Began the day at Al Soudah Creek but couldn’t walk down into the wadi as it was flooded, so we stayed on the road and saw a few nice species including 5 Dusky Turtle Doves, a Bruce’s Green-Pigeon, African Paradise-Flycatcher, Yemen and Arabian Warblers, Gambaga Flycatcher, Little Rock-Thrush, and yet again, Arabian Waxbills. Moving on to another wadi a close and confiding Diderik Cuckoo was the highlight, but African Stonechat and 2 Buff-breasted Wheatears were also cool.
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| African Stonechat |
We also called in to Abha Dam but it was very quiet, so we collected our luggage at the nearby hotel and drove just over 2 hours to Either Mangroves north of Jizan. Along the way we passed a small lake with 1500+ Cattle Egrets just stood around in the midday heat. At Either Mangrove Park we searched for the previously reported Wattled Starlings without luck, but found a good selection of migrants. Highlights include a Thrush Nightingale, 2 Barred Warblers and Icterine Warbler (a rarity here), with a fine supporting cast of 8 Red-backed Shrikes, several Garden Warblers, Blackcap, Red-throated Pipit and the only Ortolan Bunting of the tour.
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| A stonking Icterine Warbler |
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| Various races of Western Yellow Wagtail were also present... |
Moving on to Corniche Park we found another Thrush Nightingale, 6 Rufous-tailed Scrub Robins hopping around the lawns, African Pipit, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, many Red-backed, Lesser Grey and Woodchat Shrikes, and a few White-eyed Gulls were on the rocks along the shoreline with Heuglin’s and Baltic Gulls.
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| Red-backed Shrike |
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| White-eyed Gull |
As it was only half an hour to our hotel in Abu Arish we drove there and checked-in before heading out immediately to Al Saad Lake, arriving just before dusk where we had crippling views of a Nubian Nightjar, which at one point was scared away by a Plain Nightjar that flew in and almost landed on top of it to round off a great day!
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| Nubian Nightjar |
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| Plain Nightjar |
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