Steppe & Heuglin’s Gulls – Abqaiq Landfill

As the weather was still cold I went to Abqaiq Landfill again in the hope that something unusual may have turned up with all the gulls. Unfortunately this was not the case but the normal gulls were still present in large numbers. I went later in the day than the last two visits in the hope of seeing the birds on the ground and being able to photograph them. As soon as I got there I found a large group of Large White-headed Gulls (LWG) but they were in an area that was difficult to access. Eventually I found a route to where they were but they were very flighty and did not allow close approach. They did afford good flight views though as the sun was well up and the birds were flying overhead. I also managed to get ‘scope’ views of them on the ground. The breakdown of birds was 90% Steppe Gulls, 5% Caspian Gulls and 5% Heuglin’s Gulls. Total numbers were 1000+ LWG and 3000+ Common Black-headed Gulls with the only other bird of interest seen being a female Desert Wheatear.

Steppe Gull

Steppe Gull

Steppe Gull

Steppe Gull

Steppe Gull

Heuglin's Gull

Three species of Pipit – Dhahran Hills

The pipits are still present in good numbers around the edge of the settling pond in the early morning and late evening along with large numbers of White Wagtails. I have been spending a lot of time looking through them all in the hope of finding something different but so far have drawn a blank. I have been able to get a few decent photographs of the pipits though which are mainly Water Pipits with five Tawny Pipits and four Meadow Pipits. There are at least 100 White Wagtails as well, but agin nothing of note has been located amongst these birds either yet. There is still time and hope that this may change before the birds move off in the spring.

Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit

Tawny Pipit

Water Pipit

Western Cattle Egrets – Dhahran Hills

The number of Western Cattle Egrets around the camp seems to have stabilized for the winter around the 100 bird mark. Good views can be had of the birds as they feed along the roadside grass verges finding insects in the soft ground after the grass has been watered. Many people in the camp have mentioned to me about the Western Cattle Egrets here and they are a popular bird with the residents who are interested in nature. The birds spend the evening roosting in the pharagmites reed-beds of the percolation pond where they arrive just before dark and leave just after first light. Good numbers of birds were first seen in the early 2000’s and have increased to toady’s numbers slowly over the last ten years. Other good birds seen on the camp over the last few days have included five Eurasian Teal and five Gadwall on the Percolation pond, and several waders still on the settling pond including new birds in the shape of Common Ringed Plover and Common Snipe. Quite a few Large White-headed Gulls are still using the percolation pond to bath in in the early morning and late evening, most of which are Steppe Gulls.

Tufted Ducks a new Patch Tick – Dhahran Hills

Birding on 22nd January at the Patch was very rewarding with a group of 13 Tufted Ducks seen on the percolation pond. As I was arriving I saw a group of nine Tufted Duck fly in and land and when I got around to an area I could view there were 13 birds including three males. I had not seen Tufted Duck on the patch before so I was very happy, in fact it was a new bird for Saudi Arabia for me as well. They are scarce visitors to the region in the winter and Phil saw a couple last winter on the pond but I did not see them. Whilst looking at the Tufted Ducks through the telescope I also saw a male and a female Garganey  which is an unusual date to see them. They are very scarce in the winter in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Other duck included a female Eurasian Wigeon and seven Gadwalls. A small flock of 20+ Pallid Swift were over the pond in the late evening and a white morph Indian Reef Heron was a new bird for the year and the first one I have seen for some months on the pond. An adult Caspian Gull and four Adult Steppe Gulls flew over the pond. The settling pools had ten Black-winged Stilts, two Green Sandpipers, one Common Snipe and one Common Redshank.

Tufted Ducks

Steppe Gull - adult winter

Whilst walking around the Golf Course in Dhahran on Friday 18th January, I saw four Crested Honey Buzzards in the air together. One was a male, one female and two juveniles and at least one appeared to go to roost in the trees in the center of the Golf Course as it got dark. I have seen quite a few Crested Honey Buzzards in Dhahran since I have been here but never four together, so this was quite a sight a see. As I was out with the family I did not have my camera with me so was unable to get any photographs, but hopefully, the birds will stay about and allow photographs to be taken at a later date. 

Clamorous Reed Warblers – Alba Marsh

At the weekend we caught six Clamorous Reed Warblers all of which were re-traps. All birds had been ringed originally at the same site with two birds caught in winter 2011, the earliest one on 8th February 2011. This shows that birds are site faithful and that the Marsh is a suitable place for quite a few wintering/breeding pairs of birds. One thing we noticed was the eye colour on the older birds was orange compared to the dark brown of the younger birds (birds aged through re-trap data). This may be a good way of aging birds if it remains constant – we will keep a check on this to see if it is an age related occurrence or not.

Ringing at Alba Marsh (Bahrain)

Nicole and I went ringing again at Alba Marsh very early in the morning. This was our first ringing trip for a month as I was away for Christmas and we were interested to see what had changed. We got to the site before sunrise and set up all five of our nets. One in a new area across some water with tamarisk scrub nearby. This net caught three birds including Water Pipit, Clamorous Reed Warbler and Bluethroat and looks like a reasonable place to set the net. Although there was not too much bid activity we caught 13 birds of five species with the addition to the above of Common Chiffchaff and Common Kingfisher. Nine birds were re-traps including six Clamorous Reed Warblers (see tomorrow post for more details), two Bluethroats and one Common Kingfisher. The Common Kingfisher is obviously wintering in the area as it was originally caught 5th October 2012, as are the Bluethroats, one of which was caught almost a year to the day ago showing they use the same sites to winter year after year. The only other birds caught were a single Common Chiffchaff and two Water Pipits of the race coutelli

Common kingfisher - female

Common kingfisher - female

Common kingfisher - female

Red-spotted Bluethroat - male

Red-spotted Bluethroat - male

Red-spotted Bluethroat - male

Red-spotted Bluethroat - male

Bluethroat - female

Bluethroat - female

Water Pipit - A. s. coutelli

Water Pipit - A. s. coutelli

Bluethroat – Dhahran Hills

Although Bluethroat is not a common bird everywhere in the Eastern Province it occurs at many sites in good numbers if the habitat is correct and is a common passage migrant and winter visitor. They like reed beds and rank vegetation, mainly near water and generally occur from late August to early May. Birds seen in late August and early September as well as April and May are almost certainly passage birds. Most birds seen are of the Red-spotted variety although White-spotted birds also occur in very small numbers, with only adult males in full breeding plumage being safely assigned to race. Whilst birding the ‘patch’ the last few days good numbers of Bluethroats have been seen around the percolation pond and in the spray fields as the water levels are high. Excess water is being sprayed on the spray fields and small pools have formed outside the perimeter fence of the pond. This is ideal habitat for Bluethroat and good views can sometimes be obtained, with good photograph opportunities occasionally presenting themselves as was the case with the bird below, which allowed approach to a few of metres.

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