Sabkhat Al Fasl

An early morning trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl to get there for first light on Thursday produced a number of good birds. As we approaching the site Phil said to me that he often saw Greater Spotted Eagle perched on the telegraph poles in the winter here. No sooner had he said this that I saw an eagle on one of the posts and as we approached it turned out to be a juvenile Greater Spotted Eagle. I got a couple of record shots of it but the light was poor so I have not posted them here. This was a good start to the day. Shooting was much less today which also helped although there were quite a few dead birds around including Grey and Purple Heron. Warblers were in evidence today with the first Sedge Warblers of the autumn (at least two), 10+ Clamorous Reed Warbler and four Caspian Reed Warbler. A couple of Bluethroat were seen creeping around the bottom of the reed beds and hundreds of Yellow Wagtail where present. A Daurian Shrike was hunting from the top of the reed stems, a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater was sitting on a dead tree and Barn Swallow and Sand Martin were flying over the reed beds hunting for insects. Three White-winged Tern, eight Caspian Tern and 15 Slender-billed Gull were seen. As already posted two Pintail Snipe, one Common Snipe were seen along with a number of waders including one Broad-billed Sandpiper, one Wood Sandpiper, 10 Common Ringed Plover, 13 Pied Avocet, two Common Greenshank, four Common Redshank and a few Little Stint and Kentish Plover. A group of 13 Grey Heron flew over and about 10 Greater Flamingo where on one of the large pools.

 Broad-billed Sandpiper

 Wood Sandpiper

 Bluethroat

 Clamorous Reed Warbler

 Sedge Warbler

Yellow Wagtail

Bahrain - Ringing at Alba Marshes

I went over to Bahrain in the afternoon yesterday with Nicole to go ringing with Brendan, but unfortunately the wind was quite strong and not promising for ringing. Brendan said we should set up three nets to give us practice setting up things and hope to catch something. We only managed to catch two Graceful Prinia, one of which was ringed in the same place two weeks ago by Nicole.

Pin-tailed Snipe - Sabkhat Al Fasl

Yesterday at Sabkhat Al Fasl Phil Roberts and I saw two Pin-tailed Snipe feeding at the edge of the lagoon area in the dry grass. Extremely good views were obtained and good photographs were taken to prove the identification. Pin-tailed Snipe is a vagrant to Saudi Arabia with only seven records in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia until October 1989 and no known records since this date.
Oman - Fairly common migrant and winter visitor
Kuwait - No records
Qatar - No records
UAE - Uncommon to fairly common migrant and winter visitor (mainly September to April)
Bahrain - Fairly common migrant and winter visitor

More Crab Plovers - Dammam - Al Khobar Wader Roost South

Last night after work I went to the Dammam - Al Khobar Wader Roost South as the tide was high. When I arrived the tide was already well up and only birds with long legs were still on the main roost such as Greater Flamingo, Eurasian Curlew, Black-winged Stilt, Grey Heron and Indian Reef Heron. Thousands of waders had been pushed up onto the waste land behind the wader roost and were all resting in amongst the sparse vegetation on the sand. There were 20 Crab Plover on the waste land also but they were very flighty and did not allow close approach. This is the largest group I have seen here, but Phil Roberts had 25 together in the same place on Friday 9th September. A Caspian Tern fishing in the sea was the only other bird of note seen.

 Black-winged Stilt (adult)

  Black-winged Stilt (juvenile)

Caspian Tern

Lesser Sand Plover - 600+
Greater Sand Plover - 500+
Grey Plover - 38
Bar-tailed Godwit - 7
Dunlin - 200+
Kentish Plover - 600+
Ruddy Tirnstone - 100+
Eurasin Curlew - 34
Terek Sandpiper - 29
Crab Plover - 20
Black-winged Stilt - 13

Escaped Budgerigar - Dhahran Hills

The Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus), informally nicknamed the budgie, is a small, long-tailed, seed-eating parrot, and the only species in the Australian genus Melopsittacus. Wild budgerigars are found throughout the drier parts of Australia, where the species has survived harsh inland conditions for the last five million years. Naturally green and yellow with black, scalloped markings on the nape, back and wings such as this one seen at Dhahran Hills spray fields where it has been for some months associating with the House Sparrow flock. Conditions are ideal in Dhahran for the species to start breeding here at sometime assuming enough escape from captivity.

Full Moon - Dhahran Hills

I arrived late last night at the 'patch' due to family commitments but still managed to get down there for the last hour of light. Evenings are drawing in now and soon it is going to be difficult to bird after work, but hopefully another month or so before this happens. Even though I arrived late and only had time to look at the percolation pond but I still saw a few good birds including a new very well marked first year Citrine Wagtail. It was loosely associating with the Yellow Wagtails of which the total count came to 51 birds coming to roost in the reed-bed. A single Spotted Flycatcher was on the dried up edge of the pond. The slightly oiled Little Egret was still present with the grey phase Indian Reef Heron and there was a heavily oiled Purple Heron hiding in the reeds that made us wonder for a while until it came out into the open. Eight Eurasian Teal and a single Garganey were in the middle of the pond and waders included a Black-tailed Godwit, two Wood Sandpiper, two Marsh Sandpiper, four Common Ringed Plover, eight Ruff, 20+ Little Stint and a Water Rail that showed well briefly at the edge of the reeds. My late arrival meant no photographic opportunities presented themselves today so I have included a picture of last nights Full Moon for you to have a look at.

Black-crowned Night Heron - Dhahran Hills

Last night at the percolation pond I saw a new species for me in the shape of a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron. It was feeding in the open and then retreated into the reed bed for more cover. Other birds on the pond were two Gull-billed Tern, three Cattle Egret, one Little Egret, one grey phase Indian Reef Heron, one Purple Heron, four Garganey, seven Eurasian Teal, 13 Yellow Wagtail, four Common Snipe, eight Wood Sandpiper, three Common Ringed Plover, six Little Ringed Plover, 27 Black-winged Stilt, 21 Little Stint, 32 Kentish Plover, two Ruff and more than 30 Sand Martin. The spray fields did not have a bird of note but a small grassy area on the way there had two Yellow Wagtail and a Common Whitethroat.

 Common Whitethroat

 Common Whitethroat

 Yellow Wagtail (flava)

 Yellow Wagtail (flava)

 Spotted Flycatcher

 Spotted Flycatcher

Purple Heron

Bahrain - Greater Spotted Eagle at Tubli Bay Mangrove

A couple of hours birding before we started ringing at Alba Marshes with Brendan turned up a juvenile Spotted Eagle sitting in the mangrove trees with quite a number of Indian Reef Heron. The bird was quite distant and not very active but I managed to get a poor shot showing some of the features at least. This is a very early record for Greater Spotted Eagle in the Middle East of what appears to be this years bird? They occupy a fragmanted range, breeding from Finland through Russis, Kazakhstan to mainland China with a maximum global population estimated at only 13200 individuals. Satellite tracked birds from the Middle East breed in Kazakhstan and often winter in the Middle East but the only September record from the entire region was 29th September 2006 in the United Arab Emirates (Tommy Pedersen) and this appears to be the first September record from Bahrain and is a very early one at that. The habitat type is ideal for the species as they like wetland areas with trees. This is also the first record of Greater Spotted Eagle since 11/2/2010 in Bahrain according to Brendan and Howard King who are active Bahrain birders.

Greater Spotted Eagle (juvenile)

Other birds seen in Bahrain whilst birding included Southern Grey Shrike, Red-backed Shrike, many 'Flava' Wagtails, good numbers of common waders, Steepe Gull, eight Black-crowned Night Heron, seven Caspian Tern and a Marsh Harrier and Common Kingfisher at Alba Marshes. The photograph of the bottom gull shown here could be an Armenian Gull Larus armenicus as the mantle colour may be too dark for Steppe Gull Larus babarensis and the bill seems very stout, and the head rather rounded. The bill may, however be foreshortened as the bill is facing slightly towards the observer and it is likely to be just a Steppe Gull. I appreciate the help of Yoav Perlman and AbdulRahman Al-Sirhan with help in the identification of this bird.

 Caspian Tern

Common Kingfisher

Kentish Plover

 Steppe Gull

 Steppe Gull

Steppe Gull

Spotted Flycatchers are back - Dhahran Hills

There were a few new birds on the 'patch' today with three Spotted Flycatcher and a Common Whitethroat in the trees and on the fence surrounding the percolation pond and a flock of over 30 European Bee-eater catching insects overhead. The spray field had only a single Steppe Grey Shrike and the percolation pond had 13 Eurasian Teal, two Garganey, one Little Egret, three Grey Heron, three Cattle Egret, two Yellow Wagtail and a few waders. Waders included two Black-tailed Godwit, three Common Ringed Plover, 20+ Kentish Plover, 11 Little Stint, seven Ruff, two Marsh Sandpiper, three Wood Sandpiper, six Green Sandpiper and 10 Common Redshank.

 Spotted Flycatcher

Black-tailed Godwit

Bahrain - Ringing at Alba Marshes

Yesterday I went ringing at Alba Marshes again with Brendan. It was quite windy and conditions were not good for catching birds but we put up two nets anyway for practice for me. Abdulla caught a couple of birds I had not ringed before and he very kindly let me ring them. One was a Common Whitethroat and the other a Common Chiffchaff. The Chiffchaff was a juvenile in very fresh plumage and appeared very yellow with pale legs. This bird if I had seen it in the field I would have been confident was a Willow Warbler but on wing measurements it was a Chiffchaff - another reminder that birding is full of surprises. We managed to catch two (Caspian) Reed Warbler and a Graceful Prinia.

Ringing Totals today:-
Common Whitethroat - 1
Common Chiffchaff - 1
(Caspian) Reed Warbler - 2 Graceful Prinia - 1

 Common Whitethroat (juvenile)

 Common Whitethroat (juvenile)

Common Whitethroat (juvenile)

Ringing Team (Left to right - Jem, Abdulla, Mubarak & Brendan)

Thanks to Howard King for allowing me to use his photograph (above) of us ringing at Alba Marshes.