge from the ground singly but more often they are grouped several together. The interflorescence is dark-red to purplish and is made up of minute scarlet flowers which may be male or female. Flies are attracted by the smell given off from the plant and are thought to be pollinators of the plant whihc once pollinated turns black. They grow on sandy, saline, ground with this plant photogrpahed in Dhahran camp near the percolation pond. The plant is known as 'tarthuth' by the Bedouin and is also known as Maltese Fungus and Desert Thumb and is used in many herbal medicines around the world.

Crimson-speckled Footman (Utetheisa pulchella)

The Crimson-speckled Footman (Utetheisa pulchella) is a small, day flying moth measuring approximately 30-40mm in length. They are mostly white, speckled with black and crimson and have characteristic black eyes. The legs are white in colour and the antennae are black. The moth is found from Africa to southern Europe, throughout the Middle East, central & southern Asia and Australia. They are migratory moths but I assume the ones I have been seeing in the last few days are residents?

They are seen every year in Dhahran in March and are not very easy to see until you flush one from its resting place and it flies to its new location. They very rarely, if ever, land with their wings spread and almost always end up in a position similar to that in the photograph above.

Some unwanted ticks - Alba Marsh (Bahrain)

I went ringing again on Friday in Bahrain and we went to our normal site of Alba Marsh. Things did not look promising at the start as it was extremely windy when we left Saudi Arabia and had not improved much by the time we had reached Bahrain. As I was not going to ring again for almost a month I wanted to go and see what it was like and as Brendan had not sent a message saying it was cancelled I persevered. Brendan said we should give it a try so we set up three 18 metre four panel nets and two single panel nets. As ringing was slow I kept the first few House Sparrows we caught but as numbers of birds caught increased we started letting the caught House Sparrows go without putting a ring on them. One of the first birds we caught was a nice male Black-headed Wagtail, which was a new ringing species for me as the one we had caught a couple of weeks ago was ringed by Nicole as she had not ringed one either at that stage. Although the Black-headed Wagtail was in good condition plumage wise it had two large ticks attached to its head which Brendan carefully removed to preserve and send to someone in Poland who is doing research into ticks on birds.

 Black-headed Yellow Wagtail (feldegg) - male

 Black-headed Yellow Wagtail (feldegg) - male

Black-headed Yellow Wagtail (feldegg) - male

We caught and ringed 17 birds during the morning which was much better than was thought possible at the start. Totals were one Black-headed Yellow Wagtail, four House Sparrows, three Common Chiffchaffs, two Red-spotted Bluethroats, six Water Pipits and a Woodchat Shrike (see next post for details of this interesting bird). One Bluethroat & one Water Pipit were re-traps with the Bluethroat being trapped initially on 9^th December 2011 and re-trapped on 6^th January 2012 both at the same site. The Water Pipit was trapped and ringed at the same site a week before.

 Red-spotted Bluethroat - 2nd calendar year male

 Red-spotted Bluethroat - 2nd calendar year male

Red-spotted Bluethroat - 2nd calendar year male

Bird numbers were down on previous visits with many Water Pipits and particularly Bluethroats appearing to have moved on. Common Chiffchaff numbers were significantly down on our previous visit as well but birds were certainly keeping low due to the wind as a male Pallid Harrier flew over the reed-bed and flushed more Water Pipits than we had previously seen. Two of the Water Pipits we caught had different shapped longest upper-tail coverts with one being rounded (adult?) and the other pointed (2nd CY?).

 Water Pipit (A.s.coutelli)

 Water Pipit (A.s.coutelli)

 Water Pipit (A.s.coutelli)

 Water Pipit (A.s.coutelli) - adult

Water Pipit (A.s.coutelli) - 2nd calendar year

Some new arrivals at Sabkhat Al Fasl - Bird records by Andre Marais

Andre Marais was birding at Sabkhat Al Fasl again during the week and has sent me the following photographs and details of his trips. On the 12th March Andre saw both male and female Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush as well as the much less common Blue Rock Thrush. I have not recorded either species in Dhahran, 125 kilometres south, so far this spring although Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush is a regular visitor. I personally have not seen Blue Rock-Thrush in Dhahran so am waiting patiently for the first record for me to arrive.

 Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush (male)

 Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush (female)

Blue Rock-Thrush

Andre also saw a samamisicus Common Redstart in the desert area at the back of the main wetland area which is always a good bird to see. I have seen quite a few of these in my area over the last few days (see previous post). Another bird Andre saw that I have yet to record this spring in Dhahran is Collared Pratincole of which Andre saw two birds on the 13th March. This is a regular spring migrant in the eastern province, but is much scarcer in the autumn. I thank Andre again for his records and his kind permission for me to use his excellent photographs.

 Common Redstart (samamisicus) - male

Collared Pratincole