North of Hayer part two

During Saturday afternoon's birding north of Al Hayer, I was  privileged to see several Eurasian reed warbler out in the open.   They only do this for any length of time when their hormones get the better of them. For a two week period in the early breeding season they seem to forget their fear. Last weekend must have been part of that period. 

Eurasian reed warbler

All I had to do was head towards the noise, stand in one place and watch.

another picture of Eurasian reed warbler

This was one of the highlights of the afternoon which had begun with me surrounded by moorhen at the furthest north on my day's journey before turning back.

common moorhen

Also in the same area as the moorhen was a red eared slider.  I have seen this invasive terrapin in the diplomatic quarter in Riyadh but this was my first sighting outside the city.

red eared slider

A mallard flew past at great speed and was gone as soon as it appeared.

mallard

As I headed back south down the wadi, I had one last chance to see the grey heron which I had been seeing since late morning perched on the valley's slopes.

grey heron

Heading further back, I travelled through the part of the river where all the reeds have been removed. Only a few birds were to be seen. A single common sandpiper was close to the river. A large flock of pigeon were the main inhabitants. The only new species for the day near here was blackstart perched on one of the few remaining isolated trees.

blackstart

Immediately south of the dam the vegetation is still thick and undisturbed. I spotted the marsh harrier from the morning once again and a green sandpiper at the river's edge.

common myna

It was at the edge of thick reeds here that the Eurasian reed warbler mentioned at the start of the blog gave their display.

On the escarpment next to them I looked up and saw two common myna in a slightly strange environment for them.  Then I heard an odd noise from a little further along at the top of the same escarpment.  

baboons

I looked up and was absolutely amazed to see a troop of baboons. Baboons are native to the south west of Saudi Arabia but not Riyadh.

I knew a small number had been released many years ago in the Heet area near Kharj apparently by a departing expat and that they had survived. However this is 30 kilometres away across desert. If this is some of them, they have cleverly and bravely found a more hospitable habitat.

I didn't linger long as they shown an interest in coming down to drink.

After this I moved further south downstream. Indeed I moved past where I had entered the wadi in the first place. Here were a couple of clearings in the reeds. At one I saw a still wintering grey wagtail.

grey wagtail

A kestrel flew overhead while I was there.

kestrel

The other, larger clearing was my last stop of the day.  On arrival a green sandpiper and common snipe bolted and sadly didn't return.

profile of a bluethroat

However by way of compensation, a still wintering male bluethroat gave good views. The orange spot bluethroat breeds in Scandinavia and northern Russia in summer. Within the next week or so most of the remaining ones will have gone back north.

bluethroat

Almost the final bird I saw was a group of three Indian silverbill. I had been seeing the mall day but these three finally stayed still long enough for a photograph.

Indian silverbill

This turned out to be a good day's birding and I will return to this stretch of the river more often.

North of Hayer part one

On Saturday, I visited a section of the Riyadh river along Wadi Hanifah that I haven't been to for a long time. This is a section north of Al Hayer town. In part I chose to go there because there is so much disruption south of Al Hayer at the moment caused by the building of a leisure area along the river.

This northern stretch of the river gave me so many species and photographs I am splitting the write-up into two. This one looks at what I saw in the morning. The next one will look after midday.

graceful prinia

I remember visiting this northern area a few times in my first year in Saudi Arabia and I don't really understand why I stopped. One memory I have is of easily seeing graceful prinia. This was before I realised how common they are and in so many habitats in Saudi Arabia.

another angle on the graceful prinia

As you can see they gave me good views once again.

pied wheatear

However the first bird of any note that I saw on Saturday morning was a pied wheatear.  Ironically this was the first bird Bernard Bracken and I saw on Friday morning when we visited east Salbukh wetland. The co-incidence didn't end there. In both cases, it was the only pied wheatear seen all day.

laughing dove

As I descended into the valley I kept an eye out for birds on the slopes. Most were lone laughing dove or collared dove sitting out. 

sand partridge

However, one wasn't. It was a sand partridge.  Indeed I remember them when I used to visit.

second view of the sand partridge

I was a bit concerned that this was just a single bird.

brown-necked raven

Flying across the valley early on were two brown necked raven.

Turkestan shrike

Another early sighting was a male Turkestan shrike.

streaked weaver

Down in the wadi itself, there are clearings in the reeds and a few places where the water spills out.  In one such place I stopped for half an hour and stood still to see what would happen.  

I noticed a newly constructed streaked weaver nest. The male in full breeding plumage was around and seemed to be attracting female visitors.

common snipe

I must have been well hidden in some reeds because a common snipe flew in and landed two metres in front of me. Being well hidden also meant I couldn't get a full picture through the reeds either. 

red avadavat

Both red avadavat and Indian silverbill visited the same place though I only managed to photograph the former. Unlike the weavers, the avadavats strangely breed in November (or at least that's when I have seen them in breeding plumage). I believe the photographed bird is non breeding male by the grey appearance below.

white-eared bulbul

White eared bulbul as usual along Wadi Hanifah was common in many habitats. A single white spectacled bulbul was also observed. 

tree pipit

In among newly planted palms were two of only a few passage birds seen all day. There were two tree pipit.

Siberian stonechat

During the morning I moved slowly down towards the Al Hayer dam.  Birds seen near-by included a male Siberian stonechat. 

At the dam itself was a white throated kingfisher, an osprey and a marsh harrier.  The marsh harrier would not tolerate the osprey and chased it off.

the river by the dam

All the reeds have been totally cleared north of the dam. It looks like another leisure project.

little green bee-eater

Even in this denuded area, some extra species for the day were seen. These were little green bee-eater, barn swallow and pale crag martin.

common moorhen

Further upstream, the reeds are intact. Here is an area with many moorhen. 

grey heron

There were also eight grey heron near-by mostly spending their time on the valley's slopes rather than by the water.

juvenile moorhen

At one point along the river, I came across six juvenile moorhen feeding together. They must all have been recently fully fledged and chose to spend time together. This was a new observation for me.

This observation occurred just before noon. The next blog continues the report on the area with what was seen in the afternoon.

East Salbukh wetland

As I said in the last blog, Bernard Bracken and I visited east Salbukh wetland north of Riyadh on Friday. Thanks are due to Lou Regenmorter for finding this location on google earth.

It is a large wetland fed by cooling water from what looks like a cement factory. We also noticed that some waste water from the city was being dumped by tanker there too. 

The result is a mix of lakes, pools, extensive reed beds and a few mud flats on the edges.

pied wheatear

Almost the first bird we saw when we got out of the car was nothing to do with the wetland. It was a pied wheatear on passage.

chiffchaff

As we arrived at the wetland we came to an area of waterlogged tamarisk bushes. These were heaving with chiffchaff.  We came across a group of three common redstart there too. These are passage birds in the Riyadh area.

the wetland

There were also two medium sized birds which we only identified later. I'll tell you what they were later in the blog when we suddenly realised what they had been.

white eared bulbul

This was the only place in the wetland where we saw any white-eared bulbul.

Siberian stonechat face-on

Still in the tamarisk bushes at the start of our walk was a female Siberian stonechat. This was one of those with a broad strong supercilium in front of the ye (becoming much fainted behind it). These birds are often mistaken for a whinchat unless viewed by a variety of angles.

the same Siberian stonechat

Also in the tamarisk were plenty of graceful prinia which incidentally was seen in other types of vegetation all the way round the wetland.

graceful prinia

We decided to walk all the way round the edge of the wetland which was probably a 5 or 6 kilometre walk. On moving on from the tamerisk area, we came across an area where the water spills out of the reeds and produced a muddy and wet grassy area.

 male fledegg yellow wagtail

This was the only place were observed yellow wagtail which was another passage bird.

female yellow wagtail

There were also many house sparrow here. 

house sparrow with food

As we headed round, the terrain changed again with no more grass but an increase in mud flats and in the amount of surface water free from reeds.

male Namaqua dove

Here we met Namaqua dove and then several Kentish plover. The Kentish plover were clearly breeding in this area and we witnessed a bird displaying a distraction ritual to stop us getting close to the scrape. (This was recorded in my last blog)

little ringed plover

A single little ringed plover was seen though part of this area looked ideal for them to breed too. They prefer stonier and drier ground to Kentish plover and there was some of that.

black winged stilt and other waders

In the water were significant numbers of waders. However we had absolutely no cover here when we started to approach them. despite our best endeavours they flew off. Before then I managed to recognise black winged stilt and wood sandpiper among them. 

common snipe

Several common snipe were encountered throughout the walk but flushed easily and as a group on two occasions.

squacco heron

The wetland gently slopes into a hollow. At the bottom of the dip, there are some pools and lush vegetation which wasn't the blanket reeds seen in most of the rest of the wetland. Here were squacco heron, grey heron and moorhen though we could hear moorhen throughout the walk.

Incidentally the reed beds were alive to the sound of Eurasian reed warbler.

wryneck

A low bush a few metres way from the water's edge we picked out a wryneck. it was then that I realised the two birds we had not identified properly but were in the tamarisk at the start had been wryneck too. Indeed when we returned to the start having walked all the way round we saw one of these wryneck again.

marsh harrier

Two birds of prey were seen. A marsh harrier made appearances all day but unfortunately a sparrowhawk was seen only once. 

woodchat shrike

We spent a small amount of time moving away from the wetland on the way round at various points.  The most common bird in the surrounding area was crested lark though we also came across another Siberian stonechat and a woodchat shrike. This was the first woodchat shrike I had seen in the Riyadh area this spring.

crested lark

I definitely think the wetland is worth further visits and was a very good find. 

In the next blog I will report back on a visit to wadi hanifah north of al Hayer. this is part of the wadi I hadn't visited for over a year and I had almost forgotten how good it can be.