Why do we bird? The standing theory is that our passion is a sublimation of primal predatory instincts. To be sure, birders employ their senses and a similar set of skills as hunters in pursuit of their quarry, particularly those of us who’ve become “target birders”, focusing our efforts on tracking down and documenting a […]
Wadi Thee Ghazal is an excellent site on the outskirts of Taif that is always a great place to see some of the Arabian Endemics. Arabian Wheatear, Yemen Thrush and Arabian Serin are normally easy to find at the site and other southwestern specialities such as Little Rock Thrush can be located quickly. The dry […]
Last summer I visited Tanoumah, and have just sorted out my photos from the trip. Below are a few species I managed to see and photograph including Abyssinian White-eye, Brown-necked Raven, Common Kestrel, Crested Lark, Little Rock Thrush, Tristrams Starling and Violet-backed Starling. I also saw a few Arabian endemics including Arabian Serin, Arabian Wheatear, […]
News of a male Rock Thrush found at Pwll du Quarry, Gwent (SO244119) on 12th October gave me twitching pangs. I had long wanted to see this species in the UK but previous records have either been too far away, fleeting stayers or I have just not had the time to go see them. But […]
The vulture’s hide at Giant’s Castle is a raptor hide first and foremost. The setting on the edge of a middleberg ridge is spectacular. Placing the bones for the raptors, mainly for the Bearded Vultures, supplements their natural food sources which is diminishing due to loss of habitat and is the main purpose of the […]
We were up 05:45 and birded the habitat around the guest house. There had evidently been a small fall of migrants and we recorded six Eye-browed Thrush, three Pallas’s Bunting, 12 Red-throated Thrush, Dusky Warbler, Reed Warbler and, best of all, two Siberian Rubythroat which showed well in a newly planted line of scrub opposite […]
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 […]
As usual, its been a while since my last post, in this four part post, i will put up images of three species commonly found at our local birding hotspot Nandi Hills. Nandi Hills is an old hill fortress in the Chikkaballapur district of Karnataka. It is approximately 60 Km from Bangalore City. Nandi Hills […]