A spring trip in early May to Ash Shargiyah Development Company Farm, Fadhili failed to produce much of interest. The best birds seen included Spur-winged Lapwing and Ruddy Turnstone. Spur-winged Lapwing may well be breeding at the site now as birds have been around all winter and most of last year. It was the first […]
Tag: Red-backed Shrike
Red-backed Shrikes – Jubail
Early May is always a good time to see Red-backed Shrike in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom and this year is no exception. A trip to the coastal areas of Jubail produced more than 30 birds in a single morning with five Turkestan Shrikes and a single adult male Daurian Shrike. Other migrants seen […]
Late Red-backed Shrikes – Jubail
I have been able to go to Jubail a few times recently, as it was the Eid holidays and on every visit in late June until 1 July I saw a number of Red-backed Shrikes including a stunning adult male on 1 July. This is late for the species as they nearly all pass through […]
Corncrake – crex crex
When I awoke to rain and low cloud this morning the only thing I thought about was how silly I had been to hang washing out to dry overnight. I have clearly moved on from migration modus and into breeding bird modus. If I had still my migration antenna up I may have chosen to […]
I did my flies up
Yesterday was Norway’s National Day which sees a lot of flag waving, hot dog and ice cream eating, general celebration and the consumption of vast quantities of champagne. Whilst imbibing by second glass of champagne I gazed skyward and saw a very high and very large bird. Its jizz did not fit with Crane, heron […]
Some scarce and unusual birds – Abqaiq Wetlands
Whilst birding Abqaiq Wetlands on 1 May with Phil Roberts we came a cross a number of good birds with the best probably being a Eurasian Crag Martin. This species is a scarce passage migrant in the Eastern Province mainly in the spring and I have only seen one before in the Eastern Province over […]
NCT Stonechat – Sabkhat Al Fasl
A number of Stonechat have been seen at Sabkhat Al Fasl in recent weeks with all the ones I have seen appearing to be European Stonechat. I saw a male bird with a very white rump patch and plenty of white extending down the outside of the tail in a Wheatear type tail pattern. This […]
Early morning at Ghaftayn
On Wednesday morning, I got up early at Ghaftayn rest house to see what passage there had been over-night. These desert stops have highly variable windfalls of migrants during the passage seasons. One morning can be heaving while another can have virtually nothing. The same goes for the rarity of the birds. This was only […]