Two different types of lake near Sakaka

Last weekend, I visited the north of Saudi Arabia with two birding friends, Brian James and Lou Regenmorter.

I regard the trip as having been very successful. I saw 54 species which mostly matched the same birds as the others. Two of the 54 were additions to my Saudi list and one of these could only be seen in the far north. This was part of the reason for going up there.

We started out by flying into Al Jouf airport on Thursday night. On Friday morning we birded two interesting but contrasting water bodies in the area. 

We revisited the one lake at Sakaka briefly on late Saturday afternoon too.

coot at Sakaka waste water treatment lake

The two water bodies were the waste water treatment lakes near Sakaka and the more natural lake at Dawmat al Jandal. The former has dense reeds near all the way round while the latter has virtually no cover.

view of part of the waste water lake

At the Sakaka lake, there were plenty of water birds including ducks though all were very nervous presumably because of hunters. The ducks were most ferruginous duck with fewer mallard and teal. Coot was probably more common than moorhen though the moorhen kept almost entirely in cover. 

immature moorhen

We heard water rail on two occasions but failed to see any. Two common snipe were flushed on the return visit on Saturday afternoon.  Bluethroat and house sparrow were the main passerines in or near the reeds.

water pipit

There is an informal rubbish tip next to the lakes and the flies attract a variety of birds. Not least were the European crag martin flying over head. This is a species where some doubt has been raised whether they stay the winter in the Sakaka area. I suspect this rubbish tip is one factor which helps them stay. It must surely supply food for the martins all year round.

white wagtail

Other fly eaters there were white wagtail, European stonechat and an Isabelline wheatear.

collared dove

The other main species at the lake were collared dove. When we arrived at dawn on Friday morning several tens were emerging from their roosts in the reeds and many stayed in the immediate area.

Our next stop, having visited the waste water treatment lakes was the huge expanse of Dawmat al Jandal lake.

Dawmat al Jandal lake

It would have taken several hours to tour all round the lake. Instead we visited a frontage of about 500 metres. Here we came across two wader species: Kentish plover and a single dunlin.

Dunlin

The Kentish plover were most easily seen running all over the deserted car park.

Kentish plover

On the water were several little grebe and at least three black-necked grebe. There were several gulls too which we didn't give enough attention to. They were either slender-billed gull or black headed gull. More European crag martin were seen flying around the edge of the lake.

 

citrine wagtail

After leaving the lake frontage we travelled to a grassed man-made picnic area further round the lake. The grass held more white wagtail but also a small number of citrine wagtail. 

I have now seen wintering citrine wagtail in widely different geographies throughout Saudi Arabia now including here in the north, the Riyadh area in the centre and lake Maliki in the far south west. 

desert wheatear

Both an Isabelline wheatear and desert wheatear were also seen in the picnic area. White eared bulbul were also here. This was the furthest north we saw them on the trip. It could well be the northern edge of their current range.

Namaqua dove

Likewise no Namaqua dove were seen further north on the trip. 

Eastern mourning wheatear

After leaving the lake we travelled north into rocky and hilly semi desert with a couple of scattered farms.

The main birds in the more natural areas were the resident Eastern mourning wheatear (it's a winter visitor further south), white crowned wheatear, crested lark and desert lark.

Desert lark

On the farms a little more diversity was added by white wagtail and kestrel.

Kestrel

However it was only when we travelled further north that the weekend became seriously interesting and I started to pick up more unusual species including two additions to my Saudi list.

An important part of this birding was in the desert areas between Sakaka and the farms in the Tabarjal area. One of my list additions was here. I'll blog about these desert areas next.



Birds seen in the Sakaka and Dawmat al Jandal area

The list below was all the species I saw at the two lakes, the edge of urban Sakaka,  Dawmat al Jandal lake and the hilly and rocky semi desert up to 30 kilometres north of Dawmat al Jandal lake.

	Sakaka waste water lake and near-by	Dawmat al Jandal, lake and near the town
Little grebe	x	x
Black eared grebe		x
Eurasian teal	x
Mallard	x
Ferruginous duck	x
Marsh harrier	x
Kestrel		x
Moorhen	x
Coot	x
Common snipe	x
Kentish plover		x
Feral pigeon	x	x
Collared dove	x	x
Namaqua dove		x
Laughing dove	x	x
Crested lark	x	x
European crag martin	x	x
White wagtail	x	x
Citrine wagtail		x
Water pipit	x
White eared bulbul	x	x
Bluethroat	x
Black redstart	x	x
Chiffchaff	x
European stonechat	x
White crowned wheatear		x
Eastern Mourning wheatear		x
Desert wheatear		x
Isabelline wheatear	x	x
Brown-necked raven	x
Indian silverbill	x
Desert finch	x
House sparrow	x	x
Spanish sparrow		x