Phil Roberts and I went for our normal winter birding trip to Haradh recently and saw a lot of good birds. Best was 14 Sociable Lapwings which I have already posted about but we also saw a number of other good winter visitors and early spring migrants. The first pivot field we stopped at had […]
Author: Jem Babbington
Jem Babbington is a keen birder and amateur photographer located in Dhahran, Eastern Saudi Arabia where he goes birding every day. Jem was born in England and is a serious local patch and local area birder who has been birding for almost forty years and has birded in more than fifty countries. Jem is learning to ring birds in Bahrain as a perfect way to learn more about the birds of the area. Saudi Arabia is a very much under-watched and under-recorded country.
Greater Flamingo flocks – Jubail
Whilst birding the Jubail area recently I recorded plenty of Greater Flamingos in several large groups. Numbers possibly amounted to over three thousand birds, a good count to the location. I also saw Grey-headed Swamphen a species that breed in the area as well as the less common Purple Heron and Spanish Sparrow. Wintering Daurian […]
Plenty of Larks – Judah
On a winter trip to Judah, also known as Jebal Hamrah, Phil and I came across a good number of larks. They were mainly on a rough stony area between large pivot fields and consisted of a new species for Saudi Arabia for me Temminck’s Lark. There were five birds present but they never allowed […]
Wheatears everywhere – Haradh
Whilst birding the pivot irrigation fields of Haradh in late January we came across large numbers of both Desert Wheatear and Isabelline Wheatear. The bird spent most of their time around the stony edge of the large pivot fields or in the field themselves where they tended to use sand banks to sit on. We […]
Lapwings of various species – Haradh
Haradh is a well known wintering location for Northern Lapwing, with flocks of several hundreds seen in recent winters. This trip we located many birds scattered around the fields, but no large flocks and probably saw more than 100 Northern Lapwings in total. The species is an uncommon winter visitor to the northern areas of […]
Seven-striped Darkling? – Haradh
Whilst birding the Tabuk area I came across a number of darkling beetles resembling Pitted Beetle feeding around the edge of some large pivot irrigation fields. They were not this species and looked like a Seven-striped Darkling although this is mainly nocturnal? This was a medium sized beetle, with the head and thorax almost the […]
Eastern Imperial Eagle – Haradh
Whilst birding at Haradh recently I saw and photographed an Eastern Imperial Eagle. This site is a regular wintering location for one or two birds that spend much of their time in and around the pivot irrigation fields. They are seldom approachable and normally seen in flight so this bird that flew over and landed […]
Steppe Eagle – Tabuk
Whilst in Tabuk recently we saw a Steppe Eagle perched on an earth bank the side of the road. The bird allowed very close approach before it flew off after twenty minutes and gave some good flight views. The species is a common passage migrant down the western side of the Kingdom with October the […]