Raysut treated water lake revisited

Yesterday late afternoon, I visited Raysut treated water lake for the second time. The water level was higher but still incredibly clean. The treatment plant must be working to very high standards.

This does of course mean there are very few reeds which need more nutrients and less flies than most plants!

However there were still a good variety of birds and it was a pleasure to bird in such a clean environment.

I have very mixed emotions about my visit. I thought I glimpsed a long-tailed shrike which is a vagrant to these parts but never saw it long enough or got a photo. I searched very hard for it again but failed. I won't claim this sighting but I will go back as soon as I can to look again.

Blue-cheeked bee-eater

As partial compensation, I came across five blue-cheeked bee-eater.  This was the first sighting by me of them in Oman. I have yet to see a European bee-eater here.

Two blue-cheeked bee-eater

In the same tree as a blue-cheeked bee-eater at one stage were a few Tristram's starling. The lake is popular with house crow too.

Tristram's starling

Other land birds included Ruepell's weaver and African silverbill.

The lake

The African silverbill were spending much of their time preening.

African silverbill

Nearer the water's edge, several citrine wagtail were seen. The numbers have increased since last time.

citrine wagtail

Some were moulting. I assume from juvenile monochrome into brighter colours.

white stork in the sky

Large numbers of white stork spend the winter at the near-by Salalah lagoons and Raysut rubbish tip so it wasn't surprising that 45 or so passed over the far end of the lake at one stage. Three steppe eagle were with them.

black winged stilt

Waders included several black-winged stilt, grey heron, squacco heron and a single glossy ibis. 

green sandpiper

All of trio: wood sandpiper, common sandpiper and green sandpiper were there.

wood sandpiper

The far end looks good terrain for collared pratincole but non seen so far. Lets see what the winter brings.

Round up of recent walks to work

In between the excellent birding at weekends and holidays I have been having recently, I have also been to work.

This blog is a round-up of birding while walking to and from work in late October and the beginning of November.

I walk past or through a small experimental farm which incidentally is slowly being closed down. Next to it is a small temporary holding lake for water being removed form the ground.

First I can say that passage activity has virtually finished. I saw three blue-cheeked bee-eater land on a tall tree on November 3rd. Before that the last of the immature migrant wheatears was seen on October 24th.

Blue-cheeked bee-eater

The sad thing is the farm wont be there to support the spring passage. Having spoken to a researcher there it is being relocated and to a place not on my walking route. I suspect all the trees will go and some have gone already.

juvenile pied wheatear 

At the moment there is still plenty of bushes and greenery to attract birds and I will enjoy while it lasts.

Turkestan shrike

Now its the turn of wintering birds to take the spotlight. Both Turkestan shrike and Daurian shrike winter in central Arabia with some travelling on as far as East Africa. The bird above as been around the farm garden long enough to convince me it is a winterer. 

Juvenile and female red-tailed shrike are very difficult to tell apart. Turkestan shrike tend to have warmer upper-parts and colder underparts. Their tails tend to be darker at the end and lighter towards the rump.

eastern mourning wheatear

Another bird which has stayed around for over two weeks and will almost certainly winter is an Eastern Mourning Wheatear. The wintering birds in the centre and east of Saudi Arabia come from Iraq and Iran. In the west of the country there are fewer Eastern Mourning Wheatear which come south from the near-east and they travel less far too. 

green sandpiper

In the holding lake, a single green sandpiper has been seen for over 5 weeks now and is probably the same bird.

white wagtail

In recent days one or two white wagtail have been seen there too. 

black winged stilt

Two black winged stilt have been with the green sandpiper most of the time. They left when the water level went low on a couple of occasions. 

four of the black winged stilt

However recently the water has been continuous and the number of black-winged stilt have multiplied. There have been six present all week.

pale crag martin

There are no longer any migrant barn swallow hawking for insects over the lake. This is left to the resident little green-bee-eater and pale crag martin.

little green bee-eater

Crested lark are occasional visitors to the lake too. 

crested lark

Two more resident birds which caught my eye over the past two weeks are the hoopoe and Indian silverbill.

hoopoe

I can go many days without seeing either but the silverbill in particular have been prominent recently.

Indian silverbill

I'll continue to give occasional updates on the walk if any changes happen.

A crowded field at Al Hayer

Lou Regenmorter saw a little crake at Al Hayer while I was away at Yanbu last weekend.

Though little crake is believed to be only a passage bird in central Arabia, I set out on Friday morning to see if I could find a crake in the same area as Lou had 6 days before.

However before I set about heading towards the right part of Al Hayer I was distracted by a very large number of cattle egret in one of the pivot fields. 

some of over 400 cattle egret

The grass had just been cut and the cattle egret were clearly attracted to this as I have seen elsewhere before. On Friday though, I counted over 400.

a single squacco heron

During most of the year squacco heron are the most common member of the heron family but on Friday morning I found just one on the edge of the field.

blue-cheeked bee-eater

The field was not just crowded with cattle egret. Many Barn swallow were once again hawking for insects. I am beginning to wonder when their passage will end. More surprisingly 40 blue-cheeked bee-eater were doing the same.

a row of blue-cheeked bee-eaters

This is not only another late passage but also the largest flock of the species I have seen this autumn. I can only assume it's been milder than usual in the Caucacus and Central Asia for this time of year.

an adult male marsh harrier

The field also attracted three marsh harrier. One was an adult male which is very uncommonly seen in this parts.

kestrel

The only other birds of prey in the early morning in the field were two kestrel.

white wagtail taking off

White wagtail wintering numbers are picking up and there were tens in the same field. I didn't inspect any other pivot field because the fields weren't meant to be my primary destination on Friday. No yellow wagtail remain from earlier this autumn.

Indian silverbill

Some times of year the fields are swarming with sparrows, finches, weavers and allies. This time Indian silverbill and a small number of Spanish sparrow were all that could be seen in the field with the cattle egret and the only one that I searched. 

Tree pipit

Of the other smaller birds, a few tree pipit are still making there way through.

Siberian stonechat

And the first wintering Siberian stonechat of the season was observed on the edge of the field.

adult little bittern

Other birds seen in the pivot field area were collared dove, laughing dove, Namaqua dove, little green bee-eater, crested lark, black bush robin, house sparrow, moorhen, purple heron and grey heron.

The last two birds I saw before setting off down the water course and away from the pivot fields on my quest for crakes was a resting little bittern and a red avadavat that flew over.

I'll write next about how I got on during the rest of the morning looking for little crake.

Lots of colour in the fields at Al Hayer

I visited Al Hayer on the Saudi National Day holiday this Monday. The fishermen arrived nearly as early as me which caused me to spend most of my time away from the water as the disturbance is significant.

There are large roaming mixed flocks of finch-family birds at the moment on the pivot fields. My enforced absence from the water lead to me to inspect them more closely than of late.

two young streaked weaver

The two largest components of the flocks are Spanish sparrow and streaked weaver including many young bids such the ones shown above.

Male Arabian golden sparrow

However there are also often small numbers of Indian silverbill, house sparrow and red avadavat.

Two weeks ago fellow birder Ahmed Al Kassim alerted me to the fact that Arabian golden sparrow had joined the flocks. Indeed there numbers have grown steady over the past year from nothing. 

I saw my first one the weekend before last and on Monday I looked very hard and prolonged at the flocks. I was surprised to see they actually make up 5-10%!

The big issue for me is whether they will survive the cooler winters than in their natural habitat near Jizan. The red avadavat do it by keeping in the dried tall reeds at night, dawn and dusk when its cold.

An unfortunate dyed female house sparrow

Arabian golden sparrow almost certainly came from escapes. Indeed a pink sparrow among the the flock is a pink dyed female house sparrow which was also probably a caged bird sold as a fake exotic. She too found her way to the large flocks at Al Hayer.

blue cheeked bee-eater

More colour was provided by small numbers of blue-cheeked bee-eater which is far more common than European bee-eater in autumn (and in stark contrast to spring).

a second blue-cheeked bee-eater

Their numbers though were down on the week before and there are signs that the overall passage is levelling off.

Marsh warbler

I saw relatively few passage warblers. For example I observed only one common whitethroat and eastern olivaceous warbler. By way of compensation, a marsh warbler gave me very good views in a field right as I arrived at dawn. 

Marsh warbler from another angle

Notice that it has generally lighter bill and legs than the very similar reed warbler. It is also generally a plumper bird. It's underparts were paler and brighter too though this doesn't come out well in these photos (taken in poor light).

Habitat is another useful indicators in these matters. This bird chose a damp field with tall grass over the extensive reed beds just 15 metres way!

Northern wheatear

Northern wheatear and Isabelline wheatear are still coming through. Some of the latter stay all winter in the area but northern wheatear don't.

white throated kingfisher

White-throated kingfisher started out as as a winter visitor according to old records but it stays all year round now and breeds. 

A common kingfisher was seen which was the first this winter but it was too quick for me to photograph. i am sure there will be more chances this winter.

a row of barn swallow

There are still lots of barn swallow passing through. No barn swallow stay all winter (unlike Benghazi where I used to bird) but we get some spring breeders who breed in February. Indeed the Helms regional guide wrongly says red rumped swallow breed here but in fact its the other swallow!  

grey heron

Other activity at Al Hayer on Monday included lots of movement by the heron family in the early morning. Clearly where grey heron and purple heron roost and where they go in daytime are quite different. Likewise black crowned night heron must be active at night in different places to where they roost in the day. All three birds can be seen moving around at about 7 am.

I don't see so much movement at that time with cattle egret and squacco heron but on the other hand they can be readily seen in the fields anyway.

hoopoe at Al Hayer

Among the other notable birds was a single tree pipit.

tree pipit

Shrikes were a bit scarce too. 

lesser grey shrike

Only two species were seen: lesser grey shrike which is a passage bird and three or four Daurian shrike which is passage and wintering.

Daurian shrike

Desert wheatear is another wintering bird and their numbers are just starting to build. Indeed the story of the next few weeks at Al Hayer is going to be increasingly about winter birds building up and not so much about passage which feels it might just be on the wane.

desert wheatear

When I finished at Al Hayer, I decided to take a detour back through Dirab just as I had the weekend before.

Dirab is a more traditional farming area where the water comes from natural sources. The area can attract birds which are tolerant of drier conditions than at Al Hayer. For example its the best place locally to see white crowned wheatear.

white crowned black wheatear

The young bird above hasn't developed its white crown yet though.

Another bird tolerant of dry conditions is blackstart and this was seen too.  

greater short toed lark at Dirab

A flock of greater short toed lark provided the last sight before I finished for the day.

STOP PRESS
I have just been told that Arabian golden sparrow has been present for several years even though I haven't seen it until recently. I can only assume it has had a bumper breeding season!

List of 46 species seen at Al Hayer (H) and Dirab (D)

Mallard    H	Crested lark   H,D
Common quail    H	Greater short toed lark   D
Black crowned night heron   H	Barn swallow   H,D
Squacco heron    H	Sand martin    H
Grey heron    H	Pale crag martin   H
Purple heron    H	Graceful prinia   H,D
Cattle egret    H	Marsh warbler    H
Marsh harrier    H	Eastern olivaceous warbler    H
Montagu’s harrier    H	Common whitethroat    H
Moorhen    H	Common myna    H
Rock pigeon    H,D	Black bush robin    H,D
Collared dove    H,D	Isabelline wheatear    H,D
Laughing dove    H,D	Northern wheatear    H
Namaqua dove    H	Desert wheatear    H
Hoopoe    H,D	White crowned wheatear   D
White throated kingfisher    H	Blackstart    D
Common kingfisher    H	House sparrow   H,D
Blue cheeked bee-eater    H	Spanish sparrow    H
Little green bee-eater   H,D	Arabian golden sparrow    H
Daurian shrike   H	Indian silverbill    H
Lesser grey shrike   H	Red avadavat    H
Brown necked raven   D	Yellow wagtail    H,D
White eared bulbul   H,D	Tree pipit    H