Ad Dabi and three more lifers

After visiting Sabya waste water lakes early on Thursday morning, Lou Regenmorter, Mansur Al Fahad and I moved on east (route 156) to the near-by town of Ad Dabi.

This is one of two towns where Abdim's stork in Saudi Arabia in which it is known to breed. They are particularly fond of mobile phone masts.

Abdim's stork

It didn't take us long to find some. Indeed at one stage four Abdim's stork were sharing the same mast.

two of four Abdim's stork

After some bickering, one of the storks at least left for another phone mast which didn't have an existing nest.

This stork (at least in Saudi Arabia) is often missed by visiting birders  because they assume it will be close to water such as lake Maliki.

white throated bee-eater

Finding the storks was much easier than I had expected. After some observation and photography we moved on. We headed out south towards Abu Arish on a hill side road.

The altitude of this road was over 300 metres which is important because many of the Afro-tropical summer visitors don't seem to like the low land coastal areas. 

White throated bee-eater was soon picked up. This made two lifers and additions to my Saudi list in a few minutes.

gaber goshawk

Then only a couple of minutes later, we came across a pair of playful Gaber goshawk on the same road. These had been a target bird for all three of us but was not expected here. It had previously been reported much closer to Lake Maliki.

As it happens we saw this species twice more and each time we got better views than the previous time. Here we made do with aerial views. It's easily separated in flight from other goshawks and sparrowhawks  by its white ring tail.

grey headed kingfisher

Grey headed kingfisher is not found on the low land plains but we saw it on the hill side road without much difficulty. It is a common sight in summer in south west Saudi Arabia from 325 to 2700 metres (not a lower zone: 250 to 1500 as cited in the regional guide).

Nile valley sunbird

On the other hand, this hill side road only had nile valley sunbird which is lowest altitude sunbird of the three found in western Saudi Arabia.

young Arabian babbler

I noted a few other observations about other local resident birds too: for example - the density of Arabian babbler in this south west corner of the kingdom is the highest I have yet found.

African silverbill

The resident silverbill in this area is of course African silverbill not Indian silverbill as in central Arabia.

Black bush robin

However sub-species of black bush robin is the same as in central Arabia rather than the dull brown sub species found up in Abha.

Overall, Thursday morning was really about new finds rather than observations about residents. I had gained 5 lifers and additions to my list. This was quite a start to the weekend!

Sabya and two very interesting lifers

On Thursday and Friday I birded in the south west of Saudi Arabia near Jizan with a strong team of Lou Regenmorter, Mansur Al Fahad and me.

I didnt think any birding in Saudi Arabia could beat my experience near Abha two weeks ago but this probably did.

Once again seven new birds were added to my Saudi list which now totals 295. However this time all of them were lifers and some of them haven't featured in many reports before.

We had to work hard it was very hot and humid but we were rewarded.

It all started at Sabya waste water lakes early on Thursday morning.  

 pied cuckoo

Before we even reached the lakes we came across our first pied cuckoo of the weekend (there were more later). This bird is the only Africa to India migrant. It arrives in India just ahead of the monsoons and is closely associated with that weather over there. It parasites babblers and bulbuls. The main regional guide suggests a few of them don't go all the way to India but stop in a small part of Yemen.

Given that the monsoons start in late May in parts of India our timing was very good to be able to see them on passage.

 a family of greater painted snipe

On arriving at the lakes, we soon saw our main target species: greater painted snipe. The regional guide says it is a vagrant to the Arabian peninsula and doesn't offer a map! However Mike Jennings reported it at Sabya about 3 years ago.

I am not sure anyone has ever proved it breeds here (though it is clearly surmised)  but we saw a family.

 second picture of greater painted snipe

Unusually, the male bird is the duller of the two adults.

Incidentally I saw another at Lake Maliki the next day (30 kilometres way) and this supports Brain James's finding there a couple of months ago.

cattle egret colony

There was a wide diversity of birds at this site. One of the most noticeable features was the large colonies of cattle egret on a couple of islands.

 black winged stilt

Black winged stilt buzzed us if we came close to their young.

black-tailed godwit

Other waders included non-breeding black-tailed godwit and ringed plover (breeding status unknown).

 ringed plover

There were also ruff and kentish plover present.

ringed plover and ruff

The two obvious water birds were moorhen (surprisingly tame) and little grebe.

moorhen

Two types of tern were seen in great numbers. Bother were in breeding plumage. These were white winged black tern and whiskered tern.

 little grebe

A small flock of chestnut bellied sand grouse arrived but were scared off (sadly accidentally probably by us). There were heading for the cleanest of the four lakes furthest away from the water inlet area.

 whiskered tern

As well as cattle egret there were also squacco heron and grey heron. The squacco heron were also nesting there.

 squacco heron

 There were several interesting more land-based birds too.

 spur winged lapwing

Spur winged lapwing probably breeds there although we didnt see any nests or young.

yellow wagtail

I was surprised to see three lingering yellow wagtail (feldegg).

 Rueppells weaver

Rueppells weaver breeds in the coastal areas in winter but also breeds a second time at the moment. The Jizan area only gets reasonably rain in April and early May and it looks like the weavers take advantage of that.

 African collared dove

There were a lot more African collared dove in the Jizan area since the last time I visited. This concurs with reports that although some stay the winter, many migrant a short distance to east Africa. They are back.

white browed coucal

The Sabya area has white browed coucal all the year round.

This was great start to the weekend but more was to come. Three more lifers were had before the morning was out. I'll report on them in the next blog.

Bahrain on Friday

On Friday, I split my birding into two parts. In the morning, I birded an area in the Budaiya district and in the afternoon I went to the area around Bahrain fort. 

In Budaiya I found an area of untended fields with some wetland. Around the fort was a small stretch of coast and some farms.

black headed gull and curlew sandpiper

At the small wetland were a mix of  birds I would normally associate with the coast but also inland ones too. And a large proportion of them are listed as wintering rather than summer birds even though it was well into May. Both black headed gull and curlew sandpiper would be expected to move off north pretty soon.

 Little tern and little stint

The same goes for the little stint at the same place. 

There were two adult  little tern present and two unfledged terns too which didn't fly during my time watching there. I assume they were the young of the two adults. This was pretty much confirmed when I saw the two adults attempt at one stage to clear all other birds way.

They succeeded with all except the black headed gull which ironically were probably the only birds that could threaten their young.

 young little tern and a kentish plover

Two other waders were present. There was a single green sandpiper and lots of kentish plover. The former is a migrant whereas the latter were probably resident.

green sandpiper

The wetland was large enough to attract members of the heron family. I also noticed that the wetland had small fish which must have helped.

little egret

I saw two little egret and both a squacco heron and purple heron.

squacco heron

Elsewhere near the wetland in the fields were a different set of species.

Upcher's warbler

Like Thursday elsewhere on the island, I came across Upcher's warbler, common whitethroat and willow warbler though there wasn't quite the same diversity of warblers as at the day before's coastal tamarisk.

willow warbler

Rufous bush robin seem to be everywhere with greenery on the island. I was following one which was deep under a tree when I flushed a grey francolin. This was a lifer for me and the target bird for me on the trip.

I revisited the same tree 3 hours later, just before I left the area for lunch. This time I was tracking a common redstart under the same tree. Unbelievably I flushed the same grey francolin from what must have been the same spot. I never even considered he would have returned.

This time he flushed to somewhere in the same field. I followed where he went and I must have got close without seeing him in the same spot before he flushed over and away. Sadly I didn't get a photo but i did  get good if short views.

Rufous bush robin

After lunch, I journeyed out to Bahrain fort and near-by farms on the coast there.

The Bahrain fort (plus wasps)

The coastal sands had ruddy turnstone, kentish plover and western reef heron.

ruddy turnstone

Indeed I saw a very small barely fledged kentish plover among them.

However, the main excitement was in the farms. Here I came across a group of about  eight or nine grey francolin. This time I managed to get a record shot of one of them.

grey francolin

Grey francolin (my lifer on the trip) seem common in Bahrain, present in Qatar and is recognised as expanding in UAE. Yet there seems to be some ambiguity about it's status in the near-by parts of Saudi Arabia.

The Helms guide map shows it present in Saudi Arabia but as far as I know it hasn't been recorded in recent years. Surely it must be around the farms or compounds in the Khobar area?

common redstart

The farms had a very pleasant smell of pepper in places. I assume that is what the workers were harvesting as I walked past one area. Elsewhere there was much market gardening rather than arable.

The farms were rich in migrants and I wish I had been in this place during the main part of the passage season. Some birds which I had finished seeing in central Arabia seem to be lingering longer in the cooler coastal environment of Bahrain. These included common redstart and whinchat.

whinchat

I often get the feeling that whinchat look at me as much as I do them.

spotted flycatcher

The late migrant shrikes (lesser grey shrike and red backed shrike) were easy to see as were spotted flycatcher.

 

graceful prinia

Once again graceful prinia were abundant. This bird is resilient and expanding its range throughout the Middle East. I wonder if increased water management and associated farms in new areas are the main reasons (though in this case the farms are natural enough).

collared dove

Two very other abundant birds were collared dove and common myna.

common myna

The latter bird was flying menacingly over the sands on the coast. I don't think they take small birds though I couldn't relocate the small fledgling kentish plover on my way back to the car park.

My Bahraini list began with this weekend since it was my first ever visit. The full list is below.

Grey francolin	Red backed shrike
Squacco heron	Lesser grey shrike
Grey heron	House crow
Purple heron	White eared bulbul
Little egret	Hypocolius
Western reef heron	Crested lark
Moorhen	Sand martin
Black winged stilt	Barn swallow
Kentish plover	Graceful prinia
Green sandpiper	European reed warbler
Little stint	Marsh warbler
Curlew sandpiper	Upcher’s warbler
Ruddy turnstone	Eastern olivaceous warbler
Black headed gull	Willow warbler
Common tern	Chiffchaff
Little tern	Common whitethroat
Saunder’s tern	Common myna
Rock dove	Rufous bush robin
Collared dove	Common redstart
Laughing dove	Whinchat
Hoopoe	Spotted flycatcher
Masked shrike	House sparrow

Bahrain on Thursday

Since I have never been to Bahrain before, every new bird was an addition to my Bahraini list. I was not expecting sensations because Bahrain is only 30 kilometres off the Saudi eastern coast and bird life is very similar. Nevertheless I did see one bird which I had not seen in Saudi Arabia which also turned out to be a lifer. More about this species in the next blog.

common tern

On Thursday I chose to bird watch in one area, staying on foot all the time. This was a strip of land in front of Alba (Aluminium Bahrain) works from the front entrance to the works all the way to the sea. This cross section of land has quite a variety of terrain and is peacefully away from traffic and other disturbance.

Close to the sea, there is a clean fresh water body fed by some water pipe from a factory process.  This area was quite productive. On or next to the water were three types of tern. The largest was common tern. The other two species were the smaller Saunder's tern and a single whiskered tern.

Saunder's tern

Interestingly Saunder's tern is very much  a coastal bird whereas whiskered tern is a marsh tern often favouring fresh water and can be found a long way inland.

whiskered tern

As I have come to expect any where on Arabian coasts, it was not difficult to find western reef heron.

western reef heron (light and dark morphs)

A single grey heron was also seen at the "lake".

grey heron

Both here and further inland were several black winged stilt.  

black winged stilt

In the passage seasons, I have often found that bushes very close to the coast have a higher density of warblers than those only 500 metres further inland. And so it proved once again. A small cluster of bushes near the water body was teeming with a variety of warblers.

willow warbler

Willow warbler were the most plentiful.

chiffchaff

There was at least one chiffchaff among them.

second view of chiffchaff

However there was more variety than this. There were both male and female common whitethroat, a bird which I believe had already finished its passage through central Arabia though clearly not cooler coastal areas.

common whitethroat

There was also a marsh warbler and a European reed warbler in the same bushes. Both these birds were very shy and kept in deep cover for most of the time.

marsh warbler

An Upchers warbler and an Eastern olivaceous warbler had no such qualms about being in the open. This was quite a selection of warblers in such a small cluster of (mostly) tamarisk. 

It makes me think that these types of coastal bushes in Bahrain must be very interesting indeed during the peak of the passage season.

red backed shrike

Walking inland but still in a wetland area (partly dried out), warblers were clearly much less numerous. The local graceful prinia were the most obvious. 

Three types of shrike were easily seen red-backed shrike, lesser grey shrike and a single masked shrike. Two spotted flycatcher were also observed.

lesser grey shrike

The low scrub near the Alba factory was mostly disappointing with just crested lark, house sparrow and willow warbler.

crested lark

The small number of trees were better. My biggest surprise was in the tree below which not only had white eared bulbul but a male hypocolius. Unfortunately it fled before I could photograph it. Surely it should have gone north along with others, 6 weeks ago.

white eared bulbul

Nevertheless it made a good entry on my brand new Bahrain list.

In the next blog I'll report on Friday's birding spent at an inland wetland and in a farming area. It included a lifer which had been my main target bird for Bahrain.