Whilst ringing at Sabkhat Al Fasl on 8 January I trapped and ringed a Jack Snipe, a species that we had not ringed previously at the location. The Jack Snipe is an uncommon winter visitor to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia where it is normally found in marshy areas away from the coast from early September to early April.
In the rest of Saudi Arabia it has been recorded most frequently in the Riyadh and Tabuk area and rarely in the Tihamah in the southwest and is a difficult species to see away from the three main areas.
These birds are very gentle birds to handle and are very beautiful as well making them one of my favourites.
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.
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