This morning I ventured further afield from Riyadh with Rob Tovey. We originally intended to travel south of the city to the dairy farms at Dirab. However our driver told us there was a security road block en route that might be difficult for us to pass without a errr.... 'fine'. So we chose to go a different route and drive via Ha'ir and then along a wadi running due west to the road just below Dirab and approach the town from the south thereby avoiding the road block. However to cut to the chase we ended up happily birding the wadi all morning and didn't make it as far as Dirab Farms. I'm not sure of the name of the wadi but for now let's refer to it as Wadi Dirab.
We drove west along the decent tarmac road that runs along the wadi from the village of Old Ha'ir. The road hugged the steep escarpment but the floor of the wadi soon opened up to the south, the area being used for farming and date plantations. After a few miles we passed what was signposted as a fish farm. Although we couldn't see any water a row of old trees behind the high walls held six black kite.
Next we found a small rubbish tip by the side of the round... always a magnet to birds and birders. The tip contained several fly blown camel and goat corpses... things were looking up! The first bird I saw was a juvenile white-crowned black wheatear, its glossy black plumage interrupted by the smallest of white flecks on the top of its head.
The young wheatear was still calling for food and it wasn't long before it was joined, and duly fed by one of its parents.
That was one lifer for me... and it appeared a second was to quickly follow (not before a greater spotted eagle had drifted overhead). Bar-tailed desert lark had been my nemesis back in Dubai but I thought I had found one sat all of about six feet from me, so close I was having trouble focusing with my 400 mm lens. Unfortunately it was a desert lark, new for me in KSA but common back in the UAE.
A second lifer soon followed, an equally obliging blackstart also sat up to be photographed in between hawking for insects around the debris.
When we reached the Dirab road we turned around and re-traced our steps as there would be nowhere to do a u-turn before the check point on the road to Dirab. When we reached the fish farm one of the black kite we had seen earlier was now circling overhead with a large eagle. It was a juvenile eastern imperial eagle with it's splendid striped belly and underwing coverts.
On the way back to Ha'ir we stopped at another roadside rubbish tip. This one held another blackstart and a fabulous mourning wheatear which was another bird that was quite happy to be photographed. A smart southern grey shrike, several desert lesser whitethroats and a blue rock thrush made up the numbers.
Finally, as our driver visited the mosque in Old Ha'ir, we walked along the river beside the village. We were suprised to find a wintering wryneck and I thought I had a brief view of a fan-tailed cisticola in flight although I'm not sure they occur this far north. One for future discussion.
All in all an excellent day and the birding in central Saudi arabia is getting better and better. Who knows what surprises are in store for the rest of the winter.
We drove west along the decent tarmac road that runs along the wadi from the village of Old Ha'ir. The road hugged the steep escarpment but the floor of the wadi soon opened up to the south, the area being used for farming and date plantations. After a few miles we passed what was signposted as a fish farm. Although we couldn't see any water a row of old trees behind the high walls held six black kite.
Next we found a small rubbish tip by the side of the round... always a magnet to birds and birders. The tip contained several fly blown camel and goat corpses... things were looking up! The first bird I saw was a juvenile white-crowned black wheatear, its glossy black plumage interrupted by the smallest of white flecks on the top of its head.
 |
| White-crowned black wheatear |
That was one lifer for me... and it appeared a second was to quickly follow (not before a greater spotted eagle had drifted overhead). Bar-tailed desert lark had been my nemesis back in Dubai but I thought I had found one sat all of about six feet from me, so close I was having trouble focusing with my 400 mm lens. Unfortunately it was a desert lark, new for me in KSA but common back in the UAE.
 |
| Desert lark |
 |
| Blackstart |
 |
| Eastern imperial eagle |
 |
| Mourning wheatear |
All in all an excellent day and the birding in central Saudi arabia is getting better and better. Who knows what surprises are in store for the rest of the winter.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ FULL LIST _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
1 Grey heron
12 Greater spotted eagle
1 Eastern imperial eagle
6 Black kite
3 Common kestrel
1 Common snipe
300 Collared dove
50 Laughing dove
20 Rock dove
80 Pallid swift
40 Little green bee-eater
3 Hoopoe
1 Wryneck
3 Desert lark
60 Crested lark
6 Pale crag martin
1 White wagtail
1 White-spectacled bulbul
80 White-cheeked bulbul
1 Black bush robin
1 Bluethroat
3 Blackstart
1 Desert wheatear
1 Red-tailed wheatear
2 Mourning wheatear
3 White-crowned black wheatear
3 Blue rock thrush
4 Desert lesser whitethroat
1 Daurian shrike
1 Southern grey shrike
35 Brown-necked raven
40 Common mynah
25 House sparrow
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