Whilst birding the Haradh area I came across several large flocks of Spanish Sparrows. This is a common resident of northern and western parts of the Kingdom with numbers increasing in the winter months. They are not so common in the area where I live in the east of the Kingdom but numbers are increasing. […]
Tag: Spanish Sparrow
Winter birding – Haradh
Phil Roberts and I went for our normal winter birding trip to Haradh recently and saw a lot of good birds. Best was 14 Sociable Lapwings which I have already posted about but we also saw a number of other good winter visitors and early spring migrants. The first pivot field we stopped at had […]
Greater Flamingo flocks – Jubail
Whilst birding the Jubail area recently I recorded plenty of Greater Flamingos in several large groups. Numbers possibly amounted to over three thousand birds, a good count to the location. I also saw Grey-headed Swamphen a species that breed in the area as well as the less common Purple Heron and Spanish Sparrow. Wintering Daurian […]
The Levante winds of Spring – Spain 2017
I lead a tour group from the the US Audubon Naturalist Society in April to southern Spain. We had a great time apart from the awful windy weather. The famous Levante wind just would not stop for almost the whole eight days. We did however have a great time, saw lots of birds and other […]
Winter visitors and passage migrants – Haradh
Phil Roberts and I went to Haradh recently and found plenty of good birds despite the temperature being 1 degrees Celsius the coldest day for many years in the region as well as a bitingly cold northerly wind. Some birds were winter visitors such as Mallard, Northern Lapwing, Desert Wheatear, Eastern Imperial Eagle and Tawny […]
Israel at last
I am so glad to be back in Israel. Came here with my family for a two-week visit. First day was devoted to friends and family but I was so happy to see all the birds around. Just casual stuff but lots of things – Long-eared and Scops Owls, Great Spotted Cuckoos, Pallid Harrier, Lesser […]
Spanish Sparrow breeding and much more – Haradh
Whilst birding the area of Haradh recently where we concentrated on looking in the pivot irrigation fields we also saw a few other good birds around the filed edges and surrounding areas. The first good birds we saw were just outside the main entrance to the huge HADEC farm complex where a nesting colony of […]
Spanish Sparrows a ringing ringing species for me in Saudi Arabia – Sabkhat Al Fasl
Whilst ringing at Sabkhat Al Fasl on 8 January with Nicole we trapped and ringed a male and two female Spanish Sparrows. This is the first time either Nicole or I have ringed the species and made two new site species for the day after the Jack Snipe. I had seen a small group of […]