Location Directions - Ash Shargiyah Development Company Farm (Fadhili)

The site is located near to Jubail, inland in the desert and is an extensive area of mixed habitat, including large pivot fields growing crops, plenty of haystack piles, a large wetland area, small reed-beds, extensive scrubby desert, disused and dry pivot fields and quite a few large trees growing along the track edges. There is a security gate to the farm which may be padlocked and security want to know why you want to enter and leave. As the site does not have easy access you should only visit after phoning and asking for permission, please do not just turn up and try to get in as this will cause issues for anyone else trying to access the site. The site is located off the main Abu Hadriya highway from Dammam to Jubail and onwards to Kuwait. At the turnoff to Sabkhat Al Fasl keep going straight on the main road to Kuwait. After about 25 kilometres there is a sign to the right to Fadhili Pipeline road. Take this exit and turn left under the main road. You will then pass to the right hand side of a large petrol station after whihc a tarmac road goes off to the left after about fifty metres. Do not go down this road but continue for another twenty metres or so and take the next left. Drive down this tarmac road for about twenty kilometres until you reach the security gate to the farm which has a large sig above saying Ash Shargiyah Development Co. Once inside drive along any of the tracks and stop and look at any good sites of which there are plenty.

Dammam / Al Khobar Wader Roost – Bird records by Jessar Inocencio

Last Thursday 12th of October, Jessar Inocencio and his birding friend Marvin Harder visited the Dammam/Al Khobar Wader Roost. They got there at around 7:00 am and to our surprise it was low tide. At a distance, we saw a huge flock of different birds totalling over a thousand birds. There were plenty of Kentish Plovers, Bar-tailed Godwits, Eurasian Curlews, three Grey Herons, three Eurasian Oystercatchers and a flock of Black-winged Stilts and Greater Flamingoes. Most of the Gretaer Famingoes flew off but four remained allowing a chance to get closer and photograph them. Other birds seen included one Ruddy Turnstone, a few Isabelline Wheatears, one first winter male Pied Wheatear, Lesser Crested and Caspian Terns and Dunlins. The last time they visited the site was in July at high tide when there were more species compared to last Thursday. Jesser has kindly allowed me to use some of his photos on my website which are shown below.


Greater Flamingo



Greater Flamingo



Bar-tailed Godwit



Black-winged Stilt



Caspian Terns



Dunlin



Socotra Cormorant

Spur-winged Lapwing - Ash Shargiyah Development Company Farm (Fadhili)

On the way out of Ash Shargiyah Development Company Farm (Fadhili) we stopped again at the wetland area to see what was there. Apart from a similar selection of waders to those seen on the way in five hours before, including the still present Pacific Golden Plover, we also found an adult Spur-winged Plover. Records of this species are apparently becoming more common in the Eastern Province with four records in the last two years, but there are still only seven records of seven birds classing it as a vagrant. All records I know of are shown below:

Haradh 24^th October 1986

Dhahran 22^nd November 1986
Sabkhat Al Fasl 30^th October & 6^th November 2009
An adult Dhahran Saudi Aramco Camp, percolation pond 12^th & 13^th May 2011
An adult Dhahran Saudi Aramco Camp, percolation pond 8^th August 2012
Dhahran Saudi Aramco Camp, percolation pond 27^th September to 2^nd October 2012
An adult Ash Shargiyah Development Company Farm (Fadhili) 12^th October 2012

Spur-winged Lapwing has a distribution from the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East up the River Nile to central & southern Sudan, and South of the Sahara from Senegal through Nigeria to Ethiopia, and southwards to Uganda and Kenya. Birds are regularly seen in the Riyadh area and further west in Saudi Arabia.

 

A new birding site - Ash Shargiyah Development Company Farm (Fadhili)

Whilst looking on Google Maps last year I saw a large set of Pivot fields in the desert inland from Jubail which looked very interesting. The trouble was I had no idea how to get to them as there did not appear to be any roads there. I spoke to Phil about them and we decided we would go and look one weekend when we were both free, in case we got stuck in the sand or something similar on the way to the fields. I also asked Brain Meadows a birder who lived in the area for ten years in the late 1990’s and he mentioned the same fields but said access was not allowed for a while before he left due to bird flu issues. Last weekend was the first time we have been able to execute our plan to visit the site and we set off on Friday 12^th October at 04:00 hrs to try to get to the farm by first light. We found the site relatively easily and I will post details on how to get there in the near future. There is a security gate to the farm which was padlocked but luckily for us a man was walking down the road so I attracted his attention and he turned out to be the guard with the key. We explained we wanted to go onto the site to bird-watch and he let us in. Trying to get out was slightly more difficult with the new guard stopping us and asking what we were doing but after calling the initial guard they let us proceed. This site does not have easy access and should probably only be visited after phoning and asking for permission. Until we can get proper permission to access the site our visits will be very few and far between, which is a shame as it is a truly amazing place with plenty of mixed habitat, including large pivot fields growing crops, plenty of haystack piles, a large wetland area, small reed-beds, extensive scrubby desert, disused and dry pivot fields and quite a few large trees growing along the track edges.


Blue-cheeked Bee-eater

We spent the entire morning here, as we had to be back for family commitments, but a full day would be much too short to do the area justice. We did, however, see some very good birds including two new Saudi Arabia species for me and a vagrant to the Eastern Province. Just through the main gate we came across a large wetland area to the right of the road. The wetland held quite a number of waders including both my first new Saudi Arabia species of the day. The first was Black-necked Grebe of which we saw two in full breeding plumage associating closely with the ten or so Little Grebes. Not a bad start to the morning which soon became better when we located a Pacific Golden Plover at the back of the area on exposed mud where it stayed all morning and was still present when we left at midday. It was an adult moulting into winter plumage and was quite distant so I did not manage to get any decent photos of it. Pacific Golden Plover was a more regular species in the Eastern Province thirty years ago where it was often seen at the former Dammam Marsh lagoons in winter and on passage between March and April and September and October. Recent records have been very scarce and it is now regarded as a rare passage migrant. There were a lot of other waders on the muddy edges to this wetland including 35 Ruffs, 50+ Black-winged Stilts, 40+ Common Ringed Plovers, 60+ Little Stints, 30+ Common Snipes, 15 Wood Sandpipers, six Kentish Plovers and one Common Redshank. A Great Cormorant was on the water and herons included three Grey Herons, 19 Cattle Egrets and two Indian Reef Herons and hundreds of Barn Swallow and at least 50 Sand Martins were seen hunting over the area, which is the largest concentration of Barn Swallows I have seen in Saudi Arabia so far. Clamorous Reed Warblers and Graceful Prinias were calling from the reed beds. We then drove to the nearest pivot field with crops being grown and saw quite a few birds including hundreds of Namaqua Doves, Laughing Doves, Eurasian Collared Dove, five Isabelline Wheatears, four urasian Hoopoe, ten Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters and several Crested Larks. It looked like a good place to try to find an unusual lark such as Bimaculated, but this did not work out as planned and we only managed to find two Short-toed Larks feeding in a pivot field for our efforts, although still nice to see.


Greater Short-toed Lark

Greater Short-toed Lark

The scrubby desert areas had plenty of shrikes and wheatears with Steppe Grey Shrike being relatively common, one Southern Grey Shrike, three Turkestan Shrikes and six Daurian Shrikes. The most common Wheatear present was Pied Wheatear with most of the 20+ birds seen being immature males, although Isabelline Wheatear was also common. Birds of prey seen included up to seven Common Kestrels, six Western Marsh Harriers one Black Kite and a smart adult male Pallid Harrier which we unfortunately flushed from on the ground under a tree before we saw it. Other good birds seen included two Tawny Pipits, a Desert Warbler feeding in the bushes at the far fence line and two European Bee-eaters on the same wires. We saw 48 species of bird in five hours birding at a single site, which is a good total for our area. Whilst stopping on the way out at the same wetland area as we had seen the Pacific Golden Plover on we found another good bird for the Eastern Province, this one being a vagrant of which I will post details tomorrow.


Isabelline Wheatear

More Common Kingfishers - Alba Marsh (Bahrain)

Nicole and I went ringing again at Alba Marsh on Friday Morning. A very early start allowed us to reach the site at dawn and we set the nets in a much quicker time than the last time we ringed together. We are learning to do things without the help of Brendan who is now back in Ireland and were certainly more efficient this time. We set four nets, 19 metre, 18 metre, 15 metre and 12 metre double panel. The double panel net is only really good for catching pipits, Bluethroats and warblers and as we saw none of these species it failed to catch anything. We did, however, catch birds in the three other nets including another two Common Kingfishers. The four Common Kingfishers we caught last time we ringed at the site were the first for the ringing project in Bahrain and on Friday we added a further two birds to the total. Other birds we caught were four Clamorous Reed Warblers of which one was a re-trap from two weeks ago, a Savi’s Warbler, a Citrine Wagtail, a Great Reed Warbler, a first year Daurian Shrike, a House Sparrow and a Willow Warbler. A few migrants are passing through but numbers are low. The quality of birds caught makes up for the lack of birds and as winter progress and Water Pipits and Bluethroats arrive we should start catching a few more birds. As can be seen from the photos of Clamorous Reed Warblers the birds are in various stages of moult with some in fresh plumage and others still in wing moult.

Common Kingfisher - female

Common Kingfisher - female

Common Kingfisher - female

Daurian Shrike

Daurian Shrike

Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler

Clamorous Reed Warbler

Clamorous Reed Warbler

Clamorous Reed Warbler

Citrine Wagtail - Alba Marsh (Bahrain)

Another good bird trapped and ringed at Alba Marsh on the weekend was a first year Citrine Wagtail. When I saw it in the net it looked interesting and initially I thought, due to its size and the amount of white in the tail, it may be a pipit. This would have been the first pipit of the autumn for us from the site so would have been good. When I reached the net it became obvious the bird was a first year Citrine Wagtail and I brought it back and gave it to Nicole to look at. Neither of us had ringed Citrine Wagtail before so Nicole ringed the bird making it a very good day for her with two new ringing species. The species is an uncommon passage migrant and winter visitor to the area. Alba Marsh is turning out to be a good place to ring and although we do not catch many birds we have a very interesting and varied selection. These is a great place to learn to ring, as we are not too busy, and have time to look at, study and photograph the birds we catch.

Second 'Patch' tick in three days - Dhahran Hills

A trip to the 'patch' on 10th October turned up my second new species for the area in three days. As with the last new species Baillon's Crake, this one was also a new species for Saudi Arabia, and was a Red-breasted Flycatcher. This is a rare and irregular visitor to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia with most records being in autumn or winter. One was seen in late December 1970, one at Dhahran late November 1974, two Dhahran November 1979 to mid-March 180 and five other records 1980 - 1984 all in autumn and winter. There are no recent records of the species from Dhahran as far as I am aware. I am sure they will be overlooked as this bird was very difficult to get good views of. It was calling continually which alerted me to its presence but although very mobile, was difficult to see perched. This is my 182 species for the Saudi Aramco camp which is not bad as I have only been birding here for two years. I saw the bird in the late evening so again no photographs are available of the bird. Other good birds seen included a Western Osprey over the percolation pond, a Green Sandpiper and a Citrine Wagtail (first year) on the newly flooded settling pond and a Turkestan Shrike on the spray fields. The first White Wagtail of the year was on the concrete surround to the settling pond.


Green Sandpiper

Yellow Wagtail - feldegg

Yellow Wagtail - feldegg

White-tailed Lapwing - Tabuk

Viv Wilson works in Tabuk (western Saudi Arabia) and has recently been bird-watching his local ‘patch’ of a water treatment area, starting about a year ago. He has seen a number of good birds in the area including:

Black Kite (juvenile)
Common Kestrel
Steppe (Southern) Grey Shrike
Isabelline Wheatear
Western Marsh Harrier
European Roller
Glossy Ibis
Common Kingfisher
Long-legged Buzzard
Common Snipe
Ruff
Wood Sandpiper
Garganey
Squacco Herons
Common Redstart
Pallid Harrier
Spur-winged Plover
Eurasian Curlew
Yellow Wagtail
White-tailed Plover
Duraian or Turkestan Shrike
Western Cattle Egret
Grey HeronBest of all Viv found a White-tailed Lapwing with a Glossy Ibis and managed to get a couple of photos of the bird which he kindly let me use on my website. It looks like Viv’s birding area is rich in birds and one I would like to visit one day.



White-tailed Plover

White-tailed Plover

Glossy Ibis & White-tailed Plover

Glossy Ibis & White-tailed Plover

Squacco Heron

Squacco Herons

Savis Warbler - Alba Marsh (Bahrain)

Whilst ringing at Alba Marsh on Friday morning Nicole extracted a bird from the net of which she was not 100% certain of the identification. This is normally good news and she is generally very confident of birds she has ringed before. The bird was not a Caspian Reed Warbler and when I looked at the under-tail coverts it was obviously a locustella warbler and Savi’s Warbler looked good. We checked at the details in Svensson’s ringing guide and it turned out to be a Savi’s Warbler, a bird I had ringed at the same site on 9^th March 2012 but one that Nicole had not ringed previously. Savi’s Warbler is a good bird for Bahrain and is currently classed as a vagrant with birds seen in both spring and autumn migration periods. The fact we have caught two different birds in a year at the same site may indicate they are a rare or scarce passage migrant rather than a vagrant? but only time will tell. The subspecies of Savi’s Warbler that occurs in the region is Locustella luscinoides fusca which is more olive brown with paler under-parts and more obvious white tips to the under-tail coverts than the nominate European form L l luscinodes making it look slightly different. L l fusca breeds in Turkey & Jordon eastwards to central Asia including north and south Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, north-east Iran and probably north-west Afghanistan. They winter in north-east Africa principally in Sudan & Ethiopia. Birds have bred in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and have been suspected of breeding in Kuwait.

A new 'Patch' species - Dhahran Hills

Birding over the last week on the ‘patch’ has been relatively quiet but new birds have been appearing daily to keep the interest going. The best birds seen have been two Common Kestrels, four Temminck’s Stints, one Green Sandpiper, two Squacco Herons, 23 Western Cattle Egrets, one Daurian Shrike, one Isabelline Wheatear, two Spotted Flycatchers, 25+ Barn Swallows and 20+ Yellow Wagtails coming into roost in the reeds at the percolation pond. The best bird of all, however, was seen on 8th October and was a Baillon’s Crake. I found the bird whilst walking along the edge of the pond with Phil, who luckily also saw it and it was a new species for Dhahran for both of us. I have not seen Baillon’s Crake in Saudi Arabia before, whereas Phil saw one a few years ago in the spring at Sabkhat Al Fasl. This bird gave reasonable views, albeit slightly obscured by the reeds, as it was walking about in the open on some floating vegetation before becoming frightened and running into the reeds not to be seen again. As it was close to dusk I was not able to photograph the bird, in fact the camera was in the car and I was on foot which did not help! Baillon’s Crake is scarcer than Little Crake and is a scarce passage migrant seen in March and from August to October. As with Little Crake this species is probably overlooked as it is very skulking in nature but is obviously not common as it has been seen so rarely.


Common Snipe

Common Snipe

Temminck's Stint