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.

100 steppe eagles and 6 griffon vultures

On Saturday morning, Lou Regenmorter and I travelled to Wadi Nisah which old birding records show was often birded before more man-made areas such as the Riyadh river came into existence.

Wadi Nisah is west south west of the city and is a long standing farming area reliant on natural aquifers.

Actually Wadi Nisah turned out to be superficially nothing special and I'll explain why and what we saw later in the blog. I'll also explain that there there may be some hidden potential there.

Nevertheless our birding trip was saved from mediocrity because of what we saw on the way back. 

Next to a chicken farm just south of where Wadi Awsat cuts though the Tuwaiq escarpment was a hill with over 70 steppe eagle sitting. There were a further 30 steppe eagle in the air near-by.

Griffon vultures and steppe eagles

As we scanned the hillside we noticed that among the steppe eagle were six griffon vulture.

hillside scattered with tens of steppe eagle and a few griffon vulture

I can't believe the countryside will provide food for so many steppe eagle. Surely some at least will continue their passage.

steppe eagles in the air near-by

Thanks to Omar (under the nom de plume of Iraq babbler) on BirdForum who has helped me identify the three griffon vulture below as immature birds. He says "dark beak, seeing dark eyes, long brown rough feathers, pale streaking on upperwing coverts  and two circular bare areas on the lower sides of the neck" point to immatures.

three griffon vulture

I had suspected  they were immature birds. Apparently Riyadh lost its resident population 20-30 years ago. My understanding is that only immature birds roam/migrate so any wintering birds should be immature. Adult birds would be a good indication that a resident population still exists or has re-introduced itself.

an enlargement of one griffon vulture

Last year we had 4 griffon vulture winter in the area which used to have residents. These 6 may well winter this year. I hope so.

eastern imperial eagle with steppe eagles

We spent some time scanning the eagles for any exceptions. This was made difficult by the bright sunlight sideways to the hillside. Nevertheless we did pick out a juvenile eastern imperial eagle (thanks to Tib on BirdForum for the identification).

eastern imperial eagle

These birds of prey were an unexpected end to a birding session. 

However as I wrote earlier, we had visited Wadi Nisah first. At the start of Wadi Nisah we had seen 20 steppe eagle roosting on a hillside. In retrospect, this was a forerunner of our larger sighting on the way back.

Otherwise, perhaps the most distinctive feature of birding in Wadi Nisah had been the numbers of wheatears seen but all were either: white-crowned wheatear, eastern mourning wheatear, northern wheatear or desert wheatear. 

little green bee-eater

Little green bee-eater and white eared bulbul were very common too. I was surprised that no white spectacled bulbul were seen though. It can be found in other near-by wadis west and south west of the city. 

white eared bulbul

Other notable birds were hoopoe, kestrel and a Turkestan shrike.

Turkestan shrike

Crested lark, desert lark and trumpeter finch were the main "little brown birds". Thanks are due to Omar in Iraq for help with the finch identification.

Both passage barn swallow and resident pale crag martin were the main hawkers above the fields along with a small number of blue-cheeked bee-eater. 

winter female trumpeter finch

I mentioned earlier that despite this relatively ordinary haul that there may be some hidden potential at Wadi Nisah. This is because we found that the road to the western end of the wadi where it narrows is blocked off and for authorised personal only. We think it is a nature reserve. It would be good to find out how to get in! 

The quest for crakes at Al Hayer

By 9 am on Friday, I left the pivot fields and headed south down the west bank of "Riyadh river" towards where Lou Regenmorter had seen a little crake 6 days before.

It's quite a long walk so I did some other birding on the way.

white-throated kingfisher

Almost immediately I had good views of one of the white-throated kingfisher which appear to be getting more and more common.

streaked weaver

Though streaked weaver spend much of there time in the pivot fields in summer, I find them much more commonly on this stretch of the river at this time of year. 

I am ever hopeful of seeing a Baya weaver which has been reported here in the past and whose evacuated nests I believe I saw a few months ago. As yet I have had no luck. I may need to wait until January when weavers breed here. This is because a Baya weaver in non-breeding plumage looks very much like a sparrow and we have many hundreds of them here.

common snipe into the sun

I finally arrived at the zone where Lou had seen a little crake after about 20 minutes walk and spent nearly two hours patiently looking and listening for one.

The area looked ideal with water from the reeds spilling out into pools with some low cover around them.

Unfortunately I had no luck though several moorhen made appearances and common snipe were hunkered down in terrain also ideal for them too. I didn't follow them to get better photographic angles as I didn't want to move for fear of frightening any crake. So my photos of common snipe are all into the sun.

White wagtail were also common in this area.

immature steppe eagle

While I was waiting some birds also flew overhead. At about 10.30 am two steppe eagle were seen as the air temperatures had risen.

steppe eagle

A single mallard and more interestingly a single great cormorant also flew by both at great speed.

great cormorant

I left the area after near two hours believing I had given it my best shot and starting walking slowly back to the car. 

chiffchaff

On the way I noticed the three first chiffchaff of the winter in a river side tree. The one pictured has a surprisingly long supercilium though I can't make it into any other bird.

side view of chiffchaff

About half way back I stopped at another area where the water spills out of the reed. I waited there even though I knew this wasn't where Lou had seen his bird. The moorhen immediately ran for cover.

bluethroat

While I waited I saw a bluethroat hop out and wander around. A green sandpiper arrived at the waters edge and I watched it.

green sandpiper

I decided to scan the edge of the reeds near it just as I had done in Lou's area. You can imagine my surprise when I saw a crake half hidden there.

spotted crake in the reeds

If you look carefully in the first photo you can see its body but also its long leaf green legs and its head facing backward and to the right with a red eye showing.

second view of spotted crake in the reeds

It clambered through the reeds towards the right and came out into the open for barely  3 seconds before carrying on rightward into more reeds. However it wasn't a little crake. It was a spotted crake. Note the light green legs, the spotted as well as barred underside . If your screen is big enough you can see the bold black and white stripes on its vent. 

I have mixed emotions about this sighting. I am proud I went specifically looking for crake that morning and actually found one but also a little upset it was a spotted crake. 

Now Lou has seen two crake at Al Hayer and both have been little crake. Whereas I have seen two over the past 2 or so years and both have been spotted crake.

moorhen

Although I didn't have much cover to watch this area, I found that  staying perfectly still compensated. For example the moorhen all reappeared without seemingly noticing me.

tawny pipit

After this, there was only one other notable moment of birding before getting back to the car. A couple of pipit on a high wire looked remarkably featureless. In the end I put them down as tawny pipit but once again it was a lesson in how important the sun is here in identification. 

On Saturday, Lou and I went birding together in a new area near Riyadh. We tried out Wadi Nisah. I'll write about that next.

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.