Duba: mangroves, coast and journey

On Friday, I drove from Tabuk to Duba which is 200 kilometres south west on the Red Sea coast. Local birder, Viv Wilson didn't accompany me on this trip and this was my first time in this area. Without local birding knowledge, the birding was necessarily quite speculative.

The route from Tabuk cuts through semi desert uplands until arriving in a narrow coastal strip.

Without any real predetermined preference, I decided to bird the coastline from the northern edge of Duba town towards Duba sea port.

The coast immediately north of the corniche is quite barren and I hardly saw a bird at all. Then, just as I was beginning to regret heading north out of Duba, I arrived at the southern side of Wadi Al Gal and I came across a sea inlet which was surrounded by mangroves.

Mangrove reed warbler

This proved a good site for birds. It is well protected and seemingly natural and in good environmental condition. A grey heron flew out of cover just as I arrived. 

However it was within the mangroves themselves that I had the best find. As soon as I started walking by them, I could hear the sound of reed warblers and being mangroves I knew they were mangrove reed warbler.   I have never found them as shy as European reed warbler and once again I got good views and photographs.

As far as I know this is a new find and it is certainly much further north than the sites shown on the distribution map in the regional guide. My suspicion is that this is furthest north that mangrove reed warbler can be found on the east side of the Red Sea.

Mangroves at Wadi al Gal

The only wader I observed at the inlet was a solitary non-breeding common redshank.

common redshank

Collared dove, laughing dove and collared dove were easily seen in the taller bushes. Yellow vented bulbul was also present.

laughing dove

After leaving the mangroves, I continued along the coast northward. I soon spotted several white-eyed gull.  In general white-eyed gull is more numerous in the northern Red Sea while the closely related sooty gull becomes increasingly more numerous the further south. However there is much overlap. This time I saw no sooty gull.

white-eyed gull

Near-by were several lesser crested tern and a single Caspian tern.

Caspian tern with lesser crested tern

Like in the mangroves there was a solitary wader left behind on migration for whatever reason. This one was a marsh sandpiper.

Marsh sandpiper

The coastal strip was uneventful for land birds except it is noticeable that the bulbul here is yellow vented bulbul whereas on the other side of the hills in Tabuk it is white eared bulbul.

yellow vented bulbul

The route back had its fair share of desert lark, crested lark and white crowned wheatear.  Unlike in the higher locations (away from the road) where the raven is fan tailed, here brown necked raven was common.

brown necked raven

One Asian grey shrike in poor condition was also seen when I stopped for a break.

Asian grey shrike (aucheri)

I was bit disappointed not to see any birds of prey en route to and from Tabuk. Sometimes Viv has reported some special birds travelling to the coast and back. However travelling through these desolate areas can be hit and miss.

Lake on Duba road, Tabuk 

Just before the Duba road reaches Tabuk there is a lake. I stopped off there in the early evening before heading off to the airport.

Black winged stilt and spur winged plover gave me a noisy welcome (note though that the photo below is of a spur winged plover seen at my hotel).

spur winged lapwing

The lake was the only place I saw moorhen at the weekend.

flock of house sparrow at the lake

There were two marsh tern fishing over the lake. They were non-breeding and so quite difficult to identify but I believe they were whiskered tern.

non breeding whiskered tern

This was an interesting addition at the end of the trip.

In the next blog, I will return to what was seen on the top of Jebel Lawz on Thursday. I have now researched the identity of a couple of the birds and I am in a better position to report back. What can tell you now is that it confirmed that several of the birds were much further south than their normally recognised summer distribution.

The next blog will also have a full list of birds seen over the weekend and where.

Farasan Islands with Mansur Al Fahad

There are two main reasons why birders visit the Farasan Islands. They use it as a launch pad to see pelagic birds and they go in the passage seasons. The Farasan Islands are stepping stones in the Red Sea between Arabia and Africa. Many thousands of migrants pass through.

There are other aspects to Farasan birding though. Mansur stayed on when Lou and I left south west Saudi Arabia last weekend to make a part-day trip to Farasan to explore these.

First and foremost, its the most guaranteed place in Saudi Arabia to see Egyptian vulture (once you have got there).

 Egyptian vulture

Mansur also saw other birds which we didn't see on our weekend trip on the mainland. These included brown necked raven, mangrove reed warbler and lesser crested tern.

brown necked raven

I have seen mangrove reed warbler several hundred kilometres north at Thuwal. In my limited experience its a little less shy that European reed warbler but that could just be that its more difficult to hide in mangroves than reeds.

Mangrove reed warbler

Some lesser crested tern can be found all year round off all Arabian coasts though most more south or at least disperse unlike lesser crested tern in Libya (which I have also know) which all migrate. 

lesser crested tern

The coastline on the Farasans is well worth inspecting in summer for African species such as lesser flamingo and African spoonbill but its still a low probability with a short trip. 

sooty gull

Mansur captured an excellent picture of this adult sooty gull. For some reason we struggled to see white eyed gull all weekend.

crab plover and common redshank

I thank Mansur Al Fahad once again for sharing his photographs and report. It is much appreciated.

The mangroves at KAUST

After visiting Rabigh, Brian James and I returned to the KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and technology) campus. It was mid afternoon on Thursday and there was time to go to the mangroves at the side of the campus. 

We also visited it a second time on Friday at the same time of day. This blog compiles reports on both events.

European curlew

The weather on Thursday was atypically dull and cold for the coast. Indeed it was possibly the coldest day Brian has had in his 4 years in KSA. However for birding purposes the issue was not the temperature but the poor light. This also affected birding earlier in the day at wadi Rabigh.

Anyway, on arrival at the mangroves, both curlew and whimbrel were two of the most immediately obvious birds.

Mangrove reed warbler. Cropped from a picture by Brian James

One bird I was seeking was Mangrove reed warbler which a known resident there. We soon heard one calling and it was easily seen once the calling was traced to some tall mangroves close to the waters edge. It was more showy than the closely related European reed warbler. The other differences are quite subtle. It is slightly greyer and has shorter wings.  

This was a lifer for me and bird number 264 on my Saudi list.

Greater sand plover

Other notable observations were several greater sand plover with a small number in breeding plumage. This is the first time I have seen that plumage type.

dark morph western reef heron

When you visit the Saudi coast on either side it is not normally too long before you come across western reef heron and striated heron. Both were seen at KAUST.

cormorant

Large numbers of cormorant, Caspian gull and black headed gull were also seen on Thursday.

grey plover

Grey plover were numerous on both days. Most looked like the one above.

two young grey plover

However two seen on Friday were distinctly golden -looking. After some debate Brian convinced me they were also grey plover. This was proven when they flew off and exposed their black auxiliaries ("armpits").

redshank

On Friday the light and weather was much better. There were also a few different species. Redshank were more in evidence. 

crab plover

Crab plover wasn't seen on Thursday but was abundant on Friday.

spur winged lapwing

At least 20 spur winged lapwing were seen on Friday but a single white tailed lapwing was more exciting.

white tailed lapwing

The Helms guide to "Birds of the Middle East" doesn't show it at all on Saudi Arabia's west coast. However I have seen a dozen near Jizan in the south west and one at Thuwal. Brian has seen them regularly there. Viv Wilson reported that at least two were present further north at Tabuk all autumn. These no longer look like isolated sightings but it appears that white tailed lapwing is present up and down the west coast on passage or migration.

osprey

Brian had warned me that osprey are sighted all year round at KAUST but it wasn't until Friday afternoon over the mangroves that I finally saw two seemingly together.  A few minuted later a marsh harrier arrived causing commotion but allowing me to count the number of spur winged lapwing around as they took to the air.

cattle egret

A final comment on the walk back from the mangroves. As the light began to fade the lawns of the campus increasingly filled with cattle egret but more surprisingly ruff. I have never really thought them as parkland birds before.