Monday, 28 January 2013

Eagle and owl at Zulfi

My birding friend Mansur al Fahad originates from Zulfi and visits there from time to time to see family and friends. He also takes the opportunity to bird watch in this farming district over 200 kilometres north of Riyadh.

Pharaoh eagle owl cropped from a photo by Mansur al Fahad

He has sent me several pictures and some commentary on his latest trip over January 20-23rd. Once again he managed to find a pharaoh eagle owl though he tells me it cost a burst tyre to get to it over some tricky terrain.

He has also been told the location of the day time roost of a little owl by a friend which is in a more accessible place than the pharaoh eagle owl.

All this is tantalising to me because although I have seen 261 species in Saudi Arabia I confess to having seen no owls at all yet. I intend to visit Zulfi in the spring when the birding is apparently even better. I will be deeply disappointed if I don't come back having seen any owls after that.


Steppe eagle

Mansur obviously also saw many steppe eagle at Zulfi judging by his photos.

I'll blog what else he saw over the next few days. 

I thank him once again for the opportunity to share these pictures and information.

2 comments:

  1. Dear Robert Tovey,
    My name is Jenni Boyle and I am an editor at CultureGrams. CultureGrams is an educational publication with a series of more than 200 country-specific reports that describe people's daily life and culture. Our primary audience consists of North American librarians and students. I came across your blog while looking for cultural information about Libya. I have contacted you because we are currently expanding and updating our Libya country report and I was hoping you could suggest writers who would work with me on this project. Please email me at jenni.boyle@proquest.com if you have any contacts who you think would be interested in this kind of project.

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  2. Jenni,

    I can help. I will contact you by email as suggested.

    Rob

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