Now a yellow browed warbler at Yanbu

Brain James and I met up in Yanbu from our respected bases in Thuwal and Riyadh last weekend. We started out on Friday morning with a trip to Yanbu dump and waste water lakes. 

This is one of the most unsavoury birding locations in the kingdom. It is also one of the best. 

There is always a variety of both land birds and shore birds. It is major stopping off point for migrants too.

yellow browed warbler at Yanbu

The biggest discovery was another yellow browed warbler. Lou Regenmorter and I saw one east of Haql, 500 kilometres north of Yanbu the week before. Brian James and I saw one at the dump. We both got excellent views and photographs. This bird is not even mentioned as a vagrant in the kingdom in the main regional guide.

Like so many birds the reason for its lack of its presence on distribution maps is a lack of Saudi-based bird watchers particularly outside the three big cities. At least twenty species I know have much wider distribution than the guide's maps. On the other hand, a smaller number of others are said to breed which don't (anymore).

Yanbu dump

There was much more to the Yanbu dump site than this warbler although other warblers weren't particularly varied. Willow warbler was however abundant and presumably on passage.

willow warbler

The only other warbler here was graceful prinia.

common redstart

An excellent cross section of migrants was very much in evidence from small to large. Common redstart was in virtually every large bush and tree.

Daurian shrike

Red-backed shrike was common on top of bushes with at least one Daurian shrike also present.

spotted flycatcher

A small number of spotted flycatcher were also observed.

red-throated pipit

Like Tabuk the weekend before, there were no yellow wagtail still up there. However there were plenty of their frequent travelling partner: red-throated pipit. There were an equal number of tree pipit too. I suppose some red-throated pipit may winter there but it needs a mid-winter visit to be sure. White wagtail wintering numbers were higher than in Tabuk.

tree pipit

Whinchat were common as is usually the case in coastal areas on autumn passage. A single stonechat was also there.

whinchat

A nightjar was accidentally flushed but landed close-by. It was a European nightjar but not a sub species I have seen before. It was a unwini. This bird breeds in Iraq and Iran and is described as rare. It is much lighter than the nominate sub-species and on colour more closely resembles Nubian and Egyptian nightjars.

The long white moustache and pearls of white on the wing help define it as a European nightjar though.

European nightjar (unwini sub species)

When the bird flew initially there was no white flash underneath making it a female or an immature.

blue-cheeked bee-eater

Another interesting medium-sized migrant was blue-cheeked bee-eater. Four were seen on site.

There is evidence that the general passage in the Middle East is late this year and this was one sign.

female garganey

Unlike Libya where I used to bird, some garganey actually stay all winter. I am not sure they do so as far "north' as Yanbu. At least three were present along with a pintail and several mallard.

two female garganey and a female pintail

Both passage northern wheatear and probable wintering desert wheatear were around in the drier parts of the dump.

desert wheatear

I don't believe there are any fish in the lakes. 

little egret

This is a restriction on the attraction of the area to the heron family though grey heron, squacco heron, purple heron, little egret and a single black crowned night heron (immature) were seen.

little egret with grey heron

Marsh harrier were trying to prey on small birds.

marsh harrier

A very pale headed bird of prey was also present that I couldn't identify. I now know it is a steppe buzzard thanks to BirdForum. It is certainly the palest headed one I have seen though I know they are very variable.

pale headed steppe buzzard

Miscellaneous other medium birds included hoopoe and moorhen.

hoopoe

Moorhen is extremely common. We spent twenty minutes or so near them looking for crakes without any success though some habitat looks ideal.

moorhen

In the wetter areas, there was a large variety of waders. Spur winged lapwing were the most obvious and vocal.

ruff

Ruff are also abundant and some were in breeding plumage though this doesn't necessarily mean local breeding.

common ringed plover and little stint

The most numerous smaller waders were little stint and common ringed plover.  Dunlin were less numerous. One was still in summer plumage. A couple of lesser sand plover were also seen. Green sandpiper and a single wood sandpiper were observed though I don't recall any common sandpiper.

black winged stilt

Some of the many black winged stilt actually managed to stay clean.

Indian silverbill

One final observation which doesn't fit into the narrative anywhere else, the silverbill here are Indian silverbill despite it being on the west coast.

This was an excellent start to our weekend. We then moved on inland to do some speculative birding in areas where I hadn't found any previous reports. I'll blog on these next.

Two major rarities at Haql

Lou Regenmorter and I arrived at Haql, Saudi Arabia just south of Aqaba, Jordan before midday on Thursday 17th.

As far as I know it has not been significantly birded before though there is a recent reference to house crow by Mike Jennings.

We found the area to be rich with migrants in many of the isolated green patches, both in and around the town.

We found two very rare birds among the migrants. I managed to photograph one of them. The quality isn't the greatest but the bird was more important!

yellow browed warbler

This was a yellow browed warbler seen on the way back about 60 kilometres east of the town.

side view of yellow browed warbler

Yellow browed warbler breeds just west of the Urals eastward through southern Siberia and far northern China. Most birds winter in south east Asia but increasingly the western birds are being recorded heading west (not east) towards south west Europe. However I can't find any sensible data on exactly where the winter other than its further south than the UK.

Eitherway, the bird we saw is almost certainly still on passage heading west.

third view of yellow browed warbler

This sighting was after arguably an even better one in the town. Here we saw a vagrant little bunting just inside the woodland below. Though we could get good views I couldn't photograph it because of both backlighting and small twigs in the way. When it flew off we failed to see it land. However I am certain of its identification.

wood containing little bunting

These two sightings were obviously very exciting but the rest of the birding in the town was not dull. There is a lot more to its bird life, at least in October, than resident house crow.

house crow

Not sure whether Spanish sparrow are resident but they vastly out numbered any house sparrow.

Spanish sparrow

Namaqua dove and laughing dove are resident but true to the map in Porter and Aspinall's guide no collared dove were seen.

Namaqua dove

It was the migrant birds though they gave the variety.

European bee-eater

A single European bee-eater was observed in very small farming area in the town. Here and elsewhere red-backed shrike of all genders and ages were present.

young red-backed shrike

This small farming area was also the place we first saw white wagtail that day.

white wagtail

Alongside red-backed shrike, spotted flycatcher was the other most common migrant seen in many places with a bit of shade and a perch.

spotted flycatcher

I have observed that in Saudi Arabia whinchat are broad front migrants in spring but very few migrate inland in autumn. Haql being on the coast had them.

whinchat

Near the whinchat shown above was a marsh warbler using the shade.

The other warblers seen in the town were willow warbler and a single sardinian warbler. The latter bird was in a palm tree before dropping down into an ornamental bush. Ordinarily we would have continued tracking it but it did this right next to a police check point.

Sardinian warbler is regularly reported in Aqaba 18 kilometres north so this was a target bird. The yellow browed warbler, Sardinian warbler and little bunting brought my Saudi list total up to 310.

common kingfisher

The coast itself was strangely disappointing. For example not a single gull was observed and I thought this was my best chance so far to yellow legged gull in Saudi Arabia.

Sightings were restricted to a common kingfisher on the corniche itself, a little egret and one Caspian tern.

little egret

The afternoon of Thursday 17th must rank among the best birding sessions I have yet had in Saudi Arabia.