So this was it, the final push. One last spot of birding on what has proved to be a top trip. So we headed down the coast from Jizan to the usual spot to tick Lesser Flamingo for the trip. There were a few Lesser's amongst about 70 Greater Flamingo's feeding at the edge of the mangroves but we were slightly more interested in finding the 'mangrove' White-eyes here and actually found a few straight away. Currently just a race of Abyssinian White-eye and i'm not sure it will ever be officially split to be honest..... But who knows? There was also a bunch of shorebirds that included Pied Avocet, Tibetan Sandplover, a Common Snipe, 2 Terek Sandpipers, a few Wood and some nice breeding-plumaged Curlew Sandpipers, 5 Little Stints and plenty of commoner shorebirds. But back in the mangroves, the Common Reed Warbler or Mangrove Reed Warbler, or whatever you want to call it because it will never be split in a month of Sunday's was pretty common here, and it was apparent there had been a fall of Willow Warblers as we estimated nearly 30 were present in the mangroves. There was also Spotted Flycatcher, a couple of Red-throated Pipits mooching nearby, a pair of Clamorous Reed Warblers, Common Redstart, Northern Wheatear and, of course, plenty of Blackcaps. Our best find was a few Black Terns loafing on the mudflats.
Just a little further down the road are some huge mudflats choc-full of shorebirds and it was really pleasant just to scope the throng of birds. Broad-billed Sandpipers were numerous, masses of Tibetan Sandplovers were present, a couple of Crab-Plovers were along the tideline, a Gull-billed Tern was roosting on the flats, and it was generally a fun time just scanning. Just what birding is all about.
Our last stop was at Corniche Park and in hindsight, it would have been good to come here first thing. Hey-ho. Well, it was a really exciting couple of hours despite the heat and there were plenty of migrants around. In all we recorded 9 Red-backed Shrikes, 3 Isabelline Shrikes, 3 Masked Shrikes, 3 Eastern Olivaceous Warblers, 5 Marsh Warblers, a Great Reed Warbler, 9 Willow Warblers, 4 Garden Warblers, 5 Barred Warblers, 2 Black Scrub-Robins, 5 Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robins and 2 Thrush Nightingales. A pair of Grey-headed Kingfishers were also here and looked mighty fine in the crisp sunlight and 5 Abdim's Storks patrolled the grounds. Not too shabby huh..? it left me feeling like we needed more time to bird the area as it's so good. In fact, i've felt like that at most places we've been to on this tour..... Just a little more time needed..... Just a little more time needed..... So i'm going to fix that for next year....
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| Black Scrub-Robin |
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| Grey-headed Kingfisher |
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| Not a bad attempt at phonescoping this Thrush Nightingale |
And that was us done. Back to the mighty fine apartments for a refreshing shower, packing and lunch freshly prepared by Lynzi. We dropped the rental cars off at the airport and a short flight took us back to Riyadh where we said our goodbyes and headed off in different directions back to the UK, Netherlands and Sweden. Thanks to a fantastic group for their excellent birding skills, perseverance, good humour and patience for making this a great tour.
But I think I can make it even better by adding a day around Riyadh and another day at Jizan for next years tour. Oh, and why not do a few days in Kuwait as well for Afghan Babbler, Hypocolius, Socotra Cormorant and a better chance at Basra Reed Warbler..... Oh, and more migrants please...!!
Here's next year's itinerary: https://www.zootherabirding.com/saudi-arabia-arabian-endemics-tour
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