Two large herons – Dhahran Hills golf course

The small pond on the edge of Dhahran Hills golf course has been attracting some good birds in the last month. The water level has dropped considerably at the pond but two large herons were seen flying over and perched in the nearby trees yesterday. The most interesting was a Western Great Egret a species recorded only occasionally on the patch. The species is a regular winter visitor to coastal areas south to Dammam mainly from September to March and occasionally in late May. The largest counts of the species have come in recent years from Sabkhat Al Fasl where up to 150 birds have been seen together. The other species was a Grey Heron a more common visitor but again not common. Birds have been seen by several people on the camp, in the desert area by the side of the golf course so this bird is presumably the same one. Despite a good search of the pond and nearby trees the only other interesting birds seen were a few fly over Pallid Swifts, a single Little Egret, several Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers, a male Turkestan Shrike and a Common Whitethroat.

Western Great Egret

Western Great Egret

Western Great Egret

Western Great Egret

Western Great Egret

Grey Heron 

Grey Heron

Grey Heron

A couple of migrants at Udhailiyah – Bird records by Nishan Xavier

Nishan who is a birdwatcher and photographer from Saudi Aramco’s compound at Udhailiyah has sent me a few photos of a couple of migrants he has seen there in the last week. One bird was a Masked Shrike and although this species does winter in small numbers in the region it is mainly a passage migrant. The other species Nishan sent photos of was a Pied Wheatear which is entirely a passage migrant and is an early one as well. Good numbers have started passing through the Eastern Province in the last week and they obviously do so on a broad front as the bird records have been well scattered. Nishan has kindly given me permission to use his photos on my website some of which are reproduced below.

Masked Shrike

Pied Wheatear

Pied Wheatear

Pied Wheatear

Winter birds & Residents – Sabkhat Al Fasl

Last weekend’s birding trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl produced quite a few winter visitors as well as resident species. One of the most unusual was a juvenile Long-legged Buzzard. This species is rarely seen at the location although presumably the same bird has been around for a few months. It is never easy to photograph and I managed to grab a single flight shot as it flew over the car. Other winter species seen included Red-spotted Bluethroat that have been common at the site this year as well as Common Kingfisher. Most Common Kingfishers have been females but a couple of males have been seen recently possibly showing the males and females winter in different areas and males are now starting to pass back through on migration? Western Osprey is a resident and is also not regularly seen at the site although sightings are much commoner than Long-legged Buzzard. A single Western Osprey was seen over the wetlands near the power station and three Greater Spotted Eagles were also seen. Although Purple Swamphen is resident and common at this site it is the only place where seeing the species is guaranteed and double figures were encountered on this trip. A good number of Common Starlings were also seen in the reeds, a species that winters at the location but is often not seen as they spend much of their time feeding inside the reed beds and out of view. Various Eastern Stonechats were also located during the mornings birding as were plenty of herons including Western Great Egret, Western Cattle Egret, Indian Reef Heron, Little Egret and Grey Heron. A couple of other good wintering birds included a Mauryan Grey Shrike and four Song Thrushes.

Long-legged Buzzard

Red-spotted Bluethroat

Western Osprey

Purple Swamphen

Squacco Heron

Mauryan (Steppe) Grey Shrike

Song Thrush

Long-tailed Shrike still present and moulting – Dhahran Hills golf course

On 5 March I went to the golf course to have a quick look at the pond and see if anything else was about. I saw a shrike on arrival but it was a male Turkestan shrike rather than the Long-tailed Shrike that had been seen in the area two weeks before. Whilst looking around I saw another shrike very briefly looking very much like the Long-tailed Shrike but lacking the long tail feathers of this species and appearing more warm on the upperparts than the previous bird. As the bird had a short tail I looked into the moult strategy of Long-tailed Shrike with the help of Tom Worfolk. The bird in Dhahran appears is an adult and BWP & Panov says (with ref. to migratory ssp. erythronotus): Adults have complete moult before autumn migration. Adult Pre-breeding moult timing and extent has not been fully established, although some from India in March–April, had head, body, tail, part of upper wing-coverts, and all tertials new. Juveniles as most other shrikes, rapid partial post juv. moult, maybe followed in winter/spring by complete moult? It thus appears that out Long-tailed Shrike is still about but now in the process of regrowing all of its tail feathers. This suggests it will stay around for a few more days until its tail moult is complete. As mentioned previously the sub-specific identity of the bird is not straightforward although erythronotus, breeds in the Palearctic, where it is strongly migratory although the lack of rufous extending onto the scapulars is not normal for this subspecies and the amount of white over the eye seems excessive also.  All extralimital Western Palearctic records and all records from the Middle East have been assigned to this sub-species. The first record for the UK at Howmore, South Uist, Western Isles, 3rd and 4th November 2000 encouraged the BOURC, to check museum skins, and they concluded that the white line above the eye and the lilac tinge to the grey mantle are features more typically associated with the form caniceps, which is considered to be largely resident in southern and western India. This is the other subspecies I considered for the Dhahran bird. Examination of a selection of specimens available at the National Museums of Scotland demonstrated that erythronotus can show individual variation, but rarely show any white above the eye. The limited number of specimens of caniceps similarly showed individual variation, but the paler grey mantle and white above the eye were apparent on most individuals. The paper also says, as I also mentioned in a previous post on the Long-tailed Shrike, that the most likely explanation is that greater individual variation exists within erythronotus, and that this can lead to some birds showing some characters suggestive of caniceps. To complicate matters further there is clinal variation between adjacent mainland forms and many individuals cannot be confidently assigned to any given subspecies. This added information has not helped clear up the issue but the bird sis most likely to be erythronotus as they are strongly migratory and caniceps is not.

March 5

February 18

Migrants appearing – Sabkhat Al Fasl

A few more migrants are appearing in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia now and soon migration should be in full swing. Quite a few birds as well as different species of migrants were seen on my trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl last weekend with some definite migrants and other birds that wer probably migrants but could have been overwintering birds. Some definite migrants included Woodchat Shrike, the first one I have seen this spring and plenty of Daurian Shrikes were also seen with the numbers too large for winter visitors at all.  Grey Wagtail and Yellow Wagtail are also migrants with a single Grey Wagtail and probably 30 Black-headed Wagtails seen. Plenty of wintering White Wagtails are also still present but they will be departing in the next few weeks. Other probable migrants included Isabelline Wheatear and Eastern Stonechat, although there is a possibility they could be winter visitors as well. Barn Swallow and ten Red-rumped Swallows were also migrants and three Pallid Swifts were also seen.

Woodchat Shrike

Daurian Shrike

Grey Wagtail

Black-headed Wagtail

Isabelline Wheatear

Eastern Stonechat

A few good birds in Dhahran – Bird records by Phil Roberts

Phil went for a walk around the jebals behind the power station 28 February and turned up a few good birds. The best was an Asian Desert Warbler that is scarce on the camp although my first record for the patch was in this same area in 2011. Phil also saw Pied Wheatear, Isabelline Wheatear, Lesser Whitethroat and Tawny Pipit, with the Wheatears showing that migration is definitely underway. Phil kindly sent me some details and a couple of his photos and has allowed me permission to use them on my website of which I am very grateful.

Pied Wheatear

Tawny Pipit

Tawny Pipit

Spanish Sparrow flock – Sabkhat Al Fasl

Spanish Sparrow Passer hispaniolensis is a common winter visitor and now an established breeder in the Riyadh area and increasingly breeds elsewhere including parts of the Eastern Province where a large breeding colony was found at a farm 40 kilometres inland of Jubail in 2014. This winter a small flock of Spanish Sparrows has taken up residence at Sabkhat Al Fasl, Jubail and spends most of its time in the same area of the reserve. They are very mobile and difficult to photograph but Phil Roberts and I spent some time trying to get a few good photographs of them last weekend. The flock appeared to have split into two groups and one was in the reeds next to the main dirt track but the light was not good. We did manage a few photos that came out better then expected before the birds moved off further into the reed beds. Spanish Sparrow is an unusual bird at Sabkhat Al Fasl with birds only regularly being seen in the last three years so maybe the species is spreading south of Jubail and will make it to Dhahran in the near future?

Common Kingfisher Al Khobar Corniche – Bird records by Mark Domz

Mark photographed a Common Kingfisher along Al Khobar Corniche on 26 February near to the Kudu Restaurant and kindly sent me his photographs that he has allowed me to use on my website. As with most of the Common Kingfishers seen in the area this is a female told by the red lower mandible, males would have black coloured ones. It has been a very good winter for Common Kingfisher in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia with lots of birds seen in a number of locations particularly Sabkhat Al Fasl and my first record on my local 'patch' as well. Mark says he and his friends have found many good birds at this site, which is one I do not bird myself and these include: Water Pipit, Western Great Egret, many herons, Daurian & Turkestan Shrikes, Green Sandpiper, Plovers, Great Cormorants, gulls and terns, White-eared and Red-vented Bulbuls, Isabelline Wheatear, Eurasian Hoopoe and Greater Flamingos amongst others.

Scorpion near Tabuk – Record by Viv Wilson

Viv was out in the desert a few weeks ago and had an ultra violet light so went looking for scorpions. He found one and took a few photographs of it and sent them to me to use on my website. Viv mentioned it was fun looking for the scorpion at night and the one he found could not have been much more than 30 milimeters long and was very small. Mansur Al Fahad has kindy identified the species concerned as Arabian Fat-tailed Scorpion Androctonus crassicauda and common scorpion throughout much of Saudi Arabia.

tristis and abietinus Chiffchaffs caught and ringed – Sabkhat Al Fasl

Whilst ringing at Sabkhat Al Fasl on 23 January 2015 we caught three Chiffchaffs with two appearing to be the normal abietinus types we catch, and one a rather duller paler looking bird recalling Siberian Chiffchaff tristis, that has just been elevated to full species status in the latest OSME regional list ORL version 3.0 and IOC4.1 list repurposes splitting. The Siberian Chiffchaff is shown below in the top photograph and shows a bird with a brown component to the plumage that is critical in the identification process as the upperparts often have a somewhat ‘tan’ appearance. The bird showed the right shade of brown in the upperparts and the buff wash on the breast and flanks with slight ‘additional’ yellow and olive compatible with ‘fulvescens’, generally treated as a western form of tristis, though it remains to be fully determined whether or not it’s appearance results from limited introgression of abietinus genes (Alan Dean pers comm). The main criteria for identification of Siberian Chiffchaff are as follows: Absence of olive in the crown and mantle with a grey-brown or pale brown hue in the upperparts. There is an absence of yellow away from the underwing with warm buff in the supercilium and ear-coverts and some buff at the breast-sides/flanks. The bill and legs often appear very black but this feature is variable. If the bird calls the most distinct call is a thin, piping monosyllabic ‘peep’. The Siberian Chiffchaff is a vagrant to Saudi Arabia with this bird being the first properly documented record for the Country. Records are rare from Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE but they are regular wintering birds in Oman. The second photo shows an abietinus type applying that designation in its broader sense. Identity of Chiffchaffs in the Middle East is very complicated with Mountain Chiffchaffs nearby, which look quite like tristis, and a series of taxa with intriguing combinations of abietinus or intermediate plumage but tristis-like calls (the brevirostris/caucasicus/menzbieri group), diagnosing Chiffchaffs can be a demanding exercise. I sent these photos to Alan Dean who is an expert on many things including Chiffchaffs and he agreed with my identifications and I would like to thank Alan for his very helpful comments on these birds.

Siberian Chiffchaff - tristis

Common Chiffchaff - abietinus