After a quick half hour sleep in the car the sky was sunny and the storm had moved on. The first major movement was another much larger flock (of approximately 90) european bee-eater. It was a great experience standing in the sun as the whole flock wheeled around me with their characteristic 'chirrrps'.
While the bushes weren't exactly alive with migrants there was as yesterday plenty of ortolan bunting and red-throated pipit. There were three species of wheatear, northern wheatear being a new species in Saudi arabia for me. As far as warblers were concerned there was only a couple of willow warbler but I saw my first common whitethroat for the country and a single desert lesser whitethroat. There were plenty of barn swallow moving through too together with a handful of sand martin.
There were plenty of chats too, both migrants and residents with 8 black bush robin, single black redstart and blackstart and 3 white-throated robin. One bush held two wryneck a species which seems (at least for me) to be a lot commoner here than in Dubai. That's 4 I've seen this winter.
Amongst the small sand hillocks raced jirds, rat sized rodents that were either Libyan jird or Sundervall's jird, I didn't get a close enough look to tell which one (identification is based on claw colour). They attracted the attention of a couple of common kestrel and a pallid harrier.
________________ FULL LIST ________________
Pallid Harrier (Circus macrourus) | 1 | ||||||
harrier sp. (Circus sp.) | 1 | ||||||
Eurasian Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) | 2 | ||||||
Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) | 4 | ||||||
Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) | 80 | ||||||
Laughing Dove (Streptopelia senegalensis) | 30 | ||||||
Namaqua Dove (Oena capensis) | 2 | ||||||
European Bee-eater (Merops apiaster) | 110 | ||||||
Eurasian Wryneck (Jynx torquilla) | 2 | ||||||
Rufous-tailed Shrike (Lanius isabellinus) | 5 | ||||||
Southern Gray Shrike (Lanius meridionalis) | 2 | ||||||
Crested Lark (Galerida cristata) | 80 | ||||||
Sand Martin (Riparia riparia) | 3 | ||||||
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) | 160 | ||||||
White-eared Bulbul (Pycnonotus leucotis) | 180 | ||||||
Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) | 3 | ||||||
Small Whitethroat (Sylvia minula) | 1 | ||||||
Greater Whitethroat (Sylvia communis) | 1 | ||||||
Arabian Babbler (Turdoides squamiceps) | 35 | ||||||
Black Scrub-Robin (Cercotrichas podobe) | 8 | ||||||
White-throated Robin (Irania gutturalis) | 3 | ||||||
Common Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) | 1 | ||||||
Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) | 4 | ||||||
Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) | 1 | ||||||
Blackstart (Cercomela melanura) | 1 | ||||||
Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) | 3 | ||||||
Pied Wheatear (Oenanthe pleschanka) | 3 | ||||||
Western Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava) | 25 | ||||||
Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus) | 20 | ||||||
Ortolan Bunting (Emberiza hortulana) | 40 | ||||||
Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) | 400 |
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