This was an epic day as we had a long drive to the coast and back up to the highlands in front of us, in order to try and connect with some very special birds. In the past couple of days news had come out of a colony of Arabian Golden Sparrows along the coast north of Al Birk – a good 3h 30mins drive away and nowhere near my intended route....!!!
Our day began on one of the higher reached of Khairah Forest Park where a particular hillside was alive with birds. We were still after Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak and were fortunate to find around 8 birds either feeding in the grass on the slope above us or flying along the wadi on the opposite side of the road.
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| Arabian Grosbeak |
Apparently, according to our good friend Greg Askew of Saudi Birding, this is the highest total ever recorded in Saudi..! We were treated to several great perched views of this much wanted species over the course of an hour, along with Arabian Warbler, more Arabian Waxbills (where were you in January?!), Yemen Linnet, Arabian Wheatear, Little Rock Thrush, Cinnamon-breasted Bunting and all the other usual highland species.
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| Arabian Warbler |
So by 6.45am we were finished and drove back to our great hotel for a quick breakfast before loading our luggage and setting out on what proved to be a 4 hour drive towards the coast. It was lucky we had such a good, comfortable SUV with a decent sound system to listen to music! Along the way we stopped at a huge reed-fringed lake where we discovered a colony of over 80 Squacco Herons nesting, as well as Glossy Ibis, Hamerkop, Western Reef Heron, several Whiskered and White-winged Terns, a Spotted Redshank, Pink-backed Pelican, Black-winged Stilt, Black Scrub-Robin and Nile Valley Sunbird.
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| Lake Qanuna was a surprise.... |
By the time we reached the coast it was a very sultry 40 degrees centigrade but that proved to be a good thing as we found the previously reported Arabian Golden Sparrows coming to a drinking trough for goats and we must have had around 60 individuals that kept appearing from the nearby breeding colony about 300m away. Wow!
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| The distant bushes are where the breeding colony is located... |
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| Golden Sparrows drinking here... |
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| Arabian Golden Sparrows are rare, elusive, nomadic & unpredictable. BUT NOT TODAY..!!! |
We spent a great hour watching all of the activity before deciding the heat was too much and we retreated to our air-conditioned car. From here we drove down the coast a ways to the beach and parked under an awning for shade and our field lunch, whilst watching 3 Caspian Terns, 5 Brown Boobies, 5 Lesser Crested Terns, Sooty Gulls, Terek Sandpiper, Lesser Sandplover and some other common shorebirds as well.
Leaving here we headed another 3 hours up into the cooler highlands to Tanomah and headed straight for Mahfar Tourist Park, seeing Abyssinian Roller and several White-throated Bee-eaters en-route. After ascending the escarpment along a very steep and winding road we eventually arrived at the park at 5.45pm and immediately began to scour the area for birds, seeing Gambaga Flycatcher, our first Arabian Woodpecker, Shikra, Alpine Swift, Long-legged Buzzard, Fan-tailed Raven, and at dusk the very obliging Arabian Eagle-Owl.
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| Arabian Woodpecker |
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| Arabian Eagle-Owl |
At one point we even saw the eagle-owl hunting for frogs on the floor of the car park! A few Abyssinian Nightjars called in the distance but I was amazed to hear a Desert Owl calling from the huge cliffs in the distance as well. What an awesome day this was!
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