Cinquieme district

Last Saturday I visited Cinquieme gardens in Nouakchott. It is unusual as it is a permenant wetland with fresh water rather than the saline pools seen throughout the rest of the city. I am not sure what geological phenomena has caused this.

Trees and bushes have grown through the fresh water and next to it. No house can be built so it has become a gardens by default.

However before I left for the gardens, I spotted my first speckled pigeon in the city next to my lodgings. I could hardly miss it with the very loud call it was making.

speckled pigeon

Cinquieme Gardens has great potential. However as soon as I arrived people were coming up to me to say the place was dangerous. After 45 minutes my confidence had waned so much I had to leave. Nevertheless my time there was interesting.

Cinquieme Gardens

One of the first birds I saw I could not identify. I thought it too large to be a female house sparrow which it quite closely resembles.

unidentified bird 1

I placed the bird on the birdforum website for identification. However for the first time since I started posting there a few years ago, no one attempted an identification.

unidentified bird 2

The wetter areas of the garden had large numbers of waders. There was also a little egret which was the first one I had seen in the city.

little stint

There were three species of wader there which were new to my Mauritanian list. As well as little stint, there were a few Temminck's stint. The latter bird was an addition to the list.

Temminck's stint

I had not observed green sandpiper either until then.

green sandpiper

While the most common wader on site was wood sandpiper.

wood sandpiper

The third addition was little ringed plover.

little ringed plover

What all three additions have in common is a lesser preference for saline water than their relatives.

I firmly beileve that Cinquieme gardens will have some special birds given its unique habitat. I am looking at ways to ensure I can visit there comfortably in the future.

After leaving the gardens I walked a short distance north to an area of west Nouakchott I had been to before. This area has several large saline lakes.

greater flamingo

Some of the lakes are deep enough for flamingo though they are mostly characterised by shallow water bodies.

blue-naped mousebird

Some the land birds were interesting too. I spotted blue-naped mousebird in a better viewing position than usual. Migrants in the scattered bushes included willow warbler and a common redstart.

ringed pied flycatcher

There are still plenty of pied flycatcher in the city. One I observed on this walk had a ring which I believe to be British.

ruff

In this salty waters I had a fourth additon to my country list. Several ruff were seen where none had been two weeks before.

On Sunday I ventured out to the northern edge of the city again. The cast had changed and I was happy with what I saw. I will blog about that next.

Ever changing cast at East Khawr

During the week when my birding is necessarily limited to late afternoon, East Khawr is my closest option.

Luckily for me its bird cast has changed each time I have visited and I am still finding birds there for the first time since starting in Oman.

Yesterday afternoon, there were four more such species.

Temminck's stint

Well in from the sea, at the side of some reeds, was a group of six Temminck's stint. One in particular interested me because it was still in summer plumage. As far as I can tell it is a juvenile. I can't recall seeing a Temminck's stint in summer plumage before and the main regional guide doesn't bother to illustrate it.

second view of Temminck's stint

All the other stints were mostly or totally in winter plumage.

Two Temminck's stint

The second new find for me in Oman was a group of five wood sandpiper very near to the stints.

redshank with wood sandpiper

Much closer to the sea and on an island in the lagoon were two cattle egret along side some grey heron in the island's trees.

(western) cattle egret

Once again this was a new sighting for me in Oman on my eleventh day in the country.

The fourth new sighting was a common teal in with a group of garganey.

flock of glossy ibis

In other news form East Khawr, the spoonbills and the African sacred ibis have left the site. However the flock of glossy ibis which were missing two days before have returned suggesting only local movements.

common moorhen

Once again the common moorhen were out in the open and I have great hopes for seeing crakes in a month or two.

spotted flycatcher

Two nice views on the walk to the khawr were a spotted flycatcher and the resident little green bee-eater

little green bee-eater

Today being the start of the weekend here, I am venturing further afield. I am trying my luck in the closest hills to Salalah.

Wadi Al Rummah, Buraidah

Up to about 10,000 years ago apparently Wadi Rummah was a mighty river flowing from Medina in the west of Saudi Arabia all the way into the Persian Gulf by the Kuwait border. Once in a decade or so it flows as a river through much of its course. Most of the time most of it is dry.

It hadn't rained much in Buraidah by Friday but the wadi valley held a surprising amount of water as well as fish. I can only assume the water had found a way to travel from the west which had had plenty of rain.

 grey heron

The valley was lush with short reeds and grass. It was also quiet probably because it was Friday morning in a devout area.

Wadi Rummah

The large birds are often seen first. A flock of little egret were an obvious presence alongside a single grey heron. Their peace was only disturbed by us and once by a marsh harrier. 

little egret

Slightly unusually the only other member of the heron family we saw was a little bittern.

Wood sandpiper

There were plenty of waders. The most common was wood sandpiper.

wood sandpiper with yellow wagtail (lutea)

While watching three of them, Bernard bracken caught sight of a yellow wagtail. This was a strange sight. A very few yellow wagtail winter in Kharj 80 kilometres south east of Riyadh but I never expected to see one at Buraidah which is 350 kilometres north west.

It will surely move on when it realises how cold it gets at night in winter there. However there is no doubt this section of Wadi Rummah is an unusual micro habitat.

White wagtail were common not surprisingly.

wood sandpiper (front) with little stint

Little stint were the second most common wader. The picture above shows it in less usual terrain. Most were seen on the river/water's banks.

wood sandpipers with a curlew sandpiper and Temminck's stint

The third wader observed was common snipe. There were plenty  which unfortunately were always one step ahead of us.

The final waders were curlew sandpiper and Temminck's stint. Both are in the picture above. The curlew sandpiper is towards the right while the small wader at the back of the two wood sandpipers on the left is a Temminck's stint. Thanks to the people on BirdForum for help in identifying these two.

Moorhen was another water bird present.

bluethroat

The terrain looked good for bluethroat though only one was actually seen.

immature red-backed shrike

The yellow wagtail was not the only late migrant observed. A solitary barn swallow flew overhead and then we came across an immature red-backed shrike.

back view of immature red-backed shrike

It was a prime example of an immature bird. It had crescentic barring not only on the sides and mantle but also on its crown.

hoopoe

Since we were probably the first birders ever in this place, we made note of resident birds though hoopoe could be wintering or resident. 

Namaqua dove

All the same three resident doves as in Riyadh were easily seen: European collared dove, Laughing dove and Namaqua dove. We were well within the known range of black bush robin. 

white-eared bulbul

White-eared bulbul is expanding its range north and west and probably conquered this area a long time ago.

Wadi Rummah must be even more interesting now the rains have come to central Arabia. Since Saturday it hasn't stopped raining!

Lagoons at Wadi Thulaymah

On Friday, Abdullah Amrou took Clive Temple and me to Wadi Thulymah outside Al Kharj. This was one of three venues we visited in an action-packed day.

In recent years, two new waste water treatment works have been in operation in central Arabia. They have produced new "rivers" similar in many ways to the "Riyadh river" which flows through Wadi Hanifah. One of these new water courses flows through Wadi Thulaymah. 

Though Wadi Hanifah near Al Hayer has been extensively birded by the few birders who make it to central Arabia, Wadi Thulaymah is pretty much virgin birding territory. 

We started our birding at the far downstream end of the new Kharj river. Here the water has collected into about five crystal clear lagoons.  Indeed all the water in this wadi looks clear. I suspect the treatment works are ultra modern. 

Anyway,the lagoon habitat doesn't exist at Wadi Hanifah (though old records show something similar used to be present before the wadi evolved further). 
The good news is that the lagoons at Wadi Thulaymah were teaming with waders.


However even before we saw any waders, a long legged buzzard flew over head and "welcomed" us to the area. 

wood sandpiper

There are a few waders at Al Hayer. However Wadi Thulaymah's lagoons are ideal for them and the density of waders is much higher.  The lagoons held common sandpiper, green sandpiper, wood sandpiper and marsh sandpiper.

marsh sandpiper

This was the first time I have seen marsh sandpiper in Saudi Arabia.

ruff

There was more than just sandpipers. There were also a small number of ruff. Again this was the first time I have seen this bird in Saudi Arabia too. However it has been recorded in huge numbers at Al Safi dairy farm in the past. The front entrance to Al Safi farm is very close to these new lagoons so ruff is not a surprise. 

black winged stilt

Black winged stilt are resident birds in central Arabia and its must be highly probable that they will be at the lagoons all year even after the waders have gone.

little stint

The most abundant bird on the day was little stint. We counted at least 80 of them. When we looked carefully there were at least three temminck's stint among them and one dunlin. At least one ringed plover and two kentish plover were also present.

Temminck's stint

Later on in the day (very nearly dusk) we visited an area a few kilometres upstream of the lagoons. It was too late to bird properly but there is obviously a large clear lake. Although, we couldn't find a good vantage point because of extensive reed beds and a lack of time, we could see a high concentration of ducks. 

The majority were shoveler but there were also tufted duck and at least two pochard. These were the first tufted duck and pochard I have seen in Saudi Arabia.

Clearly, Wadi Thulaymah is worth more visits.