SAUDI ARABIA DAY 4 - AN EPIC DAY!

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. 

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. 

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.

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! 

The distant bushes are where the breeding colony is located...

Golden Sparrows drinking here...
 

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. 

Arabian Woodpecker

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!

SAUDI ARABIA DAY 3

Off early to Al Khairah Forest Park where Philby’s Partridge was scoped from the hillside above us. Several Arabian Waxbills were almost constantly on view, as were numerous Yemen Linnets, a few Arabian Serins, Yemen Thrush, and a pair of Little Rock Thrush. 

Al Khairah Forest Park

Yemen Linnet

We followed this rush of activity with Arabian Wheatear, Ruppell’s Weaver, Cinnamon-breasted Bunting and a few Gambaga Flycatchers all at our first stop. 

Gambaga Flycatcher

Ruppell's Weaver

We checked out Wadi Shabraqah and other sites during the morning, seeing many of the same species including even closer Gambaga Flycatchers with one on a nest, and many Eurasian Hoopoes. Lunch in a scenic wadi saw us being joined by a Grey-headed Kingfisher, but we were losing a little optimism at our prospects of finding Arabian Grosbeak by now. And that was the whole point of us coming here rather than flying further south to Abha!

Thee Ain Ancient Village

We then drove just under an hour to Thee Ain Ancient Village and picked up several new trip birds quite quickly: Black Scrub-Robin, Arabian Sunbird, Bruce’s Green-Pigeon, African Palm Swift, Arabian Babbler, Graceful Prinia, Blackstart and some Tristram’s Starlings. 

Black Scrub-Robin

I was amazed how good this Graceful Prinia looked!!!

Returning to Al Khairah Forest Park we nailed an Arabian Scops-Owl in daylight and heard several Abyssinian Nightjars on the slopes above.

Arabian Scops Owl

SAUDI ARABIA DAY 2

Back up to Rawdat Nourah for Arabian Lark, heading straight to the last sighting of this invisible species from the end of February this year. Another 5 hours of driving around continuously grilling every Bar-tailed Lark resulted in the ‘same old same old’ and feeling disgruntled and thinking I’m in the wrong job! 

Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters were on the move heading north...

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse

Greater Hoopoe Larks are very, very common

Little Swift is a rare sighting in the deserts of Riyadh

We did get more Willow Warblers passing through the desert, followed by a Menetries’s Warbler and 2 Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robins, as well as a fine Montagu’s Harrier as well. So by lunchtime we headed back to the hotel in Riyadh, packed up after a bit of a rest and took our early evening flight to Al Baha excited about the prospective birding to follow.

Saudi Arabia Day 1

After picking Peter up from the airport at 5am I collected the rest of the group and we headed an hour north to Rawdat Nourah, the alleged hotspot for Arabian Lark. Well, after spending 2 days in January and yesterday afternoon failing miserably to find one, I was amusingly optimistic about our chances today. The weather was clear, calm and bright, contrary to yesterday’s rain, wind, sandstorm and general dull weather. 

And we began at an area north of the road where I had found a pair of Red-necked Phalaropes yesterday, and luckily they were still present along with the same group of Little Stints, a Kentish Plover and Wood Sandpiper (unfortunately yesterday’s Curlew Sandpiper had departed overnight). 

Little Stint

Seeing Red-necked Phalarope out in the desert was bizarre

Then things really kicked off as we walked along a line of very green and lush vegetation, finding an amazing bunch of northward bound migrants that must have been waiting for yesterday’s poor weather to clear. I mean there were groups of Willow Warblers, with a lone Chiffchaff tagging along but the best was yet to come. A large leafy tree held singles of Great Reed Warbler, Marsh Warbler and a superb Barred Warbler and made for a fantastic sighing out here in the desert. Then a Common Whitethroat appeared, followed by 2 Red-backed Shrikes, 1 Daurian Shrike, 2 Greater Hoopoe Larks, 3 Bar-tailed Larks, Spotted Flycatcher and Whinchat, with Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters and several Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse flying over, quickly followed by 4 European Bee-eaters… Best of all a single Little Swift proved to be our rarest sighting so far. Phew!

Greater Hoopoe Lark

We then moved along a bit to some large trees where Common Redstart, Garden Warbler, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler and a pair of Eurasian Golden Orioles were found. 

Moving south of the road, crisscrossing the desert in search of Arabian Lark, we saw European Roller, more Red-backed Shrikes, a Lesser Grey Shrike, many more Greater Hoopoe Larks (21), more Bar-tailed Larks (17) and 12 Temminck’s Larks.

In the mid afternoon we drove 50 minutes to Jebel Towki and found the scenery a refreshing change with rocky wadis, huge escarpments and nice scenery. 

The scenery here is great

In a roadside wadi we found Long-legged Buzzard, Desert Lark, Brown-necked Raven, more European Bee-eaters, Pale Crag Martins, Pallid Swifts, and a fine White-crowned wheatear. 

White-crowned Wheatear

A nearby wetland held flocks of Western Yellow Wagtails, double figures of Red-throated Pipits, Little Stint, Wood Sandpiper and even an Eurasian Whimbrel. Once it got dark we tried a spot of owling but failed to get any response.