More Pallid Swifts – Dhahran Hills

The cold weather has brought in a few waders to the ‘patch’ almost all of which are on the settling pond. Birds seen in the last few days include Common Ringed Plover, two Marsh Sandpipers, two Common Greenshanks, 15 Black-winged Stilts, two Ruff, two Wood Sandpipers and a Green Sandpiper. A jack Snipe was flushed from the Spray Fields and two Siberian Stonechats and a Daurian Shrike were also in the same area. The percolation pond was almost devoid of birds with the exception of the normal Little Grebes, Greater Cormorants, Common Moorhens and Eurasian Coots. The only interesting birds seen were five Gadwall and a flock of Pallid Swifts with one House Martin flying over.

Pallid Swift

Pallid Swift

Great Cormorant

Some good birds – Sabkhat Al Fasl

The cold weather has now been about for almost a week and the temperature at Sabkhat Al Fasl at 06:00 hrs was only 4 degrees Celsius, which is the coolest I have seen in my two years in Saudi Arabia. Even by 08:00 hrs the temperature had only reached 6 degrees Celsius. I thought this cold weather may bring in some good birds, but my birding in the last few days had shown that many birds had moved out and only a few new arrivals had occurred. I arrived at the site at first light and soon found a flock of about 50 White Wagtails. A close look through the flock revealed a nice Citrine Wagtail amongst them, which is a scare bird in the Eastern Province although one I have seen quite regularly since I have been in the country and is probably really an uncommon visitor. They are always nice to see and this one was in quite good plumage as well. After seeing the Citrine Wagtail I went to the concrete bunded area where I had seen a 2nd Calendar Year Common Gull two weeks before in amongst a large group of Common black-headed Gulls and Large White-headed Gulls (LWHG). A large flock of similar gulls was present and after looking through them carefully a few times, as they were very flighty and constantly being disturbed by the local Marsh Harriers, I found the 2nd Calendar Year Common Gull, and amazingly found another one of the same age nearby. These are only the eighth and ninth records for the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Egrets seemed to be quite common with 68 Western Great Egrets, 50+ Indian Reef Herons and 15 Squacco Herons. Terns are thin on the ground in mid winter but Gull-billed Terns are still seen occasionally as was the case today with at least three birds seen. Purple Swamphens are now being seen more regularly with at least seven birds seen. This may be due to restricted number of people at the site at present as the building work on the water pumping station has finished and it is too cold for the fishermen and hunters. Talking of hunters, only two duck were seen and these were both Eurasian Teal. Western Marsh Harriers were present in good numbers as normal with at least 11 seen including one immature male. Five Greater Spotted Eagles were also seen all of which were 2nd Calendar Year birds with the exception of one Adult. Waders included plenty of Dunlins, Common Ringed Plovers and Little Stints with lesser numbers of Common Greenshank, Common Redshank and Greater Sandplover and over 300 Pied Avocets was a reasonable count for the site. Passerines were few and far between with two Daurian Shrikes, eight Tawny Pipits, 50+ Water Pipits, of the race coutelli, five Eurasian Skylarks and three Siberian Stonechats.

Citrine Wagtail

Squacco Heron

Gull-billed Tern

Gull-billed Tern

Greater Spotted Eagle

Purple Swamphen

Tawny Pipit

Siberian Stonechat

Water Pipit

Red-tailed Wheatear still present – Dhahran Hills

A trip to the ‘patch’ today produced the Red-tailed Wheatear again. This time the bird had moved some distance from it’s normal area to the large rocks along the perimeter road. Again the light was poor as it was late evening but the bird was close and I managed to get one decent photos before it flew off further from the car. The bird has been about for three weeks now and hopefully will stay longer. A couple of new birds for the year were seen today, a Common Kestrel chasing Rock Doves and Feral Pigeons over the nearby airbase and two Marsh Sandpipers on the settling pool. Other waders on the pool included a Wood Sandpiper and 15 Black-winged Stilts and a lone Black-headed Gull was keeping them company. The spray fields held one Siberian Stonechat, two Daurian Shrikes and five Tawny Pipits and the percolation pond had five Gadwall. 20+ Pallid Swifts were again over the pond as it was getting dark.

Red-tailed Wheatear

Daurian Shrike

Pallid Swifts – Dhahran Hills

A trip to the ‘patch’ in the hope of something new in after the cold weather of the last few days produced a surprise in the shape of a flock of 50 plus Pallid Swifts. Although a local breeding species mainly in the desert where they frequent rocky outcrops, caves and fissures, the species is generally absent after this period in the area. In recent years birds have taken to nesting on buildings using ledges to nest against as is the case at KFUPM in Dhahran. Very little is known about their movements after the breeding season, although large numbers are sometimes seen inland over evaporation lagoons. Numbers are scarce in the coastal zones of the Eastern Province with the best counts coming from Abqaiq lagoons and Dhahran percolation pond where small groups are occasionally seen occasionally up to fifty birds. Passage birds are seen in good numbers in March and September. A careful check of the group was made ensuring no Alpine Swifts were present. Trying to photograph the fast moving swifts is difficult and trying to combine this with getting the exposure correct is almost impossible. I have a few shots below showing how difficult it is to correctly judge the exposure of the birds, even if you can get them in the picture. I thought a few duck may have arrived on the percolation pond, particularly as the water levels are so high, but all I could find was the five Gadwall that have been present for the last two weeks. The cold weather and strong north-westerly wind kept most other birds low, with only one Daurian Shrike and a Eurasian Sparrowhawk with its freshly killed Crested Lark prey of note in the spray fields.

More Daurian Shrikes – Dhahran Hills

An increase in number of Daurian Shrikes has been quite noticeable in the Eastern Province in the last couple of weeks with good numbers seen at both Sabkhat Al Fasl and Dhahran recently. Most birds are young or females although a few adult males have also been seen. The lack of daylight in the evening when birding has made photography difficult but I managed to photograph this bird in the late evening light with reasonable results. Other new birds seen on the ‘patch’ recently include a couple of nice adult male Siberian Stonechats, a significant increase in the number of Tawny Pipits and very large numbers of White Wagtails, approaching 200 birds. A single Isabelline Wheatear was the first bird of this species I have seen in 2013 and the Red-tailed Wheatear remains in the same area of the camp.

Increasing numbers of Large White-headed Gulls – Abqaiq Landfill

An early morning trip to Abqaiq Landfill resulted in very large numbers of Large White-headed Gulls (LWHG) as well as Common Black-headed Gulls. The recent cold weather may have brought new birds to the area as numbers were at least twice as high as the last time I visited a month ago. Many of the birds are now immature birds whereas previously they had mainly been adults. The mix of birds remains similar with approximately 80% Steppe Gulls, 20% Heuglin’s Gulls, three Caspian Gulls and one Armenian Gull with 2000+ LWHG and 3000+ Common Black-headed Gulls. Despite extensive searching I failed to locate any Baltic Gulls and no other birds of interest were seen. I did manage to find an area where the birds were resting allowing good views through the scope, and my knowledge of the site has improved, hopefully, making it easier to view the birds on my next trip there. Other landfill sites in the area have held both Greater Spotted Eagles and Eastern Imperial Eagles in the past but I have not seen either of these species on my trips to this site. It may be too far inland? Or possibly is not conveniently positioned next to a wetland ara where the birds like to spend the winter? The only other birds of note I saw on the Landfill were a Common Kestrel, two Desert Wheatears and several Crested Larks. As last time numerous Rock Doves and Feral Pigeons were also present.

Steppe Gull - adult winter

Steppe Gull - 2nd Calendar Year

Heuglin's Gull - adult winter

Heuglin's Gull - sub-adult winter

Common Black-headed Gull - adult winter

Common Black-headed Gull - 2nd Calendar Year

Red-tailed Wheatear again - Dhahran Hills

I have been trying to see and photograph the Red-tailed Wheatear that I saw a few days ago in recent days. I have seen the bird each time I have visited the ‘patch’ but it has been quite mobile and until yesterday did not allow me to get any decent photographs. Yesterday I saw the bird on the main track to the percolation pond by the scrubby desert and managed to get a few decent shots. Mike Pope a birder from Kuwait, who was visiting Saudi Arabia, mentioned to me he had seen the bird a few days before I saw it in roughly the same place. He did not manage to get any photos, which is a pity as he is an excellent photographer. Red-tailed Wheatear is meant to be a confiding species allowing close approach, but this bird did not read the manual and is tricky to get near.

Cold Weather - Dhahran Hills

Cold weather reached Dhahran on Thursday night with temperatures in the early morning down to 6 degrees Celsius. This caused a bit of a change of activity for many of the local birds with Rock Doves fluffing up their feathers to keep warm rather than panting to loose heat. It also attracted a large number of Black-headed Gulls and Large White-headed Gulls (LWHG) to the percolation pond. These birds spent some time in the early morning bathing prior to flying off to their feeding grounds. Most of the LWHG were Steppe Gulls (85%) with Heuglin’s Gulls 13% and Caspian Gull (2%). A few duck were also present on the pond with seven Gadwall, nine Mallard and a single Wigeon which is the first one I have seen for a few weeks. The cold weather has also coincided with an increase in numbers of Great Cormorants roosting at the pond where numbers have now reached 50 birds. This is well short of last year’s 2000 but an increase from the one or two that have been here for most of the winter. I am hoping the cold weather will bring in some more good birds from further north as Israel has had a very cold spell with lots of snow falling.

Rock Dove

Caspian Gull - adult winter

Steppe Gull - adult winter 

Great Cormorant

Squacco Heron with dark primary tips – Dhahran Hills

In the early morning I found a Squacco Heron sitting on the edge of the settling pond. It flew off immediately but luckily landed on the barbed wire fence behind me. I took a photo of the bird and got one shot of it in flight also before it flew off. The bird looked like a Squacco Heron, albeit with a dark mantle, which a number of birds in the winter in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia have. In flight though the bird had obviously dark tipped primaries a feature normally associated with Indian Pond Heron. When I got home I looked at the photos and although reasonably confident the bird was a Squacco Heron I asked a few people, including Tommy Pedersen and Oscar Campbell from the United Arab Emirates what they thought. Indian Pond Heron occurs each winter in the United Arab Emirates so was interested to hear what the guys there thought. Both Tommy and Oscar thought the bird was a Squacco Heron with the following some points as to why they thought this:

• Little streaking on the neck, if it was an Indian Pond Heron with this amount of streaking the bird would have been in more summer like plumage.
• Streaking not extending far enough down the neck for Indian Pond Heron and not extending across the breast, as is the case in Indian Pond Heron.
• Creamy orange undertones to the neck are more typical of Squacco Heron.
• Lack of loral bar.
• Amount of dark on the primaries is variable in both species.

My understanding that Squacco Heron had white primaries (with some birds showing only slight dark on the primaries) and Indian Pond Heron dark tipped primaries is obviously not correct and all the main features of a bird needs to be seen as above and also:

• Dark loral stripe
• Bill should be thicker and blunter tipped
• Dark Mantle colour showing some purple hints

Thanks to Tommy and Oscar for their help - I now have a better idea as to what to look for when faced with a possible Indian Pond Heron.

Jaffa Groundsel – Sabkhat Al Fasl

Whilst birdwatching at Sabkhat Al Fasl at the weekend I came across a couple of nice clumps of Senecio glaucus which is an annual plant that grows in the desert and is also known as Jaffa groundsel or Buck’s horn groundsel. They are found in sandy soil of coastal plains and Gulf islands as well as steppes and are native to a large area of the Middle and Far East including Saudi Arabia. The plants were growing next to the main open water area on the extreme edge of where the water level was currently reaching. They made a very nice splash of colour in an otherwise drab surrounding and are a common and widespread plant in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.