Whilst birding the Tanoumah and An Namas area of the Asir Mountains I saw plenty of Arabian Wheatears at many different sites. The Arabian Wheatear Oenanthe lugentoides is a rather uncommon resident of the south-west highlands, but is also found in Oman, Palestine and Yemen, mainly in rocky, bushy sites. It is widespread on the […]
Category: Blogs
The Desert Locust – Abha area
The Desert Locust Schistocerca gregaria situation was calm during early 2018 due to poor rainfall and ecological conditions throughout most of the spring breeding areas in northwest Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The desert locust can form plagues and threaten agricultural production in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, something it has done for centuries. […]
European Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus) – Video
On my recent 3 day hiking trip from the Swiss to the Italian National Park in the canton of Grisons, Switzerland and Lombardy in Italy, I was very fortunate in getting a shot of two Roe Deer. To my amazement one deer ran straight up to me, stood there in awe for a second and […]
Mosqueta pico pala (Common tody-Tyrant) Todirostrum cinereum
Hoy a la mañana durante una breve escapadita a la Reserva del Arroyo Itá poniendo en práctica la técnica que vengo usando desde hace ya un tiempo atrás (y pienso seguir en la misma, disfruté durante casi media hora de 6 de estas mosquetas que por primera vez las veo cerca del puente peatonal de […]
Thunbergi Yellow Wagtails – Jubail
Whilst birding the Jubail area in early May I came across a small group of thunbergi Yellow Wagtails. They are also known as Grey-headed Wagtail and occur from Scandinavia eastwards to northwest Siberia and they winter mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and across South & southeast Asia. Yellow Wagtails are common in Jubail throughout the spring […]
White-throated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus) in Germany
I’ve always been fond of dippers ever since I went on my first Cub Scout camp with my older brother to the River Tweed at Drumelzier, Biggar, Scotland. We had seen dippers before but these seemed really tame but we later found out they were nesting under the bridge right beside our camp as was […]
Money on the Great Grey Owls
I was guiding again in Hedmark yesterday and was basically hoping to give Rob and Gail from Australia a repeat of Saturday. The Great Grey Owls were as expected still there and young had definitely hatched in one nest and most likely also in the other. It was fantastic to see one of the birds […]
Sand Swimmer – Ash Shargiyah Development Company Farm (Fadhili)
Whilst birding the Ash Shargiyah Development Company Farm (Fadhili) with Phil Roberts we found a large number of Sand Swimmer Zophosis complanate. Sand Swimmer is a darkling beetle that is normally found in sand dunes. They prefer soil with some clay in them and the ones we found were near a wet sabkha area and […]