Coast south of Jizan

Near Jizan, it just got too hot and humid to continue birding on foot all through the day on Thursday. So in the early afternoon we decided to bird mostly from the car along the coast until the temperatures started to drop.

Osprey on the Jizan coast

We were on the look out for any African summer visitors such as lesser flamingo and African spoonbill which occasionally frequent the coast around Jizan.


We inspected all the greater flamingo but couldn't find any lesser flamingo among them.

Greater flamingo

We did the same with the Eurasian spoonbill, looking for African spoonbill.

Eurasian spoonbill

Unlike during the rest of the weekend, we didn't get lucky.

Pink backed pelican

Pink backed pelican were more numerous than any other time I had been to Jizan.

Lesser black backed and sooty gull

One interesting observation was how many winter visitors appear to still be around and may over-summer. These included lesser black backed gull (Baltic sub species), common redshank, little stint and at least one dunlin.

crab plover

The local resident waders included kentish plover, lesser sand plover and of course crab plover. Resident sooty gull were numerous although we failed to see any white eyed gull this time.

House crow and common myna are obviously particularly fond of the coast too.

After this interlude in the intensive birding and as the day started to cool slightly, we went back inland and visited a new area. 

Before the day was out, our luck had returned and I had two more lifers. I'll report about these in the next blog.