Jizan (Part 2)

This afternoon I headed inland into the mountains beyond Abu Arish with the intention of exploring the wadis and mountainsides. My first fortunate find was a large shallow lake just off the road. It was quite a walk in the heat but even as I approached the water I could see there were plenty of birds and in particular marsh terns with some fifty fantastic white-winged tern in full black and white summer plumage hawking over the lake. They were joined by lesser numbers of caspian tern and whiskered tern.

The muddy lake fringes held a lot of waders including a couple of hundred little stint and mixed in with them the odd Temminck's stint. There were plenty of other waders including spur-winged plover but a smart flock of black-tailed godwit were standouts together with a single spotted redshank in its stunning black breeding plumage.

Out in the middle of the lake I couldn't see any ducks but there were plenty of pink-backed pelican, moorhen and a flock of 45 eurasian spoonbill which (unlike those I usually see in Dubai or England) were very active. I finally caught up with two new species while walking back, a flock of glossy ibis flew over and then I found a busy flock of arabian waxbill flitting through the reeds. With the addition of the latter I've now seen seven of the ten arabian endemics present in the kingdom. As I was leaving two pale rock finch came down to drink at the water's edge.

I continued my drive and just hopped out of the car to explore anywhere that looked interesting. A roadside rubbish tip held several namaqua dove and a single black kite. African palm swift flew over in ones and twos together with the odd sand martin and more common barn swallow both moving north on migration. One large wadi held good numbers of blackcap and barred warbler which were so common they were 'flocking' in small groups. Arabian babbler were noisy with their incongruous high pitched whistles and several green and yellow male nile valley sunbird were displaying to prospective mates.

Bird of the weekend was a stunning male amethyst starling which in spite of its fabulous glossy violet colour was so still that I almost missed it.

I carried on up the increasingly steep and windy path to the park near the top of Mount Fifa where I added little swift, fan-tailed raven and blackstart to the weekend list.

Overall it was a great days birding and I added about 30 species to my Saudi Arabia list.