We returned to Rawdat Nourah just after first light this morning in search for Arabian Lark. It was great to be out in the desert this early and we were optimistic about our chances, despite the vastness of the area. There'd been a lot of rain a month earlier so the desert was quite green, so we wondered if this would hinder or help our chances? We quickly found another Asian Desert Warbler, a Crested Lark, Greater Hoopoe Lark, Eastern Imperial Eagle, and eventually a group of around 8 Bar-tailed Larks. The Arabian Lark is meant to hang out in the vicinity of these groups of BTL's but despite a lengthy scan we couldn't find one. So with time pressing we headed to another area about an hour away as Peter wanted to try for Thick-billed Lark. Again, we drew a lark-blank but had Desert Lark here and it looked a decent area but time was not our friend so we hot-footed it back to Riyadh Airport for our flight to Abha. To be honest we left it a little late but still made the flight despite a bit of a rush to get through the airport!
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| Yemen Linnet |
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| Yemen Thrush |
It was a short flight of just over an hour to Abha, where an extraordinarily slow car rental episode occurred, eating in to our birding time. Once again, more crazy local driving ensued as we headed into the city and to Abha Reservoir, as this is meant to be a decent place to try for Arabian Waxbill. In hindsight, we should have gone to Wadi Atoud Reservoir but who knew?! Anyhow, this was a cracking little spot where we saw our first Arabian Serin, Yemen Thrush and Yemen Linnets, plus we did have 2 jet-propelled waxbills fly overhead but it just wasn't tickle views. Some Red-knobbed Coots were present, along with what was probably a distant Siberian Stonechat, several Palestine Sunbirds, and a bunch of herons and egrets.
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