The coast near Yanbu

On Friday morning Brian James, Dan, Alice and I birded more places in the Yanbu area. We started at Sharma Yanbu which is a two pronged sea inlet. The northern prong was most productive with more varied landscape including a small plot of mangrove.

It was near the water line here that we had two tricky identification issues. First we came across two larks which we eventually identified as skylark. They took so long to identify mostly because they were 300 kilometres south of their mapped range in the main regional guide. This made us very cautious and precise.

Actually there were at least half a dozen birds we saw on the trip which were beyond their mapped range. It would appear that the maps are least accurate in the Yanbu area than even anywhere else in Saudi Arabia. I suspect the birding has been most limited there.

 steppe gull

A case in point was with the second tricky identification issue very close to the skylark.

We came across three large white headed gulls. One of them had bright yellow legs and a light coloured eye. With these and other features including seeing it in flight we presumed it might be a yellow legged gull.

 back of steppe gull

The only problem with that is that the map doesn't show it any closer than 700 kilometres north at the top end of the Red Sea.

 steppe gull in flight

I presented the pictures to BirdForum for the experts to look at. There was discussion around whether it was yellow legged gull, Hueglins gull or steppe gull. There are more problems here because the map shows steppe gull no closer than Yemen over 1000 kilometres way and Hueglins gull also in Yemen  and in the top end of the Red Sea 700 kilometres away (next to the yellow legged gull).

 Heuglins gull

The conclusion was that, among other features, the mantle was too dark for yellow legged gull (especially when compared with the adjacent gull which is definitively a third calendar year Heuglins gull. So the mystery adult gull was suggested to be a steppe gull with a light eye (very common among Arabian peninsula wintering steppe gull apparently).

The maps show only Caspian gull and Baltic gull in Yanbu and indeed all the Red Sea coast (and certainly they are the most commonly seen). However to say they are the only large white headed gulls there is surely very wrong. We need some real gull experts to do some survey work here. The maps are a mess.

 mixed gulls and oystercatcher

The picture above shows a more common selection of local gulls with oystercatcher. I can see a Baltic gull, Caspian gull, black headed gull and slender billed gull.

Another notable bird seen in the small amount of mangroves here was common kingfisher.

 black-eared wheatear

The land near Sharma Yanbu held birds other than water birds. In particular we picked up several wheatears including a couple of black eared wheatear.

 purple heron

After finishing with Sharma Yanbu we headed down the coast along Yanbu's corniche towards the mangroves which have been designated IBA (Important Bird Area).

The corniche probably deserved more time but we had to pass through quickly en route towards the mangroves. On passing we stopped for a heron since goliath heron has been reported at Yanbu in the past. It turned out to be a purple heron.

 crab plover and a curlew

Plenty of crab plover were seen in the area as well.

Eurasian spoonbill

The IBA was a bit of a disappointment. According to BirdLife International, it consists of three separate plots of mangroves.  We found the most northerly plot was surrounded by new development though separated by a wall and a canal. From our quick scan we didn't see any thing of interest though it was high tide. The second conservation area was more accessible though it was close to a refinery where photography was banned. We were careful to photograph away from the refinery. We saw Eurasian spoonbill and western reef heron.

 western reef heron

We never did find the third and largest set of mangroves. We believe they were between a refinery and a desalination plant and completely out of bounds for the general public. So if goliath heron is still around then it is not going to be seen by bird watchers.

 Marsh harrier

From noon onwards we started travelling back south towards Thuwal. We tried hard to hug the coast using whatever minor roads and tracks were available. We were on the look out for any mangroves.

The most eventful part of this journey was the number of marsh harrier (and to a lesser extent pallid harrier) we saw. We presumed all were on passage. Unfortunately, there was no sign of a Montagu's harrier which I still haven't seen in Saudi Arabia but which I am told is not uncommon on the west coast at this time of year.

One plot of mangrove was found at a wadi entrance but was the wrong side of extensive mud flats and therefore inaccessible.

 common kestrel

Two other birds of prey seen were common kestrel and osprey.

 osprey

As we went south we passed through another area full of larks (as we did on the way up) with the same species.

 yellow wagtail

This time we also spotted tens of yellow wagtail and a few tawny pipit as well.

 black crowned sparrow lark

There were very few trees and bushes. Those that there were often held chiffchaff or willow warbler.  

willow warbler

We stopped hugging the coast near Rabigh and the sightings there have been reported in a previous blog.

It was an eventful weekend overall with two additions to my Saudi list. 118 species were seen in all. This is even more than during my visits to Jizan in the south west and a record for me over a weekend.

List of birds seen in the Rabigh and Yanbu area

Common quail	Hoopoe
Black stork	Common kingfisher
Eurasian spoonbill	Little green bee-eater
Little bittern	Woodchat shrike
Cattle egret	Masked shrike
Little egret	Daurian shrike
Squacco heron	Turkestan shrike
Grey heron	Asian grey shrike (aucheri)
Purple heron	Arabian babbler
Western reef heron	House crow
Osprey	Brown necked raven
Black kite	Fan tailed raven
Marsh harrier	Yellow vented bulbul
Pallid harrier	Black crowned sparrow lark
Long legged buzzard	Hoopoe lark
Steppe buzzard	Crested lark
Steppe eagle	Skylark
Kestrel	Greater short toed lark
Moorhen	Lesser short toed lark
Cream coloured courser	Desert lark
Eurasian oystercatcher	Eurasian crag martin
Black winged stilt	Pale crag martin
Crab plover	Sand martin
Spur winged lapwing	Barn swallow
White tailed lapwing	Graceful prinia
Grey plover	Clamorous reed warbler
Common ringed plover	Eurasian reed warbler
Little ringed plover	Marsh warbler
Kentish plover	Willow warbler
Common snipe	Chiffchaff
Black tailed godwit	Blackcap
Bar tailed godwit	Arabian warbler
Whimbrel	Lesser whitethroat
Eurasian curlew	Whitethroat
Spotted redshank	Common myna
Redshank	Black bush robin
Greenshank	Common redstart
Green sandpiper	Stonechat
Terek sandpiper	Isabelline wheatear
Common sandpipier	Northern wheatear
Little stint	Blackstart
Dunlin	Black eared wheatear
Ruddy turnstone	Desert wheatear
Sooty gull	Pied wheatear
Black headed gull	White crowned wheatear
Slender billed gull	Cyprus wheatear
Caspian gull	House sparrow
Lesser black backed gull (Steppe, Baltic and Heuglins)	Spanish sparrow
Caspian tern	Pale rock sparrow
Whiskered tern	African silverbill
Gull billed tern	Indian silverbill
Chestnut bellied sandgrouse	White wagtail
Rock dove	Yellow wagtail
Collared dove	Grey wagtail
Namaqua dove	Tawny pipit
Laughing dove	Water pipit
Greater spotted cuckoo	Red throated pipit
Common swift	Cretzschmar’s bunting
Pallid swift	Ortolan bunting