A few days ago I was walking around the flat stoney desert area near Jebal Hamrah when I came across an Arabian Spiny-tailed Lizard sunning itself by its hole. It was still quite cool as it was a blue colour.Theybecome yellow when they have heated up. These lizards are relatively common and widespread across Saudi […]
Female Hooded Wheatear – Jebal Hamrah
Whilst birding the Jebal Hamrah with Greg Askew recently we came across a wheatear at the bottom of the escarpment in a largish wadi. It looked a little different, so we got out of the car and went and had a look. After a short while we saw the bird again and it turned out […]
African Lion pride in Maasai Mara
For us Maasai Mara happens to be one of the best national parks in the world and we try and visit the Mara every year for a few days. On this first game drive during one of our trips there, we went looking for the famous Cheetah brothers who were sighted close to the Kenya–Tanzania […]
US facing “extinction crisis”
Conservationists have warned that a multitude of animal species are at risk of being eradicated in what they called a major “extinction crisis”, which is rippling across the United States, and will begin to claim and increasing number of iconic animals unless appropriate schemes begin to receive more support and funding. A report written in […]
Bimaculated Larks – Jebal Hamrah
Whilst birding the Jebal Hamrah pivot irrigation fields recently with Phil Roberts, I came across a Bimaculated Lark Melanocorypha bimaculata. The bird was on the edge of the field in with a very large group of around three hundred Greater Short-toed Larks, but flew almost immediately. We moved to where it had landed and refound […]
Watching the largest herd of African Elephants in Amboseli National Park
While out on the safari drive in Amboseli National Park, we saw a huge cloud of dust in the distance. As the animals came closer, it became clear that this was probably the largest herd of African Elephants (as seen in the feature image) that we had seen here. It was also a herd with […]
Pennington Marsh – 23rd March
With a couple of hours to spare after dropping Tobias at school I had a wander around Pennington Marsh taking in Jetty, Butts, Fishtail and Keyhaven Lagoons. It was a bright spring like day but with a strong NW wind it was deceptively cold. Numbers of wader and wildfowl had shown a noticeable and decrease […]
Seven species of Wheatear – Jebal Hamrah
Whilst birding the Jebal Hamrah area in March I came across seven species of Wheatear in a single day including Black-eared Wheatear, Hooded Wheatear, White-crowned Wheatear, Northern Wheatear, Isabelline Wheatear, Pied Wheatear and Desert Wheatear. The week previously, I also saw an Eastern Mourning Wheatear, making a total of eight species in a week. The […]