Hawksbill Turtle – Farasan Kabir Island

One the first morning of the Farasan Islands after we had got to the Farasan Coral Resort hotel we went swimming in the sea directly in front of the hotel with the children. Whilst swimming I saw what looked like a large fish caught in a fish net so I went to investigate to see if it was alive and I could release it. When I got there it was not a fish but a Hawksbill Turtle Eretmochelys imbricata. After some time I managed to free to Turtle and brought it back to land to check that its neck and flippers, that had been badly entangled, were not damaged. After ensuring all was fine I took a few photographs and then took it back out to deep water and released it. It swam off very strongly and fast, which was good to see and will hopefully live a long a happy life. This was a great start to our holiday on the Farasan Islands and a great experience for the children to see such a beautiful and rare animal up close. This was the first time I have ever seen Hawksbill Turtle, which are critically endangered, so I was also very pleased.

 The Hawksbill Turtle gets its name from its distinct beak like mouth. A hawksbill Turtles head tapers to a point and their lower jaw is V-shaped, adding to the hawk-like resemblance. They are beautiful, medium sized turtles with adults usually about 0.5 – 1 metre long and weigh 45 – 90 kilogrammes. Their carapace is covered in thick overlapping scales that are called scutes which are usually amber colored and richly patterned, with radiating streaks of lighter brown and black. Their diet consists mainly of sponges that live on coral reefs and their sharp, narrow beaks are used to feed on prey found in reef crevices. Hawksbill Turtles are critically endangered because of their beautiful shell. They have been hunted for hundreds of years in huge numbers for the “tortoise shell” that is used in many types of jewelry and trinkets. They are found throughout tropical waters worldwide, and are known to nest on beaches in at least 60 countries including Saudi Arabia. It takes part in long distance migrations, with breeding and feeding grounds in very distant locations. Hawksbill Turtles are mainly associated with the clear, relatively shallow water of coastal reefs, bays, estuaries and lagoons, with nesting generally occurring on remote, isolated sandy beaches. They take decades to mature, first breeding at 20 to 40 years of age when the female will typically lay up to five clutches of around 100 to 140 eggs in a single breeding season. Nesting is much more dispersed than in other marine turtles, but individuals do tend to return to a particular beach season after season. Probably less than one out of 1,000 eggs will survive and reach adulthood.

Western White Stork showing well – Dhahran Hills

The Western White Stork is still about on the same football field as normal in Dhahran Hills. The bird has been about for almost a month now and gives fantastic views. It feeds around on the grass field by the sprinklers when they are on as it makes the ground wet and soft and the stork finds it easy to find food here. It also probably likes the cool spray as the spray heads are continually soaking it. I have not taken many photos of the bird recently as I do not want to disturb it too much, although it seems quite used to people now. These photos below were all taken on the same day when I got very close to the bird by hiding behind a row of trees.

A couple of good birds at Sabkhat Al Fasl – Bird records by Phil Roberts

Phil went birding to Sabkhat Al Fasl in the early morning of the weekend and saw a male Red-breasted Flycatcher. This is an unusual species for the Eastern Province but early October is the prime time for finding them. Unfortunately he wasn't able to get any photographs of the bird but had excellent views.  In addition he saw his first Greater Spotted Eagle of the autumn, plus 9 Western Marsh Harriers, 156 Grey Heron, 4 Western Great Egrets, 7 Daurian Shrikes, a juvenile Little Bittern and 3 Pied Wheatears. A Little Crake was also seen and photographed by Phil and he has kindly allowed me to use his photo below, the copyright of which remains Phil’s. It wasn't the greatest morning in terms of numbers of species and wader numbers were way down from previous weeks, but there were a few good birds around. Any day when you see Red-breasted Flycatcher and Little Crake rates as a good mornings birding for sure.

Little Crake

Pallid Harrier – Dhahran Hills

The small trickle of raptors continued on the ‘patch’ with a male Pallid Harrier and a Common Kestrel seen over the spray fields. The Harrier was initially seen flushing all the waders from the percolation pond and then flew around and went hunting over the spray fields. The Common Kestrel was also hunting over the spray fields but did not stay long before moving off. Raptors have been scarce this year but in the last week a number of birds have been seen including Marsh Harrier and Steppe Eagle. Other birds seen in the spray fields included five Western Cattle Egrets, three Spotted Flycatchers, several Yellow Wagtails, a juvenile Purple Heron and the first Stonechat of the year but it was seen briefly and sub-species was not ascertained.

Pallid Harrier

Common Kestrel

Western Cattle Egret

The wet ditch had very little but a single Common Redshank was a nice surprise as they are not too common here. Most waders were on the settling pond with three Temminck’s Stints, 20 Little Stints, three Wood sandpipers, 15 Ruff, five Black-winged Stilts, one Common Snipe and one Green Sandpiper. The scrubby desert area had a couple of Pied Wheatears, three Isabelline Wheatears and a Daurian Shrike.

Common Redshank

Daurian Shrike

Steppe Eagle a new 'patch' species - Dhahran Hills

The 'patch' turned up another new species for me this week when I saw a Steppe Eagle over the turf fields. I had seen a bird a couple of weeks before that was almost certainly a Steppe Eagle but it was just too far away to positively identify. The Steppe Eagle was seen whilst looking at the Western White Stork, which I had located in the dry turf field, the first time I had seen the bird anywhere else other than the football field. As I was walking to try to get some photos of the Stork I saw the eagle in flight but it was at too great a distance to identify. Luckily it flew a little closer to me and as it did it became apparent it was a Steppe Eagle a new species for me for the 'patch' taking my total number of species recorded there to 198. As the eagle approached it flushed the Western White Stork that flew around and over my head allowing a couple of flight photos and then joined the eagle circling around over the fields. The fields held a few migrants with plenty of Yellow Wagtails, seven Spotted Flycatcher and a European Bee-eater the best birds seen.

Steppe Eagle

Western White Stork

Western White Stork

Spotted Flycatcher

Pied Wheatears arriving in numbers – Dhahran Hills

A trip to the ‘patch’ produced the first real wave of Pied Wheatears of the autumn with more than ten birds seen around the scrubby desert area. There were females and first year males as well as a single adult male. Three Isabelline Wheatears were on the spray fields along with a juvenile Purple Heron. The only other bird of note was a Mauryan (Steppe) Grey Shrike at the edge of the dry percolation pond. The settling pond had a few birds with an increase in wader numbers. Thirteen Little Stints, seven Ruff, three Wood Sandpipers, three Common Snipe and a Temminck’s Stint were on the muddy edges and three Yellow Wagtails were on the concrete surround. A single Clamorous Reed Warbler was seen briefly in the small reed patch in one corner.

Pied Wheatear

Pied Wheatear

Purple Heron 

Mauryan Grey Shrike

Western Marsh Harriers returning for the winter – Sabkhat Al Fasl

An early morning trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl arriving at first light showed me that many Western Marsh Harriers had returned for the winter. At one point eight birds were in the air together and a minimum of twenty birds were seen during the day. As normal most birds were juveniles or adult females with only one adult male seen. A fine adult male Pallid Harrier was located hunting over the largest reed bed and two Western Ospreys were also around, one on the main flooded sabkha eating a fish and the other in flight by the concrete bunded area.

Western Marsh Harrier

Western Osprey

The weather was not very good with very strong northerly winds creating dust storms and as a result only a few migrant passerines were seen. This included three Spotted Flycatchers, my first returning male Common Redstart of the autumn and three Daurian Shrikes including a smart looking adult male. A single Greater Short-toed Lark, tens of Yellow Wagtails and several Barn Swallows made up the remaining migrants.

Barn Swallow

Yellow Wagtail

The wet areas, as always, held several Purple Swamphens and plenty of Common Moorhens with numerous Herons. Three Purple Herons were seen along with 50+ Grey Herons, 100+ Little Egrets and 25+Squacco Herons. Plenty of terns were enjoying the strong winds with Little Terns, Gull-billed Terns, Caspian Terns and White-winged Terns all present.  The only other birds of note were a few waders with 200+ Kentish Plovers, 50+ Little Stints, 50+ Black-winged Stilts, 30+ Dunlin, five Ruff, one Marsh Sandpiper and one Common Greenshank. The best bird of the day was a White-throated Kingfisher in almost the same place as I had seen one two months ago, unfortunately I again failed to get any photographs of the bird. Two Common Kingfishers were also in the same area as the White-throated Kingfisher.

Common Moorhen

Squacco Heron

Dunlin

Kentish Plover

Little Stint

Caspian Tern

The Turf fields – Dhahran Hills

As I had a little more time than usual to bird the camp, I went to a new area for me of the grass ‘turf’ spray fields and the cricket pitch. These areas are large grassy areas that are relatively undisturbed as they are through a security fence and check point. The fields were alive with birds with hundreds of Yellow Wagtails, House Sparrows, Laughing Doves and Eurasian Collard Doves. The spray heads had a couple of species of shrike on them with one being Daurian Shrike and the other a Mauryan (Steppe) Grey Shrike. A couple of Wheatears were also around with several Isabelline as well as Northern Wheatears feeding on the grass.

Yellow Wagtail

Large trees surround the whole area and some shrubs interspersed with some nice grass areas were also present with a few Eurasian Hoopoes and a single Spotted Flycatcher there. Two more Daurian Shrikes were also in this area. This whole area looks good for birding and I will be spending a lot more time looking at this area in the coming months.

Eurasian Hoopoe

A couple of Harriers – Dhahran Hills

A mornings birding yesterday produced a few good birds and as I left home later than normal due to having to see the girls off to school, the air temperature was higher. As a result there were a couple of Harriers in the air. The first one was a Pallid Harrier, that circled around and then flew off high over the base and the second was a Western Marsh Harrier that came down and hunted briefly over the settling pond. Whilst doing this it flushed all the waders on the pool. These included 15 Black-winged Stilts, six Common Snipe, six Ruff, six Little Stints, one Wood Sandpiper and one Green Sandpiper. Other good birds seen on the settling pond were my first returning White Wagtail and my first autumn passage Grey Wagtail. A Little Grebe and several Common Moorhen were also on the pond.

Pallid Harrier

Western Marsh Harrier

The spray fields were being sprayed and had a single Western Cattle Egret as well as an adult and juvenile Purple Heron. Ten plus Barn Swallows and Sand Martins were flying over and three Daurian Shrikes and a single Turkestan Shrike were sitting on the spray heads and shrubs. The total number of shrikes is slowly building up and should reach their peak in a couple of week’s time.

Purple Heron - juvenile

Purple Heron - juvenile

Western White Stork again - Dhahran Hills

The same Western White Stork as last month returned to the Dhahran Hills football field after going missing for over a week. Plumage wise the bird appears to be the same individual and as they are scarce in the Eastern Province it is also more likely to be the same bird. It allows close approach now as it is used to the runners and people playing on the playing fields and only flys when someone gets too close and then normally only up onto the floodlights where it stays a while and returns to the grass once it feels safe again. It is great to have such a good looking and scarce bird staying around the camp as it adds interest to the days birding.