SAUDI ARABIA DAY 7

We drove just 25 minutes to Al Saad Lake, one of the best birding sites in south-west Saudi Arabia at 5.15am and began scanning the southern end of the lake from a viewpoint. We had a nice view over several arms of the lake, which was nicely fringed by reeds and bushes. 

There's some nice habitat at Al Saad Lake

There were lots of new birds for the trip including Little Bittern, Garganey, Northern Shoveler, Ferruginous Duck, Purple Heron, Red-eyed Dove, White-browed Coucal and several Nile Valley Sunbirds. With a supporting cast of Pink-backed Pelicans, Glossy Ibis, Spur-winged Lapwings, White-winged Terns, many Namaqua Doves, and other commoner species.

 

We then drove around trying to find other access points to different parts of the lake, which proved problematical to say the least as my intended route was flooded and impassable unless you had a dinghy! However, we did see our one and only covey of Helmeted Guineafowl, as well as several White-throated Bee-eaters, Bruce’s Green-Pigeon, more White-browed Coucals, several Black Scrub-Robins, Arabian Babbler, Zitting Cisticola, and many Graceful Prinias. 

White-browed Coucal

Along the lake shore a Clamorous Reed Warbler was an expected find, but a migrating Marsh Warbler had us perplexed for a minute or two, and there were plenty of Red-backed and Lesser Grey Shrikes dotted around the landscape.

Gabar Goshawk

We headed around to the northern shore seeing a Gabar Goshawk and Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark, but the water level was too high to find anything interesting around this part of the lake, although an Arabian Eagle-Owl at a day roost was pretty cool. 

With temperatures soaring to 41 degrees centigrade we returned to the hotel for lunch and a rest before checking out some fields this for tomorrow morning’s quail hunt. Along the way 2 White-tailed Kites, more White-throated Bee-eaters and a few Abdim’s Storks were seen.

 

Then we drove to Jazan Heritage Village for another cracking Saudi birding session. The first pools held 15 Crab Plovers, along with summer-plumaged Lesser Sandplovers, Ruddy Turnstones, Terek Sandpipers, and many Curlew Sandpipers in fine breeding refinery. 

Lesser Sandplovers

Terek Sandpipers

A ‘Mangrove’ Reed Warbler gave itself up without too much hassle, 5 Pink-backed Pelicans and a Caspian Tern were also seen. A quick drive just around the corner and along the coast took us to a good seawatching point with a strong onshore breeze producing a stunning sighting of a Sooty Shearwater flying up the Red Sea, along with 50+ Common Noddy, 25 Brown Booby, many White-cheeked Terns, and surprisingly lots of Common Terns heading north.

Common Noddy

Seawatching at Jizan

An inland pool here also held Striated Heron, Eurasian Spoonbills and a Western Reef Heron as well to end the day.