Jizan (Part 1)

This weekend I took a flight down to Jizan in the far south west corner of Saudi Arabia not far from the border with Yemen. The south western area is home to almost all the Arabian endemics and being on the coast it offered the chance to find a lot of seabirds and waders.

I caught the 'red eye' flight down that left at 0400 and the ninety minute journey was made (only slightly) more bearable by traveling business class.

I picked up my hire car and headed straight to the corniche. Jizan corniche is a long and deserted stretch of road that hugs the sea wall and offers excellent birding potential. Luckily the tide was far out when I arrived and wit the rising sun behind me conditions were near perfect.

Jizan corniche

I'd barely arrived at the corniche when I saw my first lifer, a pink-backed pelican on top of a street lamp. a second lifer soon followed, several white-eyed gull on the sea wall with sooty gull. But the main attraction was the sheer number of birds out on the exposed mudflats. The commonest waders were lesser sandplover and dunlin, the former mostly resplendent in their breeding plumage. Equally stunning in their red plumage were the many bar-tailed godwit and curlew sandpiper. Less colourful but no less striking were grey plover in their smart monochrome garb. Also making up the numbers were several dozen terek sandpiper with their characteristic upturned bills and a party of five broad-billed sandpiper with their equally characteristic drooping bills.

Further out on the mud were several european spoonbill, western reef heron and great egret. Dotted all over the mud were the first of over two hundred white crab plover running and catching their eponymous prey.

Above all of this hovered terns from the smallest Saunders tern to the commonest white-cheeked tern and the largest caspian tern.

A good start to the weekend with two lifers and plenty of new saudi birds.

Next stop the mountains.