As Saeed Shanfari and I finished at Dowkah farm so fresh on Monday we pressed on to Qatbeet before turning round. Qatbeet was so far from the coast, it was the only place which was not affected by cyclone chapala at all. It was it’s usual very hot self. Winter coolness arrives later in the […]
Tag: Eastern Imperial eagle
Abdim’s stork are back
During mid week a week ago, I managed to snatch some time to visit Raysut settling pools in the late afternoon. The good news is that about 45 Abdim’s stork had arrived. It is only in very recent years that they have chosen to winter in Salalah and it looks like that will continue this […]
Much more at Rakhyut
There was much more to Rakhyut than owling (see yesterday’s blog). On the mountain top before we (Saeed Shanfari, Hedi Khecharem and I) descended into Rakhyut the action started. There were four eagles. Three were steppe eagle which soon disappeared. Eastern imperial eagle 1 One eagle stayed behind and give good views. It was […]
Winter-Spring
While Winter is still around (at least according to the date) and with it some very nice species like thisPallid Scops Owl which was found by Shachar few weeks ago at Wadi Shlomo and was still present yesterday (I was afraidI’mnot going to see one this winter…)and the wintering Bonelli’s and Eastern Imperial Eaglesare still […]
Birds of prey near Riyadh
Early spring is a good time to look hard at the birds of prey in the Riyadh area. The wintering eagles gather and seem to be reinforced by others on passage before moving on. Different types of other birds of prey pass through too. Last weekend saw some of these events. For example a fulvescens […]
Thumamah escarpment
For the second half of last Thursday’s birding trip, Lou Regensmorter and I ventured up to the top of the Tuwaiq escarpment north of Riyadh. In part we were looking for the elusive hooded wheatear which is one of my nemesis birds. In part this was a speculative look at a potentially new birding place. […]
Rhawdat Khuraim in winter
Rhawdat Khuraim is an oasis 80 kilometres north west of Riyadh. It proved to be an excellent place for passage birds when visited last spring. So we visited it again, this time obviously in winter to see what it might hold. In many ways it was a bit disappointing. Only two warblers were seen. These […]