Thursday 19 April 2012

Two late ones from Jizan

I reviewed my photos from Jizan again yesterday afternoon and realised I had missed two species in my original count.  Both are fortunately new additions to my Saudi list though not lifers.  

Both birds were in the background while I was watching and focusing photos on other birds. So apologies straight away for the quality of the pictures on this blog. 

sanderling

The first addition is sanderling seen on the coast at Jizan industrial city. I know this bird better in winter plumage when the head is almost white. It brought back memories as it was the last bird I saw on my last birding trip while in Libya.

front view of the same Sanderling

The second bird also has a Libyan connection. Nearly all the Mediterranean population of lesser crested tern breeds in Libya. However, the population is much larger along the Red Sea coast and it should have been no surprise to see some near Jizan. The photo shows at least five present on a sand bank just off Jizan bay.

lesser crested tern

The above picture was cropped off a photo of waders much closer to shore. 

The result of this photo review is that the total number of species seen by me in Saudi Arabia since I arrived just increased from 191 to 193!

2 comments:

  1. Presumably the birds LCT's that i have seen in Maroc come from Libya but the Royals down South are fro West Africa - so i'm told.....

    Laurie -

    ReplyDelete
  2. Laurie,

    I am pretty sure you are right. The people in Libya are now tracking where their birds go. My understanding is most go down to west Africa via Morocco. However the ones in the eastern most Libyan colony may not. They just might go east down the red sea. I'm not up to date enough to know whether this theory has been proven or disproven.

    As for Royals, I have only ever seen them in Senegal. I don't know much about their movements

    Rob

    ReplyDelete