A walk down a country lane

On Friday afternoon, after visiting the old bird ringing centre, I moved on a couple of kilometres past the main group of pivot fields along the Riyadh river.


I walked south down the country lane which has reeds and water on the left and a farm on the right. My destination at the end of the lane was the very large pivot field where I saw my first yellow wagtail of the spring the day before.


While the birding was not much different than the day before, several of the birds were more showy.

black bush robin

I managed to catch a black bush robin in the act of raising its tail which makes it look an all together larger bird.

rufous bush robin

Now that I am getting used to rufous bush robin being around, I can pick them out better for photography.

one of the largest pivot fields

My target at the end of the lane was a pivot field which is over 500 metres in diameter. I also know the water spray tends to be put on late in the afternoon and this is a good time to visit.

bluethroat

On the left hand side of the lane are a few trees and bushes adjacent to the reeds. Bluethroat have been in the reeds and undergrowth all winter but at the moment the males seem to be posing more out in the open on higher vantage points. This is a sure sight of spring (and that they will be leaving for breeding very soon).

graceful prinia

Graceful prinia are also currently risking more exposed positions on the same side of the lane. 

little green bee-eater

Meanwhile the telephone wires on the other side of the lane attract other birds. Barn swallow commonly rest there as do little green bee-eater.

Namaqua dove

This lane is the place where I most often see Namaqua dove in the Al Hayer area. There are often on the wires too. The wires have also been a good place all winter to see either Turkestan shrike or Daurian shrike. This time the latter was present.

Daurian shrike

I have been seeing both red-tailed shrike every month since I arrived in Saudi Arabia. They must spend more time here than in their breeding grounds in central Asia.

white wagtail

When I arrived at the large pivot field, the water spray was on and sure enough surrounding it were plenty of white wagtail but disappointingly few yellow wagtail. There was no sign of any red-throated pipit yet which are apparently found with yellow wagtail on passage here.

tawny pipit

I am always on the look out for any type of pipit doesn't look like the standard tawny pipit which is by far the most common pipit (at least for three seasons out of four).

One pipit caught my eye in the large pivot field. it was highly patterned on its back unlike any adult tawny pipit which is nearly plain grey or grey-brown. 

second view of tawny pipit

Sadly for me when I saw its front there were very little in the way of  upper breast and lower throat streaks which a Richard's pipit has. I suppose it must just have been a young tawny pipit. I will keep looking and eventually I will be rewarded. I still never seen a Richard's pipit in my life. It could be easier for me if I were to visit the east of Saudi Arabia but they do occasionally come through central Arabia according to the historic records.

front view of tawny pipit

Around this lane is a favourite spot for barn swallow to rest on wires. It is good to see them back.

plenty of barn swallow

Fal residential compound, Riyadh

Thanks to an invitation from my friend Jon, I birded Fal residential compound in Riyadh today.


It is roughly 2 kilometres west of Al Waha compound which is the only other compound in Riyadh that I have birded so far. It is slightly larger than Al Waha and the landscaping is more mature. 


The bird life had much in common but there were some notable differences.

ring necked parakeet

One obvious difference is the presence of ring necked parakeet. This bird is found in all larger compounds in the city. 

part of the compound

The birds were also very approachable particularly later in the afternoon although they mainly kept to the tall trees except when feeding. 

parakeet feeding on dates

Near the main place for ring necked parakeet were a mobile flock of common myna. Associating with the flock from time to time was a darker bird which I am reasonably confident was a hill myna. I am not claiming it though as I always try to err on the side of caution. If it is a hill myna then it must be an escaped cage bird.

common myna

The compound had the highest concentration of hoopoe that I have so far seen in Saudi Arabia. They kept mainly to the grassed areas.

hoopoe

In contrast I saw only one white wagtail which is extremely common in agricultural areas such as the fodder fields in the Al Hayer area south of Riyadh.

lone white wagtail

As has been noted before by me and others, the black bush robin has adapted well to compounds in Saudi Arabia. It is a true garden bird in them.

black bush robin in Fal compound

I saw that one or two of the black bush robin had less white on the under-tail and orange brown flashes on their wings which are a little reminiscent of Tristram's grackle. This feature is not mentioned in either the Helms guide to birds of the Middle East or Collins guide to Europe. However, I did find a couple of references to this colouration on the internet.

young black bush robin

Indeed in flight all the black bush robin had wings which appeared dark orange brown when the sun shone through them even more like a grackle!

house sparrow

Black bush robin was not the only bird whose colouration exercised me. A small number of the male house sparrow had what appears to be uniformly brown heads and small bibs.

second view of house sparrow

I don't have any real explanation for this. I can't see how wear or bleaching could achieve this result. Perhaps I just haven't studied house sparrow closely enough in the past. I wonder if the birds are first winter and if the charcoal head only comes when a first winter male turns into a full adult? Excuse my ignorance.

white cheeked bulbul just after bathing

Having looked at some of the debating points of the compound's birding, I mustn't forget the mainstream. The most common bird there was probably white cheeked bulbul.

typical landscape round the side of the compound

Like Al Waha, there are undoubtedly large numbers of wintering warblers which merit a whole day to themselves. Once again I didn't give myself time to look at them properly. 

chiffchaff

Despite its wide supercillium I still place the warbler above as a chiffchaff. I have no doubt that one of the other wintering warbler is eastern olivaceous warbler. Unfortunately it never remained still enough for me to photograph it. 

laughing dove at Fal

Finally I noticed another small difference between Fal and Al Waha compounds. In Fal the dominant dove is laughing dove whereas in Al Waha it is collared dove.

collared dove at Fal