Two types of lake

I visited two quite different water bodies in the city over the last weekend. The first, on Friday afternoon was West Nouakchott pools. This is a set of salty pools with no covering vegetation. However it does attract a signifacant number of waders.

I soon noticed a grey heron of the sub-species monicae. This is otherwise known as pallid heron because it is paler than any other grey heron.

monicae grey heron

It only breeds on Banc d'Arguin in Mauritania. It has a population of no more than 2,500. Some birds are known to migrate southward as far as Senegal but Mauritania is by far the best bet to see this bird. If it ever becomes a full species, I know some birders would feel compelled to come here just for it.

A few minutes into my visit the waders became very agitated as a lanner falcon swooped down.

very distant view of lanner falcon

It circled two or three times but was mostly into the sun. That and it's sheer speed prevented me once again getting a good photo of this species.

It is rather common in Mauritania. I wonder how common it would be in the Gulf if falconers had n't taken so many out of circulation over the generations.

West Nouakchott pools

None of the publically-accessible birding sites in the city are pictureque but they can be rewarding.

West Nouakchott pools is only 250 metres away from the edge of Cinquieme Gardens. The gardens are fresh water with much tree cover. They are fresh water because of the way the aquifers work in the city. They are supplied by the sea and by human waste water. The ground does a very effective job of cleaning the water up. Hence the fresh water nature of the two water bodies furthest away from the sea. The problem with Cinquieme is it is not safe mostly because of the hiding places for bad men. This is even though the city as a whole is very peaceful and basically safer than most others in sub-Saharan countries.

Returning to the pools, once again ruff were present. I haven't visited these pools often but every time this species has been there.

ruff

Since some of the pools are relatively deep, they attract some of the longer-legged waders. Greenshank is usual here.

sleeping greenshank

Little stint and common ringed plover were arguably the commonest waders. Indeed in nearly all water bodies, whether salt water or fresh, around the city these two waders are extremely common in winter.

grey plover

In contrast only one grey plover was seen.

white wagtail

Plenty of white wagtail make it this far south in winter and are most easily seen next to water.

The second water body visited last weekend was North Nouakchott Lake on Saturday morning and breifly again on Sunday evening.

I am persistently visiting this lake which is my local patch within walking distance of my house.

I don't expect it to change every day but I do want to observe any change when it does occur.

While there were no great changes on Saturday since visits within the previous seven days, I did notice that the little grebe are getting more territorial. I expect the breeding season to start soon.

two little grebe fighting

Fights between little grebe are very common at the moment. By the way, a wintering black-necked grebe was still present.

northern pintail

Duck numbers have fluctuated downwards over the past three weeks. Only one female pintail remained on Saturday and none at all on Sunday.

I can't believe they have headed north given the colder than average winter in southern Europe this year. That only leaves south.

soiled European spoonbill

Two European spoonbill were present. Unfortunately one has been heavily soiled.

Young coot

Unlike the little grebe which appears to have a discrete breeding season here, coot of all ages can be seen. These vary from day old chicks to young birds and adults. This bird and its sibling were very confiding.

squacco heron 1

There has been a single squacco heron on site for the past ten days. It has been scared easily but on Saturday it was more relaxed and finally allowed me reasonable photographs.

squacco heron

African swamphen are seen on almost every trip. Like the coot and moorhen they are confiding. There is no sign of hunting and shooting at the lake. This has clearly effected these birds' attitude towards people.

African swamphen

On Sunday late afternoon, I return to the lake. The idea was to look for crakes again. I tried more spots and worked hard.

Baillon's crake

The Baillon's crake was seen at the same spot and time as last time. It is a good bird anytime. However there was no hint of any other crake. The passage season may well be different.

The other piece of good news from Sunday was the sighting of a sedge warbler. My last one at the lake was in late November. I suspect it has wintered here but early passage is possible. The first barn swallow, sand martin and house martin that evening tells me the passage has begun for some brave birds.

Second look at Al Thama

Actually its not so much a second look as a fourth or fifth but it was the second look within five days.


I promised myself last Friday I would go back and see on my day off (yesterday) before I set off to my Bulgarian home today.


There is a very busy Friday market near parts of Al Thama which made approaching part of Thama very difficult hence my need to return.

cormorants at Al Thama, Dec 22

I am glad I did go because it cleared up some misconceptions I had had. For example when I blog on Al Thama earlier this week I had said that the island where little tern, kentish plover and black winged stilt bred had been re-landscaped. Well given that I could walk on to the island via the narrow causeway I found that only a small amount had been flatten probably by lorry movements but that 90% is still natural. Without disturbance those birds could breed again.

There is a picture of the island below:

natural island in one of the Al Thama lakes 

Yesterday's section of the Al Thama complex had more birds than that visited on Friday although the whole complex is in need of replanting (or allowing nature to re-grow) very quickly. 

There were at least 50 cormorant. Of course, these may be some of the same cormorant that I saw and blogged about at near-by Buduzeera a couple of weeks ago.

grey heron flying over Al Thama

The biggest surprise for me was the sight of 40 or so grey heron. This solved another mystery for me. Two months ago i saw many grey heron at Ain Azziana and Deryanah but they had mostly disappeared. I had speculated that they had dispersed or moved south.

The few I had seen were usually sheltering in reeds. This shouldo have been a clue to me. It looks like in full winter they prefer slightly inland sites like Al Thama possibly because they are less exposed. The numbers at Al Thama lead meto  conclude there are as many in the Benghazi area as in late September and October. 

grey heron and cormorant on natural island

If you look carefully at the grey heron in the above photo you can see that two are stained (in the middle and at the back). One may be the bird (then at Ain Azzziana) that I blogged about in October. If so, s/he has survived. The worrying thing is there are definitely two affected birds.

black necked grebe

There were several yellow legged gull as well as black headed gull around. The population of black necked grebe continues to increase though the numbers in north east Libya appear much less than in north west Libya (which I saw last winter).


There were precoius few waders. This was just like in the other part of Al Thama visited on Fridday and very unlike the situation at Al Thama before the renovation work began.

I'd like to say a few words about the land birds. These are mostly those who like rocky ground - notably stonechat and black redstart. Though I did see my first flock of spanish sparrow in the city. This bird certainly roams in winter. I only see house sparrow in summer.

stonechat, Al Thama

I have noticed that I don't see many stonechat in their non-breeding plumage anymore. Some birds seem to be getting ready for spring already.

black redstart, Al Thama

The black redstart are still mostly in winter plumage.

The shortest day has been and gone. The spring passage will be upon us before we know it.

Jardinah revisited

hoopoe - just outside Jardinah farm - July

Last Friday, I returned to Jardinah farm again. This time I went without friends.  They are more sensible than me and were "resting". At Jardinah, it was 36C and there was precious little wind. However I felt I had to re-visit Jardinah farm. Its micro-enviroment and climate are very special.  It's so wet its more like a hot version of a central European bog in those parts of the farm where the irrigation has been over-zealous otherwise it feels like southern Europe.

Before I say too much more about the inside of the farm I want first to tell you a little bit about the outside. Near the gate to the farm on both sides of the road are two parallel avenues of trees. These contain literally hundreds of house sparrow and their nests.  In the shade of the trees I glimpsed an unidentified bird of prey. More about this later. Along the road, There were once again plenty of turtle dove and great grey shrike (ssp probably aucheri) too. Scraping a living by the trees was a hoopoe (see picture above). I was very happy to get this snap since I have been seeing hoopoe all over Cyrenaica but they had evaded my camera.

I spent half an hour on this avenue before entering the farm. I gave up counting sparrow nests at over 250.

Last time I went inside Jardinah farm you re-call we saw the first recorded summer yellow wagtail in Libya. I also said I saw a grey heron. Well the alfalfa fields where I had seen the wagtails had been cut down the week before and the water turned off. I hope any breeding of wagtails had been completed and they had moved to one of the many other watered fields.

grey heron - Jardinah farm - July

I caught up with a grey heron this time and photographed it (see above). Its always good to get a photo so that the world can believe the remarkable things going on here. Distribution maps such as in the new collins guide don't show grey heron in eastern Libya at any time of year. I think its the first record of it in summer though waterbird counts (which are more accurate than the guides) have recorded it in winter.

I am sure there are many more birds to see which are usually found further north in summer - more of this later.

waterlogged side to a maize field - Jardinah farm -July

Nearly all the spring alfalfa has been cropped so some of the easiest birding has gone for a while. It was so easy to see bird movements. However there are pools and wet ground in the maize fields particularly near the edges of the circular fields. The cut alfalfa fields attract some birds too.

the walk to the middle of a maize field - Jardinah farm

Its a beautiful walk into the maize fields along the service tracks or at least it would have been if it hadn't been 36C. The path edges teem with flowers. For all the fine walking I failed to see many birds in the maize fields. I knew they were there but it was hot and the maize was shady. I saw the odd barn swallow fly over and a great grey shrike on the water sprayer. A number of LBJs flew over very quicky several times. My instinct said corn bunting but  I can't yet prove it.

one of several groups of white stork - Jardinah farm - July

On the other fields I was more successful. There were more white stork around than ever particularly on the remaining alfafa fields - both uncut and dried.

White storks on sprayers - Jardinah farm -July

The white stork love the water sprayers - on them, by them or under them. Several cattle egret had a similar attitude.

an unflattering photo of one of several cattle egret on Jardinah farm -July

On top of an antenna on one of the water sprayers I got a big surprise. I saw a sparrowhawk perched for some time. Like with the grey heron, its going to take another visit or two to get a good photo. The sparrowhawk  has very recently been reported as breeding in Cyrenaica. So I shouldn't have been so surprised to see it in a green place with hundreds of food items available. This was the unidentified bird of prey seen early in the shade of the avenue of trees.

After following the storks and cattle egret and watching a sparrowhawk, I caught up with one of the mobile flocks of greater short toed lark that I had seen on the two previous visits. I finally got a pretty good shot of this lark. Each week I have progressively taken  better photos. I'm reasonably happy with the latest. I think its pretty definitive proof that this bird is here in summer and not just a winter visitor as guide books say. 

Greater short toed lark - Jardinah farm -July

There are large numbers of this lark. I moved over to the second part of the farm across the road to have lunch with the deputy farm manager. There were more flocks of greater short toed lark there. This part of the farm has more maize fields but also more than its fair share of cut barley. These fields and the water channels obviously act as a magnet for larks. There were flocks of lesser short toed lark, greater short toed lark, calandra lark and  individual or couples of crested lark.

The water channels also attract other species. There turtle dove were visiting (see picture below).

two turtle doves - Jardinah farm - July

Near-by I got a reminder that the farm is on the margins of the desert. Three cream coloured courser inspected a water channel at the edge of the farm. This was my first sighting in Cyrenaica.

cream coloured courser - Jardinah farm - July

Finally as I came to leave the farm I saw a huge flock of pigeon. Their feeding was suddenly broken by a swoop from a different bird of prey from those seen before. I am pretty sure I know what bird it was but I'm going to leave that until I've got photos. Let's just say its not supposed to be here.