Strong passage at Ghaftayn

I started birding on Saturday morning in the gardens of Al Ghatayn resthouse where I had stayed two nights and used as a base to go north. It is surrounded by desert but has a good reputation for birds.

There was a break in the sandstorms so the light and views were good. It took me only about two minutes to realise there had been a very big fall of passage birds over-night into the gardens. It was so big that I saw more passage passerine in two hours there that morning than the whole of the rest of the passage season up to that moment.

By 8.30 am I had seen seven different types of warbler and two types of passage shrike.

It started with a gentle walk around some of the trees next to the main building.

Eastern Olivaceous warbler

The first thing I noticed was the large numbers of barn swallow both hawking for insects but also just resting in trees. Then I homed in on a small group of warblers in small cluster of large trees. Two of the warblers were Eastern Olivaceous Warbler while the other was a Willow Warbler.

Barn swallow

Then I realised that there was fourth warbler present. It was shyer but for a short moment I got a straight view of a barred warbler. Even it the picture of a peeping bird you can clearly see its yellow eyes.

barred warbler peeping

This was my first sighting a barred warbler in Oman and it became bird number 265 on my country list.

Tawny pipit

Elsewhere in the garden I picked up on a passage tawny pipit and a desert wheatear. In another tree was a female blackcap.

Desert wheatear

At this stage I decided to make towards the pool and associated trees behind the garden. The garden is walled and the pool is very close to the wall but not accessible from the garden. 

Instead I drove to the front of the hotel and walked round the side towards the pool.

Black crowned sparrow lark

While walking round I came across the resident black-crowned sparrow lark and hoopoe lark.

Hoopoe lark

I then arrived at the back of the garden but on the other side of the wall. This was only to find interesting bird activity taking place within the garden I had just left. 

Yellow wagtail

By standing on a sand heap, I  peered back into the garden. Two yellow wagtail were walking around. However the more exciting bird was masked shrike flying between trees in the corner of the garden.

Masked shrike

On the ground next to the wall but on the other side again, a rufous bush robin came up to a patch of water and started drinking. He had chosen his over-night stop well. Not many other places have clean water or even any water for 150 kilometres in any direction.

Rufous bush robin

After a while I finally turned my attention to the pond area outside the garden. 

At the front of one of the main trees was a woodchat shrike. 

Woodchat shrike 1

This was my first woodchat shrike in Oman and so my country list increased for the second time before breakfast up to 266.

Woodchat shrike 2

I looked up to the top of the highest tree in the cluster and there was second masked shrike.

A second masked shrike

Around the pool were plenty of resident house sparrow. The whole site was heaving with birds.

female house sparrow

In some tamarisk trees at the back of the pool were five types of warbler: eastern olivaceous warbler, chiffchaff, willow warbler, lesser whitethroat and an Upcher's warbler.

Upcher's warbler

It's possible there were even more birds around. However eventually I decided I  needed to start the journey home with an early stop to find something to eat. I had not eaten since the early evening the day before.

Upcher's warbler deeper in trees

I didn't want to leave this site behind. I thoroughly recommend this resthouse for other reasons than the birding too. The managers, Kumar and Felix, were perfect hosts. My room was clean and large. They had put on BBC World on the TV as well as the aircon before my arrival. The water for the shower was piping hot. The restaurant is fine too. 

This blog page is five years old but all the information including the telephone number to make reservations is still current http://alghaftainrest-houseoman.blogspot.com/2010/04/al-ghaftain-rest-house-oman.html

the pond

I had birded the site the morning before on Friday. This had been a quite different experience.  For a start, there was a sandstorm.

lesser whitethroat

The only obvious passage birds had been a few lesser whitethroat, less barn swallow and rather strangely a white-winged black tern making passes over the pond for insects.

brown-necked raven

Through the dusty haze I also picked up two brown-necked raven, one of which was squawking continually.

local fox

The biggest highlight that morning was not a bird at all but two Ruppell's foxes resting in the garden and then at the pond.

After Ghaftayn, my route home was Muntasar Oasis-Qatbit rest house- Al Beed farm. I will blog about that next. 

A leaky tap in an Acacia grove

On Friday morning, having finished birding a second time at the Rabigh waste water wetlands we decided to go well inland from Thuwal to go "bush bashing". 

Bush bashing is when you look hard at bushes and trees, particularly acacia and tamarisk in this part of the world. Our aim was to look for warblers as an antidote to all the large birds viewed during much of the trip.

Our hopes weren't high as it was getting towards the hottest part of the day which was up to 44C.

We struck very lucky. As we parked the car to start we noticed we were next to a water butt with a leaky tap and some shade underneath.  Before even getting out of the parked car we saw one or two birds in the shade and they were warblers.  Two were barred warbler and lesser whitethroat. 

barred warbler and lesser whitethroat

They were obviously very hot and oblivious to our presence. We decided to stay put in the car and watch. Indeed in the end we stayed fully two hours as a steady stream of warblers and other birds queued up to drink and take in the shade. 16 species called by in all.

the leaking tap with several nile valley sunbirds

Starting with the warblers: seven different types made appearances. Only Arabian warbler made a brief one while the others returned time and time again or even stayed for several minutes such as the barred warbler.

Eastern olivaceous warbler

Three different eastern olivaceous warbler were among them.  I know there were at least three because one was very thin and two others appeared at one time. The water may well have saved the thin ones life on such a harsh day.

willow warbler

A willow warbler was present for the second shortest time after the Arabian warbler. 

common whitethroat

Two common whitethroat made many appearances. One was a male (see above) and the other a juvenile or female.

Menetries's warbler

The warbler we wanted to get best views of was a Menetries's warbler and it didn't give good views at first. One reason we needed good views was to separate this first year bird from a first year sub-alpine warbler which is also possible in this area.

Menetries's warbler cocking tail

However a contrasting darker tail against the mantle colour and the habit of dropping its wings and cocking its tail is diagnostic for Menetries's warbler even in a young bird like this.

four warblers

Sometimes, several warblers were present at once. The picture above shows barred warbler, lesser whitethroat, willow warbler and common whitethroat all in the shade at the same time.

Incidentally there were at least three lesser whitethroat.

The warblers couldn't drink directly from the tap unlike some of the species but dived into the tyre from time to time where we believe some water had collected or went outside to drink from a trickle. 

Shining sunbird

Species which could drink directly from the tap or even aerially were Nile valley sunbird and shining sunbird. The former usually appeared several at a time.

white spectacled bulbul

Larger birds appeared too. White spectacled bulbul came a few times. They wouldn't tolerate other birds around the tap and tried to bully them off.

two Arabian babbler

The largest birds to arrive were two Arabian babbler, one was adult (with a light eyes) and one was a juvenile (with dark eyes). There came and went three or four times. On two occasions, the juvenile remained while the adult left.

male Ruepells weaver

At times the scene was quite colourful especially if the Nile valley sunbird were present at the same time as Ruepells weaver.

male house sparrow

One small surprise was the lack of large numbers of house sparrow though one individual did stay in the shade for 20 minutes.

black bush robin

A black bush robin favoured the trickle outside the shaded roofed area but this species is used to heat.

Isabelline wheatear

An Isabelline wheatear was one of very many birds with its mouth wide open which is a sign of a bird over-heating. We weren't getting any cooler ourselves since the car engine was off and with it the air conditioning.

Masked shrike

The final species seen was a masked shrike who looked fully fit if not a bit thin like many of the migrants.

This proved a fascinating and unexpected end to my trip to the Thuwal area north of Jeddah.

The area proved once again to give very rich bird watching. Indeed my initial estimate of 114 species seen in 2 days was well short. It was actually around 130. A list is given below which may be amended slightly as my records and photos are compared more closely with Brian's.

This is the largest list I have had over a weekend while in Saudi Arabia.

	KAUST campus	East of Thuwal	Rabigh waste water wetland	Wadi Rabigh
Garganey	x
Northern shoveller	x
Mallard	x
Little grebe				x
Glossy ibis			x
Black crowned night heron	x			x
Cattle egret	x
Squacco heron	x		x
Striated heron	x
Grey heron	x
Purple heron	x
Little egret	x
Western reef heron	x
Demoiselle crane	x		x
Osprey	x
European honey buzzard	x	x	x	x
Yellow billed kite				x
Marsh harrier	x		x
Pallid harrier			x
Montagu’s harrier			x
Steppe buzzard		x	x	x
Long legged buzzard			x
Greater spotted eagle			x
Steppe eagle			x
Booted eagle		x
Kestrel		x
Corncrake	x
Moorhen	x
Purple swamphen	x
Eurasian oystercatcher	x
Crab plover	x
Black winged stilt	x		x
Spur winged lapwing	x		x
Grey plover	x
Pacific golden plover	x
Common ringed plover	x
Little ringed plover	x
Kentish plover	x
Lesser sand plover	x
Bar tailed godwit	x
Black tailed godwit	x
Whimbrel	x
Eurasian curlew	x
Spotted redshank	x
Common redshank	x
Common greenshank	x
Common sandpiper	x		x
Green sandpiper	x		x
Wood sandpiper	x
Terek sandpiper	x
Little stint	x		x
Sanderling	x
Curlew sandpiper	x
Dunlin	x
Ruddy turnstone	x
Collared pratincole	x		x
Sooty gull	x
Caspian gull	x
Gull billed tern	x
Caspian tern	x
Lesser crested tern	x
Saunder’s tern	x
White winged tern	x			x
Chestnut bellied sandgrouse			x
Rock dove	x	x		x
European turtle dove	x
Eurasian collared dove	x	x		x
African collared dove	x
Laughing dove	x	x	x	x
Namaqua dove	x	x	x	x
Rose ringed parakeet	x
Common cuckoo			x
European roller			x
Eurasian hoopoe	x	x	x	x
Blue cheeked bee-eater	x		x
European bee-eater	x		x
Little green bee-eater		x	x	x
European wryneck	x
Eurasian golden oriole	x
Woodchat shrike	x
Masked shrike		x
Red-backed shrike	x		x
Daurian shrike	x	x	x
Lesser grey shrike	x		x
Asian grey shrike (aucheri)	x
Arabian babbler		x
House crow	x
Brown necked raven		x
White spectacled bulbul	x	x		x
Black crowned sparrow lark				x
Greater hoopoe lark			x
Crested lark	x	x	x	x
Greater short toed lark			x	x
Desert lark				x
Sand martin	x		x	x
Pale crag martin				x
Red rumped swallow	x		x
Barn swallow	x		x
Graceful prinia			x
Eurasian reed warbler			x
Eastern olivaceous warbler		x
Upcher’s warbler	x
Olive tree warbler	x
Willow warbler	x	x
Barred warbler		x
Arabian warbler		x
Lesser whitethroat		x
Common whitethroat		x
Menetries’s warbler		x
Common myna	x
Rufous tailed scrub robin		x
Black scrub robin	x	x	x	x
Whinchat	x		x
Isabelline wheatear		x
Northern wheatear
Blackstart		x		x
Black eared wheatear				x
Desert wheatear	x		x
Spotted flycatcher	x
Nile valley sunbird		x
Shining sunbird		x
House sparrow	x	x	x	x
Pale rock finch				x
Ruepells weaver		x
Yellow wagtail	x		x	x
White wagtail			x
Tawny pipit			x
Tree pipit			x
Striolated bunting				x
Creztschmer’s bunting			x