Getting the Grosbeak

 We left at 6am and drove for 20 minutes to the narrow valley we visited yesterday (2200m). The sun was just starting to creep over the surrounding hills as we arrived and the temperature was very pleasant indeed. The valley reverberated to the sound of birdsong, with all the usual culprits adding their input to the dawn chorus. Our first good bird was Philby's Partridge on the hillside above us. And it took several hours of hard scanning before tracking down a single Arabian Grosbeak after several hours of searching and scanning the valley. This is undoubtedly the best place in Saudi Arabia to find this bird, and even so it's not easy.

We also saw Eurasian Hoopoe, a superb Arabian Woodpecker, a pair of Arabian Warblers, Yemen Thrush, Spotted Flycatcher, Little Rock Thrush, several Arabian Wheatears, some more Arabian Waxbills, 2 Long-billed Pipits, Olive-rumped Serin, Yemen Linnet and Cinnamon-breasted Bunting. 

One of the valleys we checked out today...

We moved on to another valley and I was really surprised to see a Levant Sparrowhawk circling above us. We saw another one a little bit later in another valley, along with another Arabian Woodpecker, and thankfully our first Gambaga Flycatcher - from looking at eBird this is the earliest recorded Spring arrival in Saudi Arabia (and we saw 2 in the same valley!!). A little later we had another Gambaga Flycatcher, along with another Arabian Woodpecker.

We spent the early afternoon down at 700m at Thee Ain Ancient Village, driving through incredible scenery to reach it. 

The route down from 2200m in Al Baha to 700m at Thee Ain

Thee Ain Ancient Village

Here, we notched up Bruce's Green Pigeon, Arabian Babbler, Black Scrub Robin, Arabian Sunbird and 4 African Silverbill. 

Black Scrub-Robin

It was so hot here that we decided to return to the hotel (just 35 minutes away) and have an hour off to rest and shower before heading out at 6pm to try for Arabian Eagle Owl. 

No eagle-owls here tonight but a nice place to chill....

Arabian Babbler

This was a no-show, although some confiding Arabian Babblers were pretty cool, but in my opinion the crippling views of a Montane Nightjar perched on a dead tree, flying right over our heads and circling us was much better! And to cap it all off, we had a pretty good dinner in an Egyptian restaurant to round of a very successful day.