Beach and mangroves on Farasan

Friday afternoon's birding on Farasan kabir was split into two distinct halves. In the first I headed south along the coast from the hotel in the fierce heat. In the second, Bernard Bracken and I visited the mangrove area near the port towards dusk.

The second session provided the better birding including prolonged views of a second goliath heron. 

Goliath heron towards dusk in mangroves

However the afternoon started with the walk south down the coast starting with beach. In this area sooty gull were numerous but in among the was one large black headed gull which turned out to be an over-summering Baltic gull.

Baltic gull

Over summering is not uncommon among immature gulls and this is a second calendar year.

Baltic gull takes off

Further south along the coast the sandy beach turned to a muddy area which had more potential for waders and so it proved.

common redshank

Crab plover was expected but summering common redshank was less so.

crab plover

Ruddy turnstone is one of the most widespread birds in the world.

ruddy turnstone

Kentish plover was the most common wader on this stretch.

Kentish plover

In contrast there was sole grey plover in non-breeding plumage.

grey plover

Over the weekend, Bernard and I found osprey to be ridiculous common.

two osprey

As the temperatures rose, all the land bird activity stopped. Even this hoopoe lark was seen under the shade of a rocky outcrop before moving on.

hoopoe lark

Indeed it got so hot, I needed a 3 hour break from birding, two cold showers, lots of water and rest before I ventured out again with Bernard in the relative cool of the late afternoon.

We chose to visit the extensive mangroves next to the main harbour. This proved to be a good choice.

goliath heron

We almost immediately saw another goliath heron which was actually still in the same place when we doubled back to finish our walk an hour and a half later.

second view of goliath heron

In the meantime, we first heard and then saw several mangrove reed warbler.

African collared dove

I had wondered whether African collared dove were on the islands. It soon became apparent that they were common in and around the mangroves.

young Egyptian vulture

In the distance Bernard spotted four birds of prey which turned out to be Egyptian vulture. The Farasans are a known stronghold of this species. Two of them slowly got closer and closer to us.

While we were watching them I was suddenly aware that flying with them were two sooty falcon. This was a lifer for me and the third addition to my Saudi list over the weekend. They were travelling at such great speed and with frequent changes in direction I only got a poor photograph. 

Nevertheless we saw more sooty falcon the next day and I'll post a picture in the next blog which reports on Saturday.

Almost at sunset, a single young Egyptian vulture came very close to us seeming looking for roost.

Egyptian vulture in flight

In the end we had to leave it for our lift home.

On Saturday we took a four hour boat trip around some of the smaller islands to the west of the main island. This resulted in the fourth and final Saudi list addition and much more.

Farasan on Friday morning

Bernard Bracken and I spent the weekend based on Farasan Kabir island off the Jizan coast in the far south west of Saudi Arabia. 

It was a highly successful trip. I added four species to my Saudi list which I haven't done for over 18 months and didn't expect to do again especially over a weekend. 

Thanks are due to Jem Babbington ( www.birdsofsaudiarabia.com ) who made the trip last year and gave some useful tips on how to get there and how to organise boat trips once there.

I will divide the report on the trip into three blogs. This one looks at the ferry trip over and the rest of the birding on Friday morning. The second will look at the afternoon's birding on the main (kabir) island while the third will report on a boat trip round some of the outer islands.  

Jizan to Farasan ferry

The ferry leaves Jizan at 7 am everyday and passengers are confined to a sealed sitting area.  Bernard and I sat next to a window but it was obscured and I had not expected any birding chances on the sea journey.

Yet despite the dirty windows and the fast speed, I managed to add brown noddy to my saudi list just by taking a careful look at some of the buoys en route. The large brown booby were more obvious but brown noddy were often present perched at the bottom.

buoy en route

Photography was almost impossible through a dirty window on the moving ship but you may just be able to see a brown noddy above the F2 sign. Excellent photos of brown noddy were taken later during the weekend and will be in one of the later blogs.

Goliath heron

As the ferry arrived in the harbour on Farasan, I spotted a large bird standing on a small naked island in front of the large mangrove area adjacent to the port. 

We rushed off the ferry and instead of following the passengers through the terminal building we veered right along a side path to the coast line. The large bird was still in view from there and hadn't moved though it was still 100 metres way.  I couldn't believe our luck. It was a goliath heron. I had two additions to my Saudi list before 9 am and before we had even left the ferry terminal.

As with the brown noddy, we had another chance to see this species but at closer quarters with better photos later.

sooty gull

When we finally got out of the ferry terminal we had a wait of about half an hour before our hastily arranged lift to the hotel was due.

Sooty gull were very much in evidence along with house crow. 

brown booby

Looking out to sea, another brown booby was seen on a buoy.

black crowned sparrow lark

Both crested lark and black crowned sparrow lark were easily seen on the paths and near-by waste land. The crown of the sparrow lark is not black on Farasan, it is chestnut. I understand this variant has been reported in East Africa too.  

Our lift arrived to take us to the Farasan Coral Hotel soon after seeing the sparrow lark.

black crowned sparrow lark

Crested lark and black crowned sparrow lark proved to be the garden birds on the hotel lawns. As far as I know there are no house sparrow on the Farasans.

house crow

House crow were also present.

laughing dove

For the record, laughing dove is on the island and seen near the hotel.

After wandering around the gardens for a few minutes we chose to head north up the coast a couple of hundred metres to a small harbour with fishing and other boats. As it turned out to be the place we started our island hopping boat trip from on Saturday.

However on Friday morning we were content to see what birds used this small harbour.

western reef heron

There was a lone fisherman on working one of the small boats. To our surprise a western reef heron hopped on board within a metre of him. Moments later two pink backed pelican moved towards the same boat and one climbed in. I can only presume that the man sometimes gives them small fish as they were completely unfazed by him.

pink backed pelican in the small harbour

Further round the harbour a striated heron was spotted on another boat. All the time sooty gull were flying all around.

striated heron

On the way back to the hotel we came across a white spectacled bulbul.

white spectacled bulbul

After this short walk out, there were two more birding sessions on Friday. First I headed out walking south down the coast. Second in the late afternoon we visited the mangroves near Farasan port.

Some good birds were seen especially near the mangroves and one was the third addition of the weekend to my Saudi list. I'll blog about the afternoon next.

Lou finds a Goliath heron

Birding colleague and friend, Lou Regenmorter was down in Jizan last week for business. He did, however, have Thursday free to go birding. 

He tells me he spent a large amount of his time looking for the elusive spotted thick knee including in the Lake Maliki area. This species has evaded our current close network of birders since we started looking for it over the past year. 

Goliath heron through a spotting scope

Lou had more luck elsewhere at finding new species. He has told me about excellent coastal habitat just north of Jizan's north corniche which he recommends me to visit. However it was further up the coast in an area best approached by going directly west out of Sabya that Lou had his best find.

Here he saw his first Goliath heron (a bird which is missing from my Saudi list by the way).  Lou doesn't normally photograph but he tells me the bird was so well behaved he had chance to improvise.

Goliath heron in the distance

Armed only with a point-and-shoot camera and a spotting scope he managed to "digiscope" the bird. 

Otherwise the photos would all have been like the second picture (which incidentally gives a good indication of habitat).

Congratulations to Lou on his find and thanks to him for providing the information and pictures.

Goliath heron south of Al Birk

I have previously reported about the upland stage of Brian James's 10 day trip to the south west. Brian has now sent me pictures of a coastal part of the trip and I am posting them today.

Goliath heron

These pictures come from the area south of Al Birk on the Red Sea coast. The highlight was a sighting of a Goliath heron. The bird is so large I can't tell what the other bird in the picture is because it looks so relatively small.

Al Birk is one of three places along the coast where Goliath heron has been reported with any frequency. The other two are the IBA (Important Bird Area) at Yanbu and on the Farasan Islands and near-by main land coast around Jizan.

What is so strange is that they are so far apart. It's 750 kilometres from Jizan to Yanbu and Al Birk is 250 kilometres from Jizan too. Is the population really that fragmented or is it that these are places where views are more accessible?

Brown booby

To make sure your Saudi list is one of the larger ones, you have to go to the south west. It's here that many Afro-tropical and other tropical species can be found. Brown booby becomes progressively more common the further south down the Red Sea coast that you travel. Al Birk is a good place to see it because of the open views.

Eurasian spoonbill

Eurasian spoonbill breeds at many places down the coast whereas African spoonbill is also a possibility in the far south west especially in summer.

Slender billed gull

Brian who is based out of Thuwal, north of Jeddah, added 20 species to his Saudi list on the trip. He is now close to having the largest Saudi list of all time (or at least as far as I can find). 

You can find his list at http://brianlkaust.blog.com/ or you can click on the link on the right hand column of this blogsite.

Wood sandpiper

I hope to show more from Brian's trip in later blogs. I thank him once again for these photos and permission to use post them.