SAUDI ARABIA DAY 4 RAIDAH PRESERVE to TANOMAH

This was the BIG day as we ventured into the famous Raidah Preserve, where according to previous reports all dreams are possible. It's literally meant to be the promised land but I must admit i'm not a fan! Well we got to the entrance well before sunrise and listened for Abyssinian Nightjar.... nothing. Tried the call..... again nothing. So I drove up to the barrier and filled out some paperwork before the guards would let us in and then we were off. And boy this is undoubtedly the steepest road i've ever driven on. I mean it's crazy and shouldn't be attempted in anything other than a four-wheel drive. I didn't have one and struggled coming back up with the engine overheating constantly, but more of that later. So in the dark we tried a few times for nightjars and the only bird we heard was an Arabian Scops Owl bit none of the trees seemed to be close enough to the road to try spotlighting, so we just kept driving lower. As soon as it became light enough to bird we parked up and had a look around. As ever, things are very slow until the sun is a bit higher and it gets warmer, so we waited and could hear a great dawn chorus of weird and wonderful songs! An African Grey Hornbill put in an appearance, we had several views of Arabian Partridges throughout the morning, there were more nice views of Yemen Warbler and Yemen Thrush etc etc. The song of Brown Woodland Warbler rang out from the hillsides, a pair of Little Rock Thrush were exceedingly confiding, and the first of many Arabian Sunbirds put in an appearance. 

Little Rock Thrush

Once at the bottom of the valley we wandered around hoping for Arabian Waxbill, but all we could find were many more sunbirds, Long-billed Pipit, Cinnamon-breasted Bunting and some other common species. But no waxbills. So the journey back up the ridiculously steep road gave us all the same species and we nearly had Arabian Woodpecker. We heard one in a couple different locations but they just weren't responsive. So feeling a little naffed off we decided to drive back into town, check out of the hotel at 11.30am and had some lunch. 

Regrouping over a nice burger we decided to head north towards Tanomah  and look for Saudi's one and only true endemic, Asir Magpie. It was just around a 90 minute drive on good roads before the turn-off towards Billasmer and within 100m of the junction I spotted a magpie on some telegraph wires ahead. A nice big pull-in was just past the bend and we jumped out, eventually finding up to 4 birds in the area. it's a distinctive looking bird and very different to the magpies in Europe. 

Asir Magpie

We spent quite some time watching them and trying for a good photo, but that never did happen! We were all ecstatic to get this "quick win" as I put it and we were enjoying the sunshine, surrounded by lots of birds. there was a large group of over 15 Arabian babblers, more linnets, several close brown Woodland Warblers and a group of Abyssinian White-eyes came in to my owlet impersonation. And then... a woodpecker called. A quick burst of tape and it flew right at me and landed in a close tree. The views were out of this world and we lapped up every detail of this cracker. 

Arabian Woodpecker

We left here and headed to our next digs in Tanomah, a delightful private 3 bed villa. Except 2 of the bedrooms were children's, kitted out in Hello Kitty bright pink walls etc. 

A short distance away is Mahfar Tourist Park and we dived up there for dusk and waited for the resident Arabian Eagle Owl to fly onto the roof of the large building next to the car park..... Which it duly did. What a stunner and we had several views of it flying around and perching in surrounding trees. 

Arabian Scops Owl

There was also several Arabian Scops Owls calling and we managed to entice one into a nearby Juniper for some stunning views. 

SAUDI ARABIA DAY 3 - Abha

 We were really looking forward to today, as there's a bunch of endemics to find and we want better views of yesterday's serins and linnets. So we were off before sunrise heading to the closest wadi on our list and it only took 20 minutes to get there as we followed streets devoid of maniacal drivers and followed twisting, winding lanes into a rural area. Parking up, we could hear Yemen Linnets singing away from the fields behind us but after a few minutes standing around in the crisply cold air we realised there wasn't going to be much activity until the air temperature increased! In short, it was bloody freezing! So to get moving we located some small pools further down into the wadi that sometimes hold roosting Arabian Waxbills - but not today. We had a decent view down through the narrow wadi and up onto the hillside above us so we decided to watch and wait here. Some time later a Philby's Partridge began calling above us and luckily it was perched prominently on a rock, probably in response to my iPhone! I wasn't expecting this bird here, and that's why i'd left the scope in the car! Bugger! Luckily David volunteered to go back and get it! It's a superb bird and looked great through the scope, remaining on its rock for a good half an hour. 

Philby's Partridge

By the time the sun had reached our spot we were starving, so we walked back to the car and ate our breakfast that we'd purchased from a supermarket next to the hotel last night. As birders do, we began wandering around. I headed up into some fields when I heard another partridge calling but just at the precisely wrong moment when I thought I was going to get a crippling photo, our first Buff-breasted Wheatear appeared in front of me and distracted me, at which point the partridge flew off! But the wheatear was a stunner and we had great views.

African Stonechat

 In the warm sunshine bird activity increased and there were loads of Yemen Linnets around, more Arabian Serins, Yemen Thrush, African Stonechat, and lots of House Sparrows. 

Meanwhile, back where we parked the car we could hear Brown Woodland Warbler and a scratchy song that I was sure was Yemen Warbler. A quick burst of tape and one flew in to the isolated small juniper next to us and proceeded to sing back. What a cracker this is and we thoroughly enjoyed such fine, close views. 

Yemen Warbler

In fact, another bird flew in and the pair of warblers showed incredibly well. So once they left we drove over to Al Soudah Creek where we saw many of the same birds, as well as our first Afrotropicals in the shape of White-browed Coucal, Little Rock Thrush and some exceptionally close Brown Woodland Warblers. 

Brown Woodland Warbler

White-browed Coucal

Yemen Linnet

Yemen Thrush

We had even better views of Arabian Linnet here, a very close Yemen Thrush and our first Arabian Wheatear. It was very pleasant birding in the warm sunshine but I was starting to get a trifle concerned at the lack of woodpeckers!  Nevertheless, we had multiple sites to check for them so decided to head an hour away to Habala plateau for Rufous-capped Lark. 

Arabian Wheatear

They are not meant to be around at this time of year but we checked anyway and.... yep, not here at this time of year! We had a group of Scrub Warbler of the race buryi and some people call them Levantine Scrub Warblers..... Don't know about that tbh! A couple Long-billed Pipits and a few Crested Larks were here as well but not a lot else. With time slipping away we decided to drive to Wadi Atoud Reservoir for Arabian Waxbill - a bird we knew that could be hard to find. We hadn't got far when I had a message that the larks could be at the small dam so we drove back and found a trickle of water at the dam that's right above a large farm. Well, barking dogs and inquisitive farm workers put aid to any chance of larks and it was 3pm by now! A quick stop at an area of trees gave us African Pipit and a confiding Buff-breasted Wheatear but not a lot else. Leaving here we had a dark morph Steppe Buzzard flying overhead - i've never seen this form before and it really perplexed me for a while!

Steppe Buzzard...

So we decided to just return to the hotel as we were all hungry. This proved to be a good move as we had several options for dinner within walking distance of the hotel and plumped for an Arabian restaurant that dished out some tasty stuff!

SAUDI ARABIA DAY 2 Riyadh - Abha

 We returned to Rawdat Nourah just after first light this morning in search for Arabian Lark. It was great to be out in the desert this early and we were optimistic about our chances, despite the vastness of the area. There'd been a lot of rain a month earlier so the desert was quite green, so we wondered if this would hinder or help our chances? We quickly found another Asian Desert Warbler, a Crested Lark, Greater Hoopoe Lark, Eastern Imperial Eagle, and eventually a group of around 8 Bar-tailed Larks. The Arabian Lark is meant to hang out in the vicinity of these groups of BTL's but despite a lengthy scan we couldn't find one. So with time pressing we headed to another area about an hour away as Peter wanted to try for Thick-billed Lark. Again, we drew a lark-blank but had Desert Lark here and it looked a decent area but time was not our friend so we hot-footed it back to Riyadh Airport for our flight to Abha. To be honest we left it a little late but still made the flight despite a bit of a rush to get through the airport!

Yemen Linnet

Yemen Thrush

It was a short flight of just over an hour to Abha, where an extraordinarily slow car rental episode occurred, eating in to our birding time. Once again, more crazy local driving ensued as we headed into the city and to Abha Reservoir, as this is meant to be a decent place to try for Arabian Waxbill. In hindsight, we should have gone to Wadi Atoud Reservoir but who knew?! Anyhow, this was a cracking little spot where we saw our first Arabian Serin, Yemen Thrush and Yemen Linnets, plus we did have 2 jet-propelled waxbills fly overhead but it just wasn't tickle views. Some Red-knobbed Coots were present, along with what was probably a distant Siberian Stonechat, several Palestine Sunbirds, and a bunch of herons and egrets.

SAUDI ARABIA DAY 1 JANUARY 2023

Saudi Arabia hasn't really been on the birding map so far, with the first commercial tour last year by a UK company and numerous trip reports posted on CloudBirders by Greg Askew. But there's been a few private trips over the past year or so and there's some decent info out there! So I decided to go take a look after my Southern Oman tour and flew from Salalah to Riyadh via Doha, arriving at 10am on 20th January with Peter Nickless and meeting David Todd in the Arrivals Hall. 

What I would say right now is that it's important to understand how things work in Saudi and initial impressions were that things were just awkward. With building renovations at Terminal 2 making actually finding the car rental desk our first challenge and then computers at the Enterprise desk crashing, I was left to search around for another car. Eventually I was able to get a SUV from Sixt and we finally left the airport at 11.30am only to find the gas tank was practically empty and we had to turn around back towards the airport to find a petrol station! This gave us the opportunity to get some bits & pieces for lunch and then we headed about an hour north from Riyadh out into the vast desert to Rawdat Nourah. This is THE site to search for Arabian Lark (a recent split from Dunn's Lark) and we immediately headed off the tarmac across the sandy desert and began searching around the small shrubs present. It seemed pretty dead tbh and we drove and scanned.... and drove some more.... and scanned.... It's good fun driving 'off-road' and we covered a fair amount of ground, but we just couldn't find any Arabian Larks. They are meant to loosely associate with Bar-tailed Larks, and we did find a group of 4 or so TL's but had no joy. There were a few Temminck's Larks, the odd Crested Lark, an Asian Desert Warbler, a Great Grey Shrike and that was it. 

Asian Desert Warbler

Temminck's Lark

So with the sun setting fast we hotfooted it over to another area that was meant to be a site for Pharaoh Eagle-Owl, but it was right beside a busy road. It was dark by the time we arrived but we managed to find a track that took us away from the main road and the lunatic, crazy drivers. Sure enough, as soon as we arrived we could hear a bird calling but despite spending quite a while waiting and playing the odd call, it never moved from its position. So we drove up the road a bit and found another pull in away from the traffic and this time the calling owl flew behind us and continued calling from some distance away. We were patient and spent maybe an hour but the bird didn't come closer. 

So by now it was around 8pm and we had to drive back to Riyadh and find our hotel, which is another story in itself. Despite using Booking.Com the hotel didn't honour our booking and we had to find somewhere else, which was fortunately another hotel just further down the street. And then finding somewhere to eat took ages. Actually this was a theme during our visit, and it seems that an actual restaurant where you go in and sit down to eat is quite rare! Well it was in the places we looked! And that was our first day. We were all pretty tired by the time we got to crash out tonight.

SOUTHERN OMAN BIRDERS SPECIAL 13th - 20th JANUARY 2023 + SAUDIA ARABIA EXTENSION

I know it's a bit last-minute but i'm currently in Southern Oman at Salalah and I have to tell you the birding is fantastic. I really think it is worth doing a full 7 days birding in January, staying at one hotel arriving on 13th January. There's a Qatar flight for just over £500 and it gets you into Salalah via Doha at around 4.15am, so you get a full day's birding on the first day! I have done 4 trips here over the past year and found the 1st Banded Martin, the 1st Grey-tailed Tattler, 7th Blyth's Reed Warbler, 4th Dalmatian Pelican and tomorrow i'm hoping to see the 2nd Buff-breasted Sandpiper for Oman. Oh and this evening we found a very rare Black Stork and saw a Pheasant-tailed Jacana that was literally surrounded by a load of Citrine Wagtails. And yesterday we found a Small Pratincole 15 minutes from our hotel.....

So there you have it. I will be posting the full info on my website very soon, but in the meantime please email if you want to reserve your spot. It is going to cost £1925 per person for 8 nights full-board, travelling in 2 SUV's. There's not too much driving involved as most sites are within an easy 30-40 minutes from our hotel, but we will do a longer journey of just under 2 hours to visit our site for Hypocolius & Nile Valley Sunbird, and to view the sandgrouse drinking pools where hundreds of Chestnut-bellied and a few Crowned Sandgrouse visit. A little further away there is an agricultural area where 6 Sociable Lapwings are currently over-wintering. 

So, we stay at a nice hotel where we have breakfast and dinner, with picnic lunches out in the field every day. It is going to be pleasantly hot (around 30 degrees centigrade) so bring your shorts! 

And on to the birding. It's truly fantastic! We target the Arabian specialities: Arabian Partridge, Arabian Wheatear, Arabian Scops-Owl, Arabian Eagle-Owl, Desert Owl, Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak and Yemen Serin. But there's so much more to our birding here. We should also see Socotra Cormorant, Sand Partridge, Abdim's Stork, Red-knobbed Coot, Verreaux's, Eastern Imperial, Bonelli's & Steppe Eagles, White-cheeked, Gull-billed, Lesser Crested, Greater Crested, Whiskered, Caspian and White-winged Terns, Caspian, Heuglin's, Steppe & Slender-billed Gulls, Masked & Brown Booby, Bruce's Green-Pigeon, Isabelline & Desert Wheatears, Blackstart, African Paradise-Flycatcher, Abyssinian White-eye, Tristram's Starling, Cinnamon-breasted Bunting and so much more.

It's a crazy mix of Asian, African and Western Palearctic species that all meet up here in Southern Oman. So why not see what the buzz is about and join us for some good, old-fashioned birding in the Middle East?

If anyone wants to join me after this in Saudi Arabia for a quick-fire visit to look for Arabian Lark, Philby's Partridge, Arabian Woodpecker, Asir Magpie, Yemen Warbler, Yemen Thrush, Buff-breasted Wheatear, Arabian Golden Sparrow, Arabian Waxbill, Arabian Serin & Yemen Linnet then please let me know.

Here's a link to the full tour info: Southern Oman Birders Special

Here's a few photos from my current Oman tour in Nov 2022:

Eastern Imperial Eagles

African Paradise Flycatcher

Arabian Partridge

Arabian Warbler

Abdim's Stork

Arabian Eagle Owl

Arabian Scops Owl

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse

Greater Spotted Eagle

Rosy Starlings

Short-toed Eagle

Small Pratincole

Spotted Thick-Knee

Turkestan Shrike

Desert Owl could well be the icing on the cake

You just never know what you will find here. So let's go birding!