Today was mainly a driving day 570km south from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad passing through the Gobi Desert with a few stops, mainly at lakes, en-route. The landscape was vast, stark and barren, mainly flat with a few rocky outcrops and dominated by gravel plains with sparse grass. The common birds here were Horned Lark, Asian […]
Tag: Isabelline Wheatear
Issy Wheatear and more
Yesterday was my birthday but I couldn’t go birding. So today I cashed in on my birthday credit, and went out with James (AKA The Driver), Dave, Phil and Will to Burnham Overy Dunes. Weather was looking good and we hoped to find Norfolk’s first Sibe Accentor. But when we got there we started complaining […]
Teetering on the brink
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 […]
Dowkah in early November
Monday was the day of maximum impact of cyclone Chapala in southern Arabia. It’s main effect missed western Oman and struck central Yemen instead.Nevertheless it had some effect on Saeed Shanfari’s and my birding when we went out into the desert north of the Dhofar mountains. Having set off at 4.30 am we arrived at […]
Plenty of waders – Dhahran Expro Wader Roost
A trip to the Dhahran Expro Wader Roost produced plenty of waders of a good variety of species. The tide was not ideal but plenty of birds were along the edges including both Lesser and Greater Sand Plovers in small numbers. Curlew Sandpipers, Eurasian Curlew, Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwits and Dunlins had the largest number of […]
Round up of Al Hayer in February
Last year I visited Al Hayer south of Riyadh almost weekly and it became what we birders call my local patch. This year I vowed to make trips more widely within Saudi Arabia and I have been doing so. However last weekend I returned to Al Hayer for the first time in over 6 weeks. […]
More from Zulfi
Today’s blog looks further at Mansur al Fahad’s visit to Zulfi last week. He tells me the birding is always good there and I can’t dispute that. As well as the pharaoh eagle owl and several steppe eagle featured in the last blog, there is much more to report on. For starters, Mansur managed to […]
Five wheatears but not the right one
Last Friday, I went to “the edge of the world”. This is the name given to the Tuwaiq Escarpment and the land directly below it, west of Riyadh. Its quite popular for day tripping locals and expats who drive out on the Mecca road westward. They indulge in walks and many other outdoor activities such […]