Greater painted snipe north of Nouakchott

Last Saturday I went to the waste water site just north off of Nouakchott and just off the Nouadhibou road.

This is my newly favoured local site given the demise of F-Nord Lake.

It did not disappoint. I observed 35 species during a morning session there. Furthermore there was quality as well as quantity.

I had expected western paleartic migrants and I got them. However there was one Afro-tropical migrant which had arrived from the other direction which stole the show. More about that later.

spur-winged lapwing

Early on, I visited the row of trees that held so many warblers the week before. Migrant passerine windfalls can be very patchy and the week before had been a good one. On Saturday I found only one western orphean warbler in the same place as many warblers the week before. This was not a good start but things improved after this.

I moved out of the avenue of trees towards the main water body a little disheartened. As I walked there, the now usual noisy reception from a number of spur-winged lapwing greeted me.

They make it difficult to approach without scaring the other birds.

black-winged stilt

A few black-winged stilt were dotted about.

common swift

In the early morning there was alot of action above the water. A group of common swift passed through on their way south. They stayed for about an hour. A similar number of barn swallow lingered longer. Just before I left the site two more common swift arrived.

glossy ibis

There were an even larger number of redshank present than the week before. Though I spent my time trying to get a good look at a group of ibis. They all turned out to be glossy ibis but I scrutinised them thoroughly for potential northern bald ibis. The latter bird sometimes wanders into Mauritania from the north.

four glossy ibis

I admit I didn't even notice at the time that one much rarer bird had photobombed my pictures of the four glossy ibis.

greater painted-snipe on the right

Lo and behold, a greater painted-snipe had been present.

greater painted-snipe (left)

It is well out of range. The Senegal River boundary with Senegal is the normal northern extremity of their range though I do know of one previous report in Nouakchott.

greater painted-snipe (right)

The habitat reminds me of the Sabya waste water site in south west Saudi Arabia where my birding colleagues and I proved they bred.

two glossy ibis and a greater painted-snipe

They can wander as witnessed when I found one at Raysut water treatment plant in Salalah, Oman. It almost feels like deja vu.

greenshank

The variety of waders contributed to the large number of species seen. Greenshank were present in deeper water as were common ringed plover on muddy sections.

blue-cheeked bee-eater 

Constant sorties from blue-cheeked bee-eater distracted me from my wader watch from time to time.

mixed waders

The picture above shown some of the variety of waders. There is a redshank, two wood sandpiper, two little stint and a dunlin all on one small island.

Having thoroughly searched for more rare waders, I moved back to the trees. This time I started my search at the far eastern end of the avenue. It was more successful than my previous look into trees that day.

western olivaceous warbler

This was the week of the western olivaceous warbler. It was the most common warbler.

close-up of the head of a western olivaceous warbler

There is a very dirty small pond which is surrounded by overhanging bushes along the avenue back towards the car. This was the place where my main variation of warbler types came from this time. There were at least two western olivaceous warbler, a reed warbler, a sedge warbler and a willow warbler there.


Near-by I was scanning the bee-eaters again and one proved to be a European bee-eater. This was only my second in Mauritania and both have been at this site.

European bee-eater 1

I saw it in four different places but I still think it was just one bird. There were no calls and no sign of two together.

European bee-eater 2

I did a second circuit of the main water body. I was happy to get close views of one of the dunlin.

dunlin

Ruff were also present.

two ruff

One of the glossy ibis finally allowed me very close.

glossy ibis

A very early yellow wagtail of the sub-species iberiae was walking along the grass.

yellow wagtail 1

It is good to see grass growing in a few patches. In the last few weeks there hasn't been an off-load of really contaminated water which scorches and kills this type of green growth.

yellow wagtail 2

The last wader I saw before I left was a ruff with some remnants of breeding plumage.

another ruff

I hope to go south this coming weekend. If so there will be a good chance of finding new rainy season birds. Let's see.


Species seen at the waste water site, Nouakchott

Glossy Ibis  

Black-winged Stilt  

Spur-winged Lapwing  

Common Ringed Plover  

Greater Painted-Snipe  

Whimbrel  

Ruff  

Curlew Sandpiper  

Dunlin  

Little Stint  

Common Sandpiper  

Green Sandpiper  

Common Greenshank  

Wood Sandpiper  

Common Redshank  

Laughing Dove  

Namaqua Dove  

Common Swift  

Eurasian Hoopoe  

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater  

European Bee-eater  

Southern Grey Shrike  

Woodchat Shrike  

Brown-necked Raven  

Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark  

Crested Lark  

Barn Swallow  

Willow Warbler 

Common Chiffchaff 

Western Olivaceous Warbler  

Melodious Warbler  

Sedge Warbler  

Eurasian Reed Warbler  

Western Orphean Warbler  

Western Yellow Wagtail  

Martins, swallows and others at Zulfi

Today I am writing about another aspect of Mansur al Fahad's trip to Zulfi in late March.

In the clover fields north of Zulfi, he tells me he only intended to stop briefly to look and photograph barn swallow which is the single most common passage bird in the swallow and martin family.

European crag martin

However he almost immediately realised they weren't alone. There were also a few sand martin and house martin.

What most pleased Mansur more was the next group which also included European crag martin. This was a lifer for him.

Pale crag martin

Outside of the passage season the main birds seen of this type in central Arabia are pale crag martin and pallid swift. The former is resident and the latter is resident in some places but disappears for short winter break in others.

House martin

At Zulfi, Mansur saw plenty of pale crag martin but no pallid swift.

 

Sand martin

Mansur didn't see the pale crag martin over the pivot fields though. They were around their nests on the edge of the escarpment.

Barn swallow

He was also happy to distinguish a single red rumped swallow from dozens of barn swallow.

Red rumped swallow

Although there were no pallid swift, he managed to see a few common swift flying at high altitude on passage.

Common swift

Finally he tells me that on another day and in some barley fields he observed two collared pratincole in the air.

Collared pratincole

Thanks again to Mansur for providing the information and photographs of some of the birds flying over the fields in a typical venue in central Arabia during the spring passage in late March.