Winter Birds in Deffi Park - Jubail

During the winter there were up to five Crested Honey Buzzards in Deffi Park. This location is becoming a regular wintering site for the birds but they often move off just after first light and have been seen sitting on street lights on the roads close by. Other regular wintering birds not seen commonly elsewhere in the Eastern Province include Lesser Whitethroat, Song Thrush and Masked Shrike. Common birds such as Indian Myna, House Sparrow and White-cheeked Bulbul make up the majority of bird sightings in the park but it is always a good place to look for the unusual winter birds and some scarities such as Black-throated Thrush.

Crested Honey Buzzard

Crested Honey Buzzard

Lesser Whitethroat

Song Thrush

Fulvescens Greater Spotted Eagle - Jubail

During the winter there was a slightly unusual coloured Greater Spotted Eagle in the Jubail area. It was not the normal dark chocolate colour I associate with these birds but a much more warmer colour. I have never seen the bird close but managed the below photos on one day of its stay that amounted to several weeks. They are not great but show how the bird looked like in the field at least. Yoav Perlman very kindly pointed out this bird looked odd and similar to a Lesser Spotted Eagle due to its small head and bill and pale underwing coverts that are paler than the remiges. I sent the photos to Dick Forsman who said he thought the bird was a fulvescens Greater Spotted Eagle although could not rule out Lesser Spotted Eagle genes being involved in the bird.

Grey-headed Swamphen - Jubail

Whilst birding the Jubail area recently I saw some close up Grey-headed Swamphen. The Grey-headed Swamphen is a common resident breeder at Sabkhat Al Fasl, Jubail and can now be seen breeding at nearby Khafrah Marsh a wetland site 30 kilometres south-west of Sabkhat as well as much more distant Lake Al Asfar in Al Hassa and Dammam indicating they are extending their range in the Eastern Province. The species favoured habitat is large Phragmites australis reed-beds with associated water which is available at all the sites the species has been seen at in Saudi Arabia. 

Black-throated Thrush – Jubail

Phil Roberts and I went to Deffi Park in late November as the weather had turned cold and there was snow in northern Saudi Arabia. We wanted to see if we could find any displaced birds and we were hoping the cold weather may have moved birds south. Deffi Park is a large urban park in Jubail and holds goods birds most winters. We found four Black-throated Thrush Turdus atrogularis, an adult male and three first year males at this site 20 January 2017, the first record for the Eastern Province since the 1980’s, increasing to 12, two adult males, two adult females and eight first year males 27 January 2017 remaining until 10 February 2017. We looked around the areas under the trees where we had seen the birds previously but saw little sign of anything and no thrushes. We then found a Song Thrush that flew and landed in the top of a tree and when it dropped down to the ground it was joined by and adult male Black-throated Thrush. The bird was disturbed by a worker, so the only photos taken were the poor ones shown below and we went looking to see if we could refind it. Whilst looking a small group of eight birds, four Song Thrush and four Black-throated Thrush flew over with one adult male and three female birds. Bundy mentioned in his book Birds of the Eastern Province "Usually a scarce winter visitor from November to March, but numbers vary from year to year and in some winters it is not recorded at all.  In years when numbers are good, such as 1982-3, birds have been noted at oases and cultivated areas from the coast to Haradh and Hanidh. Single birds in Dhahran in April and May were possibly migrants". It is now a rare winter visitor. 

Wetland birds – Jubail

Whilst birding Jubail recently I came a cross a good selection of wetland birds. Waders were quite numerous with good numbers of Dunlin, Little Stint, Marsh Sandpiper, Ruff and Wood Sandpiper. Common Greenshank, Grey Plover and Little Stints were about in smaller numbers. The resident Grey-headed Swamphen was enjoying the large amounts of wet areas and where seen I a few places where they are seldom seen, as the water levels were very high inundating previously dry areas. Egrets were also around in varying numbers with Western Cattle Egret and Western Great Egret in small numbers and Little Egret in much larger numbers.

Common Greenshank 

Grey Plover

Grey Plover 

Little Stint

Dunlin

Little Egret

Marsh Sandpiper 

Ruff

Western Cattle Egret

Wood Sandpiper

Greater Spotted Eagle – Jubail

I have seen at least seventeen Greater Spotted Eagles Clanga clanga this winter in the Jubail area. Birds winter at a number of sites in Saudi Arabia with the Jubail area the best for the species in the Eastern province. In winter, birds are almost always near wetland areas with large areas of reeds where they can hunt undisturbed. Another good wetland site is the large wetland area of Al Asfar Lake near Al Hassa. We recently found a few birds at Landfill/dump sites near Shaqra where no free-standing water is present. They occupy a fragmented range, breeding mainly in Estonia, Poland, Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, mainland China and Mongolia. Passage or wintering birds occur in small numbers over a vast area, including central and eastern Europe, North Africa, East Africa, the Middle East, the Arabian peninsula, the Indian Subcontinent, south Asia and South-East Asia. The Greater Spotted Eagle is suspected to have undergone at least a moderately rapid decline over the last three generations as a result of habitat loss and degradation throughout its breeding and wintering ranges, together with the effects of disturbance, persecution and competition with other predators. The species is listed on the Red Data list as Vulnerable as the species is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future.

Three Crested Honey Buzzard – Jubail

Whilst birding Deffi Park in late November Phil Robert and I came across three different Crested Honey Buzzards. The birds appeared to be an adult female, adult male and first calendar year so there is a possibility they bred nearby but no proof and may be here for the winter only. Crested Honey Buzzard in Saudi Arabia is a scarce passage migrant and winter visitor that also occurs rarely in summer. Most records are from the Eastern province in winter and spring with additional records in the west of the country in autumn, winter and spring. The first confirmed record of CHB for Saudi Arabia was in Asir province 11 October 1994, with another bird 5–10 km south on the same day. There has been a dramatic increase in sightings of this species and whilst speculative, one reason maybe the recent availability of suitable habitat. Most records in the Arabian peninsula are from anthropogenic sites with extensive shade such as farmed areas, suburban parks, golf courses and plantations of mature watered trees (mainly ghaf Prosopis cinerea, but tall gum Eucalyptus plantations are also utilised). Deffi Park is a landscaped park in Jubail with a large number of mature trees. All three birds were using the trees and only flew when disturbed by walkers getting too close. The birds appeared to be fairly used to humans and did not move until walkers were very close. Three Crested Honey Buzzards are the largest number seen in this park but six birds have been recorded in Dhahran in previous winters about 125 kms distant from Jubail.

Annular Solar Eclipse - Dhahran

A partial Solar eclipse began in Dhahran on 26 December 2019 at 06:25 and reached its maximum at 06:36 where it reached a magnitude of 0.94. It ended at 07:49 and had a total duration of 1 hour, 24 minutes. This was an annular eclipse – one where the Sun bleeds around the edges of the Moon. As the sun was just rising it was not too bright and allowed a few photos to be taken with my 600mm lens. I went to the top of some jebals in the main Saudi Aramco camp with my daughter Julianna to see the sun rising and it was a great experience. I tried to see the last total eclipse of the Sun in the UK, in Plymouth on 11 August 1999 but unfortunately it was cloudy an no sun could be seen. This eclipse partly made up for the disappointment of not seeing the total eclipse in 1999.

Pharaoh Eagle Owl - Dhahran

The Pharaoh Eagle Owl that was present in Dhahran Hills disappeared for some time as it favoured trees for resting out of the sun were trimmed back. The bird obviously did not move far as after a week or so later I saw it again under a large tree and again perched on the wire fence. These large owls are always a joy to see and never really appear to be too intimidated by humans.