Dark Grass Blue in Dhahran – Record by Vinu Mathew

Vinu Mathew took a few macro photographs of some Dark Grass Blue Zizeeria karsandra in Dhahran recently. Dark Grass Blue is a small butterfly found in the Southern Mediterranean, in a broad band to India, Sri Lanka, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea and northern and eastern Australia. It belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues family. As the common name suggests, this species is found in open grassy habitats but can occur anywhere where grasses occur. I thank Vinu for sending me the details and for giving mr permission to use them on my website.

Migrants and residents in Jeddah – Abdulraouf Banaja

I received a few e-mails and photos from Abdulraouf Banaja who has just started developing an interest in bird watching. He lives in Jeddah and was happy to have access to my website and was really surprised to see the varieties of birds that occur in the kingdom.  He mentioned It is definitely going to make his new hobby much more exciting than he thought first. It is great news more and more local people are getting interested in birds with Abdulraouf being one of many. He has seen a number of common migrnats such as Common Whitethroat and Blue-cheeked Bee-eater as well as some residents such as Nile Valley Sunbird and (Arabian) Green Bee-eater. I thank Abdulraouf for allowing me to use some of his photos on my website that are shown below.

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater 

Arabian Green Bee-eater

Nile Valley Sunbird

A few herons – Jubail

Whilst birding the Jubail area recently I saw a few interesting herons. Many Grey Herons and Western Great Egrets were flying around but also in amongst them was a single Purple Heron. Numbers of Squacco Heron are also increasing as winter arrives with many juvenile birds. Wader numbers are decreasing but the odd Greater Sand Plover can still be found amongst the commoner Little Stints and Kentish Plovers. Otherwise it is resident species that are making up the numbers with Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers being seen in good number as are Grey-headed Swamphens.

Western Great Egret

Purple Heron

Greater Sand Plover

Indian Reed Warbler

Grey-headed Swamphen

Western Cattle Egrets retuning to Jeddah – Bird record by Abdulraouf Banaja

Abdulraouf Banaja sent me some photos of a few Western Cattle Egrets in a roadside park in Jeddah. Western Cattle Egrets start building up in numbers at this time of year with birds seen feeding along the grass verges of roads and in parks. I thank Abdulraouf for allowing me to use his photos on my website some of which are shown below.

Breeding Rueppell’s Weaver in Southwest Saudi Arabia – Bird records by Jean-François Frey

Jean-François Frey sent me some e-mails and photos of birds he saw in southwest Saudi Arabia recently. He mentioned he is not equipped at all for the bird photography but was very lucky with the Rueppell’s Weavers as he has to stop because I receive a phone call whilst driving his car. After stopping he noticed the weavers only two meters away from him. He mentioned he had to hide nearby and observe and be ready when the bird was coming. This is a species that does not occur in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom where I do most of my birdwatching. In Saudi Arabia Rueppell’s Weaver is a common and widespread breeding resident species in the southwest of the Kingdom occurring north to south of Jeddah. Apparently it is only a summer breeding visitor to Hejaz and Asir mountains preferring to spend the winter at lower elevations and is not found on summits or in juniper and is less common here than in the lowlands. I thank Jean-François for allowing me to use his photos on my website.

Various species in Dammam – Records by Arnold Uy

Arnold Uy has sent me a number of photos recently from his birding in the Dammam area. He has kindly allowed me to reproduce them below. Common Whitethroat is a common passage migrant in the spring and autumn as is Pallid Swift. Pied Wheatears are less common although still common at this time of year.

Common Whitethroat

Pied Wheatear

Pied Wheatear

Pallid Swift

Pallid Swift

Ringing typical east coast wetland birds - Jubail

Nicole and I went ringing at Sabkhat Al Fasl 28 October and caught the typical wetland birds we normally catch with plenty of Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers and a few Common Kingfishers. We also caught a single Great Reed Warbler, two Caspian (European) Reed Warbler, several Graceful Prinias and two Little Bitterns. Other birds trapped included a Turkestan Shrike and the first Bluethroats of the autumn. It was quite hard work ringing in the high humidity but we ended up with 34 birds trapped and ringed in total so not too bad. Numbers decreased markedly around 10:00 hrs as normal so we left the site by 12:00 hrs.

Graceful Prinia

Graceful Prinia

Great Reed Warbler

Great Reed Warbler

Little Bittern

Common Kingfisher - male

Common Kingfisher - female

European (Caspian) Reed Warbler

European (Caspian) Reed Warbler

Turkestan Shrike

Turkestan Shrike

House Sparrow

White-throated Kingfisher in Jubail - Bird record by Arnold Uy

Whilst birding at Jubail 28 October Phil Roberts informed me he had seen a White-throated Kingfisher along one side of the reed beds. Later on the same day Mohammed Al-Ruqaya met me whilst I was ringing and showed me photos on his camera of a bird he and Arnold Uy had seen on the other side of the reserve. Arnold later sent me a couple of his excellent photos of the bird that are reproduced below with his kind permission. White-throated Kingfisher is a scarce bird in the Eastern Province with most records coming from Sabkhat Al Fasl but they have been seen as far south as Dhahran in previous years. Up until the end of the 1980’s there had only been two records from the Eastern Province, both from the Dhahran area but there have been more sighting since mainly from the Jubail to Al Khobar region although a northern record from Jebal Nayriyyah and a southerly record from Udhailiyyah have also occurred in the last two years. This is the first record I know of this winter from the Eastern Province.

Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers in moult – Jubail

Whilst ringing in Jubail we trapped and ringed a number of Indian Reed Warbler many of which were in moult as can be seen from the below photographs where tail and wing moult had either been completed or nearly so. Indian Reed Warbler occurs from north-east Sudan, north-west Somalia, Arabian Peninsula and from south central Kazakhstan south to southern Iraq and Iran and east to northern Indian sub-continent. Non breeding birds have been seen in peninsula India. Previously the status of this species at was thought to be a rare winter visitor at Sabkhat Al Fasl up until the early 1980’s but since this time its status has changed significantly and it is now a common breeding resident with additional small numbers of passage birds seen. They have a very loud song that combines harsh grating and chattering sounds with more melodic notes and squeaks and was more often heard than seen staying out of sight in the dense vegetation. Worldwide it has a large range that extends from Northeast Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, through South and Southeast Asia to the Philippines, New Guinea and Australia. The species appears to have colonised the area around 1999 with 16 singing paurs in 2003 when song peaked in February and March. Most populations remain fairly sedentary year-round although some local small scale movements occur between breeding sites and presumably close by wintering areas. This was shown by a bird ringed at Al Khor, Qatar (25deg 47min N 51deg 18min E) 22 November 2008 with ring number VR88323, being recovered alive at Alba Marsh, Bahrain (26deg 5min N 50deg 37min E) 18 May 2012 that moved 76 kilometres across the sea in a direction of 297 degrees (WNW). Another adult female breeding bird (B00693) ringed at Sabkhat Al Fasl, Saudi Arabia (27deg 07min N 49deg 51min E) on 29 May 2015 was found at Jahra Pools Reserve, Kuwait (29deg 21min N 47deg 41min E) 08 September 2015. This bird moved 311 kilometres in 103 days in a northwest direction of 324 degrees when it was photographed alive. Sabkhat Al Fasl is a favoured site for the species with large numbers of calling birds heard throughout the year although calls and songs are most often heard in the spring from January to May. The population density appears to be very high at the site with many birds trapped and ringed and only a small percentage of less than 25% of birds retrapped.

First returning Bluethroats – Jubail

The Red-spotted Bluethroat is an uncommon wintering species in Saudi Arabia with birds wintering at Sabkhat Al Fasl each year, where it is locally common. The first birds return to Sabkhat Al Fasl around the same time and appear to be females with ringing data suggesting they first return in mid-October. A week or so later males are also seen with females and numbers then build up throughout the winter with birds staying around until the end of March to early April. Ringing this year has shown the same pattern with both male and female birds trapped on 28 October 2016. We have retrap data showing that some birds use the same small area of Sabkhat Al Fasl each winter returning to exactly the same spot. It is not possible to tell it they are Red-spotted or White-spotted unless they are adult males. We have caught many Red-spotted Bluethroats but only two White-spotted, with White-spotted being a scarce passage migrant and winter visitor. Elsewhere in Saudi Arabia birds have been seen from August to May.