See-See Partridge - Sakaka

I went to Sakaka in late December and met up Phil Roberts who had driven from Dammam to Sakaka a couple of days before my arrival. Once I arrived we met up with Nader Fahd who is an experienced local birdwatcher and naturalist who lives there. Nader saw See-See Partridge in 2014 in the area and has seen it on occasions in the years that followed. We had looked, unsuccessfully, in the past for the species in this area as I was informed in 2017 by Euan Ferguson that he and three other UK birders who were working in Saudi Arabia on two wind-farm projects found See-see Partridge in a remote desert site a couple of hours drive from Sakaka in Al Jawf province. On 23 April 2017 Euan photographed what he assumed was a Sand Partridge in a wadi, but looking closer at the photo realised it had a black forehead and supercilium, so was a See-see Partridge Ammoperdix griseogularis. The bird was a calling male and was together with three other birds. The other birders who have worked on site had also seen several, although they again did not look closely and assumed they were Sand Partridge. Sand Partridge has not been recorded in the Al Jouf area of Saudi Arabia making See-see Partridge the only member of the partridge family to be found in the area so these birds would have been See-See Partridge as well. See-see Partridge has been seen in northern Saudi Arabia before in the 1990's but there have been few other more recent records although birds have been seen in Harrat al-Harrah and areas to the west of there. It is not clear if these birds were wanderers from their recognised breeding areas in Iraq or they have spread south into northern KSA. We visited again in the hope of locating See-See Partridge with the expert knowledge of Nader who met us near the location, the Qiyal area, at first light and drove us around the area in his four-wheel drive car. His expertise in driving over the rough terrain and his knowledge of where the birds had been seen gave us the best chance of seeing the species. We searched for a couple of hours looking at all the flat areas with sarse vegetation and the slopes going to the slightly higher areas of ground. We failed to see much but as we stopped to photograph Eastern Morning Wheatear, and I got out of the car to allow me better photographic opportunities of the Wheatear, I heard a partridge calling behind us. After alerting Phil and Nader, Nader spotted a male See-See Partridge on the stony ground near some newly sprouted greenery, caused by the recent rains. The bird was extremely well camouflaged and slowly moved closer to us even though we were out of the car. My efforts at photography were not too successful with almost all photos not sharp or completely out of focus but I did manage to get some shots. We got back in the car and tried to get closer to the bird but it was now aware of our presence and did not allow close approach. It was joined by a female and together they moved off towards the nearby hillside, where Nader and Phil found a third female/juvenile bird, but I failed to see it before it disappeared from view. We left the birds in peace once we could see we had at least some phots between us. It appears the best way to find the species is to listen out for its call and then try to locate it, which is not too easy unless they move due to their plumage matching closely the rock colour. The species is a rare breeding resident in the Al Jouf area of Saudi Arabia which is the only area of the Kingdom where it can be seen. I thank Nader for his time and excellent company during the day, and for showing us the area where the bird had been seen previously. Without his help, I suspect we would not have seen the species.

Birding Haradh

At the end of December, we visited Haradh in the hope of seeing some good birds on the pivot irrigation fields. This are used to have hundreds of green pivot fields but the government restriction on water usage has shut many of the fields down with only about ten fields being green and all growing either grass or wheat. The lack of suitable habitat for birds has caused a significant drop-in activity with very few birds seen. Desert and Isabelline Wheatear are still both common as is Crested Lark which is probably the commonest species of all. We saw seven harriers in a field in the late afternoon, four Pallid Harriers (immature and three adult males) but also a Montague’s Harrier and a male and female Western Marsh Harrier. The best birds seen were two Meadow Pipits, a Spur-winged Lapwing and a Greater Hoopoe-Lark. The area is not attractive to birds now and thus makes the long three hour journey each way not a good use of time and money anymore and I will be restricting my visits to the area in future.      

Sunrise - Haradh

Sunrise - Haradh

Western Marsh Harrier - male

White Wagtail

Crested Lark

Crested Lark

Crested Lark

Crested Lark

Desert Wheatear - male

Desert Wheatear - male

   

Flock of Hypocolius - Haradh

Recently I saw a flock of approximately 100 Hypocolius in Haradh in the same area where they have been present the last three years. They are quite a difficult species to see, as they occur in regions that are not so easy to access like Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia and are a short-distance migrant. Small numbers remain in western Iran throughout the year, but the majority migrate south and east to their main wintering areas in southern Iran, Pakistan, western India, west and central Saudi Arabia, and Arabian Gulf States (notably Bahrain). Departure from the breeding areas mainly occurs in August with birds arriving back in April. In Saudi Arabia as a whole, they are an uncommon, but may be a locally common, winter visitor to Eastern and Central Arabia, Northern Hejaz, Hejaz and Northern Red Sea. Flocks of over 100 birds have been recorded in Riyadh each winter and the last couple of winter flocks of several hundred birds have been seen in Uqair and Haradh. The birds we saw in Haradh at the end of December were feeding in an area of vegetation next to large pivot irrigation fields and returning to some large acacia bushes at the side of a track. The birds were, as always, quite noisy calling to each other but never settle long enough for good photos.

Grey Francolin – Salwa area

I recently visited the Salwa area in the hope I may be able to get better photographs of Grey Francolin. This is a scarce breeding resident in Saudi Arabia with the first known record at Safwa on 18 November 1991 since when records were reported locally from Dhahran to Jubail in coastal areas with one in coastal sand dunes at Jubail from at least 12 September to 16 October 2000 and another at Sabkha al-Fasl 19 January 2004. Range expansion was mapped and thought likely to occur to the north of Jubail and east of Dhahran by Jennings 2010, but records actually declined sharply as it apparently failed to establish a self-sustaining population with the only record known since 2004, a sighting 12 March 2019 just outside Berri Gas Plant, Jubail. A thriving population was found in spring 2021 near Salwa, close to the Qatar border and have been seen again on each of my visits to the area. The birds are very timid and generally stay under, or in, the trees where they are occasionally flushed or seen in flight and call loudly. This time Phil noticed a bird in a set of allotments at relatively close range allowing the below photos to be taken. The records from the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia were probably introduced, but possibly occurred as an overspill from birds introduced and established in Bahrain in 1981, where it is now common. The subspecies is Francolinus pondicerianus mecranensis known as Baluchistan Grey Francolin that occurs in arid south-eastern Iran and southern Pakistan. They are resident from eastern Arabia and Iran, throughout India to Sri Lanka where they occur near sea level in areas with trees, bushes and shrubs, including plantations, large parks, cultivated areas, or dry open woodland.

First for Saudi Arabia, Buff-bellied Pipit (Anthus rubescens japonicas) – Al Sikak Farms

Whilst birding the Al Sikak farms near Salwa in southeast Saudi Arabia Phil Roberts hear a Pipit fly over calling. He alerted me to the bird and then relocated it flying over calling again, a single tsip call – similar to me to a Meadow Pipit, before it landed and started feeding in the small allotment type fields. I could see immediately it had very bold streaking with a thick malar stripe. It also had a large white, unbroken eye-ring, bold supercilium, bold breast streaking, strong wing-bars and plain greyish mantle. Most of these features can be seen on the photographs of the bird, although I only managed to get one in focus shot before it flew off and could not be relocated. I suggested to Phil that the bird could be a Buff-bellied Pipit so we tried for some time to relocate the bird. There were very few birds about of any species, but all we could see was a single Water Pipit. We came back again later in the day but again were not able to relocate the bird. Luckily both Phil and I managed to get photos, although not many, and I sent them to Yoav Perlman who has seen the japonicas sub-species in the field in Israel, and confirmed its identification as a Buff-bellied Pipit. This is the first record of Buff-bellied Pipit for Saudi Arabia, but a not unexpected addition as they probably winter in Israel and have occurred elsewhere in the Middle East (see below). The subspecies is sometimes called Siberian Pipit (Anthus (rubescens) japonicas) treated as a separate species from American Buff-bellied Pipit (Anthus rubescens rubescens), as it breeds in eastern Asia and is significantly different in terms of plumage characteristics from the latter which breed entirely within North America and western Greenland.

Buff-bellied Pipit (A. r. japonicas), breeds in central & western Siberia from Tunguska to Kamchatka and south to northern Sakhalin & the Kurile Islands. They winter in eastern & southern China, Honk Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, northern India, northern Myanmar & northern Vietnam with birds being recorded regularly in Israel. Vagrant birds have been seen in Italy and regularly in the Middle East (mainly Israel) during migration and winter. The species status in the Middle East is listed here:

Oman:  Vagrant - 8 records

UAE:  Rare but regular winter visitor, sometimes in small groups, mainly from Dubai northwards with the first record: One Ruwais 26-27 December 1996.

Qatar:  Vagrant - Six (at least) Al Shamal Park 25 December 2014 to 6 February 2015.

Saudi Arabia:  Vagrant - One record Al Sikak farms, near Salwa 23 December 2022.

Bahrain:  Vagrant - One record trapped and ringed, Alba Marsh 20 January 2012 (https://www.birdsofsaudiarabia.com/2012/01/first-for-bahrain-siberian-buff-bellied.html)

Kuwait:  Rare winter visitor with highest count three 21 February 2009 at Sulaibiya pivot fields.

Israel:  Rare passage migrant and winter visitor to eastern parts of the country, very rare elsewhere. Arrives during late October and departs in March or early April.

Arabian Red Fox – Dhahran Hills

When out walking in the rough scrubby area near to Dhahran Hills Lake I came across an Arabian Red Fox running across the rough ground at some distance from me. I managed to take one distant photo before it disappeared from view. As the photograph was taken in December the fox is in its winter coat that is thicker than the one it has in the summer months. The Red Fox is currently recognized as a single species and has the widest natural distribution of any terrestrial carnivore, possibly any terrestrial mammal. Its range spans approximately 70 million square kilometres encompassing much of Europe, Asia and North America and extending into North Africa, with an introduced population in Australia. The Arabian Red fox has very large ears for its size and is very thin and sandy coloured compared to the European Red Fox, and look very different.

Gulls – Dhahran

The Dhahran Hills Lake has had a number of different species of gull on it over the last few weeks. A large group of thirty plus Black-headed Gulls is always present flying around and occasionally sitting on the water. They are sometimes joined by one or two large white-headed gulls which seem to be mainly Steppe Gulls with the occasional Heuglin’s Gull. These birds do not stop very often and mainly just fly over, being attracted by the Black-headed Gull flock but when they find there is little of interest for them they fly off again. They very rarely settle on the water and are normally only seen first thing in the morning and last thing at night going to and from their roosting area.

Steppe Gull

Steppe Gull

Steppe Gull

Common Black-headed Gull

Common Black-headed Gull

Desert White – Dhahran

Whilst birding Dhahran in late December I came across a Desert White Butterfly Pontia glauconome, which is a striking white butterfly of arid regions occurring in deserts and on mountain slopes and foothills with sparse vegetation, up to around 2000 metres above sea level. The Desert White is a widespread species, ranging from North Africa through Arabia and the Middle East to Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is a small white butterfly (10-15mm) whose antennae are clubbed, ending in a white tip. The inside of the forewings are black tip with white dots. Underside of both wings has characteristic yellow veins, with light brown colour pattern and they have large round compound eyes with black dots. It is relatively common from early March to early December in a multitude of overlapping broods that differ from area to area depending on the rains. The Desert White is variable especially with regard to the amount of ‘green’ pigmentation on the underside that can be very heavy to almost absent. This variability can be large and can even occur between generations. 

Wetland birds Dhahran Hills Lake – Dhahran

Whilst birding Dhahran Hills Lake in late December I saw a few good typical wetland birds. A singing Caspian Reed Warbler was in full song on the edge of the lake in the reedbeds and Delicate Prinias were also singing and making claim to their territories on the lake edge. A tree on the lakeside was full of Cattle Egret and much more unusually two Glossy Ibis. It also had a good number of Great Cormorant. Most of the birds flew as soon as the sun got up, presumably to feed elsewhere. On the lake itself was a single Eurasian Coot and a rather fine plumaged Great Crested Grebe, with 33 Little Grebes. Herons were around in good numbers including eleven Grey Heron, two Great Egret, three Squacco Heron and two Little Egrets. Two Gull-billed Tern were also feeding over the lake and a single Western Marsh Harrier was also present causing the birds to move around as it flew over. 

Eurasian Coot

Great Cormorant

Great Crested Grebe

Western Great Egret

Gull-billed Tern

Gull-billed Tern

Gull-billed Tern

Gull-billed Tern

Gull-billed Tern

Little Egret