Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers – Al Khobar

Whilst birding the Al Khobar area in late February I came across a few Greater Sand Plovers feeding on the coast. The birds were on the water’s edge against the sun, but luckily I later found them, or others, with some Lesser Sand Plovers, in the sandy area behind the beach where the light was in a better position for photography. Greater Sand Plover is a common species on passage, with small numbers staying throughout the winter, but it is difficult to get close to them as they are normally out on the tide line or in the flooded sabkha. The Lesser Sand Plover is a common passage migrant, uncommon winter visitor and rare summer visitor that are found along the coast from August to May. I managed to get quite close on this occasion and took a few photos of both species shown below.

Greater Sand Plover

Greater Sand Plover

Lesser Sand Plover

Blue Pansy - Salwa

Whilst birdwatching the Salwa area, near the Qatar border, I came across a Blue Pansy Butterfly Junonia orithya which is native to Africa as well as parts of Asia and Australia and is also called the Eyed Pansy in Africa and in Australia the Blue Argus. Butterflies belonging to the family Nymphalidae are few in number in Saudi Arabia although are quite conspicuous. They include Blue Pansy that is a migratory butterfly and they appear sporadically, produce one or more local broods of offspring, and then disappear again until their next invasion. Their success in establishing themselves temporarily within the region depends very much upon their powers of adaptation and choice of larval food-plants. The adults occur in open areas, often sitting on bare ground. This species has a stiff flap and glide style of flight and maintains a territory, driving away other butterflies that enter it. The upperside of the forewing for the male is black to dark brown with a whitish sub-apical band, two orange and two blue bars in the cell, and two post-discal eye-spots. The hindwing of the male is brilliant blue with orange post-discal eye-spots. The female is similarly marked but with a much duller hue. Underneath, both sexes are grayish brown with cryptic orange/brown markings and have eye-spots similarly placed as on the upperside.

Great Black-headed Gulls & more – Al Asfar Lake

Whilst birding Al Asfar Lake near Al Hassa on 25 February we found three Great Black-headed Gulls on a wetland area. Two were adults in full summer plumage with the third bird an immature. The Great Black-headed Gull is an uncommon winter visitor to the Arabian Gulf and southern Red Sea coastal areas that is also rarely seen inland including at wetland sites like Dhahran and Al Asfar Lake. The first birds are normally not seen until December or January, with March probably the best time to see the species. A few migrants were located including Greater Short-toed Larks and Turkestan Shrike, but most birds were still wintering species including Great Grey and Durian Shrikes, Caspian Stonechat, Greater Spotted Eagle and 40+ Western Marsh Harrier. A Spur-winged Plover was present and plenty of Pallid Swifts were flying around the area. A large number of Graceful Prinia hufufae were singing and showing well.

Great Black-headed Gulls

Great Black-headed Gull

Graceful Prinia

Caspian Stonechat

Daurian Shrike

Blue Rock-Thrush - Jubail

Whilst birdwatching Jubail in late February I came across a single male Blue Rock Thrush located next to a workers camp on the side of a road. This species is an uncommon passage migrant and winter visitor throughout Saudi Arabia mainly between March and May and again September to October. It is also a widespread but scarce winter visitor between October and March occurring throughout the kingdom except the sand seas and northern plains although it is generally not seen on the coast, with most birds moving well inland before settling as this bird did. This record is quite early as they are not normally seen until March and was seen on the ground as well as perched on the compound surround and buildings. I see this species every year but only in very small numbers, mainly on passage with my sightings more common in spring than autumn.

Bonelli’s Eagle – Al Asfar Lake

Whilst birding Al Asfar Lake near Al Hassa on 25 February we saw a juvenile Bonelli’s Eagle Hieraaetus fasciatus perched on a power line pylon. It was early morning and the light was in the wrong direction, so the photos were not so good – see below. Bonelli’s Eagle is a rare migrant to all areas of the Kingdom and is possibly a winter visitor to Tihamah, Hejaz and Asir. Records from the Eastern province are as a vagrant with the only records being a first year at Dhahran 2-9 January 1981, one Dhahran 4-27 February 1981, one captured exhausted 20 kilometres south of Safaniya 14 July 1984, one at Qatif 11 December 1991, a juvenile in flight at Jabal Nariyyah 25 January 2007 and a juvenile Sabhka al-Fasl 10 December 2015 and a juvenile in flight Dhahran 11 March 2017

Snake-tailed Fringe-toed Lizard – Salwa

Whilst birdwatching the Salwa area, near the Qatar border I came across a number of Snake-tailed Fringe-toed Lizard Acanthodactylus opheodurus. The lizards were very active even during the hottest part of the day and where always found near small low-lying plants with hard sandy soil. It is superficially similar to its larger congener Acanthodactylus boskianus, and was described officially in 1980. As its name suggests, this species has a particularly long tail and, in common with other Acanthodactylus species, the toes are fringed with scales adapted for running over loose sand. Like other lacertids, the body is long and cylindrical, and the legs are well developed, with the animal having a basic body colour of grey, with seven dark stripes running down the back and sides and a tail tinged red in immatures. They live in a range of arid habitats, including plains with relatively hard sand cover and low hills covered by dense bushes. It is a diurnal lizard and lives in burrows excavated out of hard sand where it remains concealed for all but a few hours of the day. Their burrows not only act as a shelter from predators but also provide refuge from extreme temperatures. The snake-tailed fringe-toed lizard is currently known from the Arabian Peninsula and several other countries in the Middle East, including Jordan, Kuwait and Iraq.

Waders – Al Khobar

Whilst birding on a beach in Al Khobar we came across a few waders. On scanning the few waders that were present we noticed a few Sanderling amongst the Dunlin and Kentish Plover. This is an uncommon passage migrant and uncommon winter visitor to Saudi Arabia and bird I don’t see so often, although I had seen quite recently at Al Uqayr. We managed to get reasonably close bit the poor light made the photos not so good. A single confiding Dunlin resting on the sand allowed close photos, however.

Dunlin

Kentish Plover

Sanderling

Sanderling

Great Crested Grebes – Al Khobar

Whilst birdwatching Al Khobar on 22 February I came across at least ten Great Crested Grebes. The species is not an easy bird to see in Saudi Arabia with the Eastern Province the best area to see them. Several lakes are good for the species including the one at the end of Abu Ali Island and Khafra Marsh. The percolation pond in Dhahran was also a regular place to see them. These birds were on a protected bay area of the Arabian Gulf and were scattered over a large area. Six birds were seen together, and six Black-necked Grebes were also located in the same bay. This is the largest gathering of Great Crested Grebes I have seen in the Kingdom.

Eurasian Spoonbills – Abu Ali Island

Whilst I was birding the large lake at the end of Abu Ali Island we found four Eurasian Spoonbills, three adults and an immature bird. The birds were quite timid and flew after a couple of minutes. The status of Eurasian Spoonbill has changed over the years in the Eastern Province, with it being regarded as a rare and irregular visitor usually involving immature birds until the end of the 1980’s. Today it is an uncommon visitor in all months to the province. In Central Saudi Arabia the status of the species has also changed with the List of Birds of Saudi Arabia (Jennings 1981) saying there were no inland records for the country. By the mid 1980’s the Birds of the Riyadh Region (Stagg 1994) stated that prior to 1987 the Spoonbill was a rare autumn visitor. Since then, it made frequent appearances along the Riyadh watercourse and became a spasmodic spring and autumn passage migrant and a regular winter visitor in growing numbers. In the late 1990’s the species was not recorded at all by the local birders and is still regarded as a scarce bird in the area. The main stronghold for the species in Saudi Arabia is the Red Sea where it is a common resident breeder. Largest numbers are seen in the southwest near Jizan but birds have been recorded all along the coast to north to Yanbu. Jubail is the best location to see the species in the Eastern Province, but it is far from guaranteed here being only see on a few days per year.

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Black-marked Orange Tip – Dhahran Al Janub

Whilst birding a roadside wadi near Haddadah, close to Dhahran Al Janub near the Yemen border I saw a number of the nominate subspecies of Black-marked Orange Tip Colotis daira daira which occurs in south-western Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Oman and is considered endemic to the southwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula. The other subspecies are distributed in the northern dry zone of sub-Saharan Africa and in the Horn of Africa to Northern Kenya. The Black-marked orange tip, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. The habitat they prefer consists of dry savanna type vegetation where both sexes are attracted to flowers and the larvae feed on Capparis and Cadaba species.