On the Riyadh to Dammam road

On Friday morning, starting out well before dawn I took a day trip to Jubail on the east coast. The trip is 1000 kilometres there and back.

This is the fourth time I have tried this marathon and there is usually a reward for the effort. Indeed this time I added a new bird to my Saudi list which I'll write about in the next blog.

However first I am going to write about the birds seen on the Riyadh road to the east coast. The birding at these stops can be just as good as the birding at the coast itself and do a lot more than just break up the journey.

The first stop was at a large service station 145 kilometres east of Riyadh.

At the back, there were two areas of dirty water with reeds, lots of waste and several trees. 

I arrived soon after dawn and some of the birds were just waking up.

grey hypocolius

As a very good start, at one of the water holes with reeds, a grey hypocolius stood at the top of a reed and looked around for two minutes giving me fine views.

grey hypocolius turns head 

This was my first sighting of a hypocolius this winter and it is unusual to see a single. 

chiffchaff

The reeds were absolutely thronging with chiffchaff which may well spend all winter there.

"Red-tailed" shrike

Right next to the grey hypocolius was a "red-tailed" shrike. In the orangey light of early morning I failed to decide whether it was a Turkestan shrike or Daurian shrike. Only the males are easily separated anyway.

The bird was dark on top which supports Turkestan shrike but the undersides appeared deep buff and had a dark unicoloured tail which supports Daurian shrike. 

Generally I can tell a non-adult male Turkestan shrike by the greater contrast between a darker upperside versus a lighter underside. 

Spanish sparrow

Wintering Spanish sparrow were also flying in and out of the reeds. 

Bluethroat

Despite this service station being surrounded by almost pure desert, there was a water-liking bluethroat next to the reeds in the water run-off area.

house sparrow

As well as Spanish sparrow there were plenty of house sparrow in the less natural areas.

white wagtail

Among the debris were several white wagtail and two desert wheatear feeding off the flies and other insects.

desert wheatear

There were plenty of doves. The collared dove were particularly skittish and I could only get reasonable photographs of the calmer laughing dove.

Laughing dove

Although there were crested lark as expected, I was surprised to see three Eurasian skylark in such dry conditions.

Eurasian skylark

Eurasian Skylark is quite rare in the Riyadh area but commoner as you go north or east in winter.

Two more Eurasian skylark

After the service station we stopped again a few kilometres on at a pit stop which has been good birding in the passage seasons because of a few shaded trees in the middle of nowhere. 

Daurian shrike

In winter it looks like it is less rewarding. The only visitor among the doves and sparrows was a single Daurian shrike recognised by its pale sandy upperparts and creamy undersides in sunlight much better than less than an hour earlier.

No other stops were made on the way out.

On the ways back in late afternoon, I stopped briefly at an isolated farm some 100 kilometres west of Dammam where I had stopped on my last trip to the east coast a couple of months ago.

This farm is also surrounded by near desert habitat and I was interested in seeing what it had attracted.

Isabelline wheatear

Superficially I wasn't impressed by the birds seen. Again doves and sparrows were common but other wise I could initially only pick up two wheatears. One was an Isabelline wheatear and the other was a Northern wheatear.

Northern wheatear

Then I noticed a mobile flock of about 25 birds which turned out to be water pipit.

water pipit in fading light

In Riyadh we are right on the south western edge of meadow pipit distribution in winter. Indeed I have only seen one in over two years. The distribution map in the regional guide shows them mostly further north and east. So I had originally thought they were meadow pipit. However the dark legs suggest water pipit.

Kestrel

The final bird I saw before dark was a common kestrel perched on a pivot bar in the field with the pipits.

The main birding of the day was actually at Sebkhet al Fasl at Jubail. It was excellent not least because I added to my Saudi list which is getting increasingly difficult. I will write next about this additional bird.

Birding the DQ (Diplomatic Quarter)

Thanks to an invitation by friends Martin and Alexandra I was able to bird in the Diplomatic Quarter, Riyadh on Friday.


Martin and Alexandra taught English with me in Libya and occasionally bird watched with me there. It was great to see them both again. The birding was good too!

little green bee-eater

In the Diplomatic Quarter or DQ as ex-pats call it, it is necessary to be discrete when birding. The central area contains many embassies. Their gardens are lush and inviting. They are obviously a good habitat for birds but it is not sensible or realistic to bird them.   We didn't.

However the DQ also has parks and walking trails away from the embassies. We birded one such area on the northern edge of the DQ.

water at north edge

The northern side of the DQ has a water course. This is probably the treated water stream from the buildings there. Most of the birding done was close to the 1.5 kilometre course of the stream.

hypocolius drinking

Until last weekend, I had only seen hypocolius at the Intercontinental hotel where we are sure they roost. Yet on Thursday I saw them at Wadi Hanifah and on Friday there were 15 or so in a corner of the DQ near the water course. I suspect they have dispersed since their first arrive in the Riyadh area for the winter. Or maybe they all emanate from the Intercontinental roosts.

white cheeked bulbul

The most obvious bird once again was white-cheeked bulbul. Martin has seen a red vented bulbul while doing his daily cycling exercise during the week. However I didn't see any on the day.

common myna

Common myna is also very common there. When we walked through the central area on the way to the walking trail it was the most vocal of the birds around the embassy gardens. 

House sparrow was also unsurprisingly numerous but I didn't see any spanish sparrow this time.

moorhen

The watercourse held several moorhen and old nests were seen. It is quiet enough for two purple heron to be present too. The only other water bird observed was green sandpiper.

hole near waterway

One of the most productive places near the water course was actually a large hole (see above) where tamarisk and other bushes have grown. This wild spot was a haven for birds. At least two bluethroat kept making appearances out of the undergrowth.

bluethroat

White cheek bulbul darted in and out. A black bush robin has the area as a base.

black bush robin in the "hole"

The picture of the little green bee-eater at the top of the blog was taken on a bush growing in the hole.

However, the best bird for me who was around the whole was a black redstart. It was of the sub species semirufus. It has a beautiful red front. This was my first ever sighting of this sub species although it was unsurprising as they are well-known to winter in Arabia.

chiffchaff by Martin

Two of the most eventful moments actually came at the beginning and the very end of my birding day in the DQ.

The very first bird which caught our interest - even before we arrived at the water course (in the central area) was a bright-coloured warbler. It looked very clean and yellowish underneath and was singing and sitting in exposed positions. It was not flitting around like a normal winter warbler

At the time I thought it might have been an escaped caged bird. My identification abilities were also impaired because my camera was not ready. Lucky Martin had a compact camera with him and took a very decent picture with it.

I am now confident, after research including listening and watching youtube video that it was a chiffchaff in brightest colours appealing for a mate.

The bird is 800 kilometres south and 2 months early of where this should have been happening! However the lush DQ gardens and temperatures must have fooled it.

goshawk

The second incident happened at the very end of my birding at about 2pm. I was walking back towards Martin and Alexandra's flat (they left me to bird alone earlier). Suddenly a larger large, strong hawk appeared. Before I could photograph it is disappeared into some far off trees. It was a goshawk.

However 10 minutes later as I walked closer to home, it re-appeared briefly before flying off into the sun. I only got one silhouette shot. 

feathers under a tree

This time I decided to head towards where I thought it had landed. I never did see it. However I found a pile of feathers under a tree close to its apparent landing position. This is consistent with a goshawk perch (they often return to favourite perches apparently) though I'm not claiming it definitely was where it landed. 

The DQ has many pigeon, laughing dove and collared dove which can feed a wintering goshawk.

I have looked up the records and goshawk is an uncommon but not unknown winter visitor to the central Arabian area. I am left wondering if I have missed a rare chance to get a good picture of one here.

Return to Al Hayer dam

I last visited the dam area of Wadi Hanifah about 9 weeks ago. As I said in the last blog, the Persian wheatear was still there. However there were some subtle changes in the birds seen. Of course, the big change will be in another 9 weeks when the passage will be on.


One of the changes was the presence in small numbers of hypocolius. This was the first time I have seen them in Wadi Hanifah. 

There is some evidence that they have dispersed a bit since their arrival in central Arabia for the winter.

hypocolius near the town of Al Hayer

I find this area is a particularly attractive part of Wadi Hanifah. It is partly due to the fact there is no obvious vehicle access for picnickers. Their loss is my gain. 

part of the Riyadh river near the dam

The river is broad both sides of the dam but the reed cover is dense. I only saw three water bird species - moorhen, coot and grey heron. This may have been a result of the cover.

moorhen

The valley is surrounded on both sides by escarpments here. I actually had hopes of seeing an owl. The escarpments are pitted with seemingly ideal holes for owl hides.

grey heron

However once again I failed to see one though it is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. The grey heron were not always near the water. Sometimes they ventured onto the escarpments. I noticed, one of them has some sort of pigment problem and is partially white.

mix of rock dove and feral pigeon

Another reason for me to believe there must be owls there is the abundance of rock dove and feral pigeon on the escarpments. They can be good owl food! The area must certainly be worth a visit at dawn or dusk when most owl species are active.

old nest

Certainly some prey bird has nested in the area as the picture of an old nest high up the hillside certifies.

greater spotted eagle

On Thursday I did see two active birds of prey. One was a greater spotted eagle (which may be the same one we saw in the same place in October).

first winter marsh harrier

The other was a dark looking marsh harrier which is probably a first winter (or just conceivably a very dark adult female).

spanish sparrow

Another one of the changes since October was the presence of three or more large flocks of spanish sparrow. Spanish sparrow doesn't appear in the region until November but is now present in many places. The flocks near the dam were very mobile and very easily frightened. Close contact wasn't easy.

white cheeked bulbul

A few of the spanish sparrow mixed occasionally with the white cheeked bulbul.

white cheeked bulbul with streaked weaver

However the "best" mixed flock contained spanish sparrow, white cheeked bulbul and streaked weaver.  This is the furthest upstream (north) I have seen weavers since I arrived in Riyadh. They seem to be heading towards breeding plumage. 

little green bee-eater near the dam

This area is the best place I have found for "guaranteeing" seeing graceful prinia in the scrubby areas in the valley. However I was surprised not to see any blackstart this time round since they were so obvious on one particularly escarpment in October. I was less surprised not to see sand partridge. 

I wonder what spring will bring?

Bird species	27 October 11	5 January  12
Sand partridge	x
Grey heron	x	x
Purple heron	x
Greater spotted eagle	x	x
Marsh Harrier		x
Moorhen	x	x
Coot		x
Rock dove (feral pigeon)	x	x
Collared dove	x	x
Laughing dove	x	x
Little green bee-eater	x	x
Pale crag martin		x
Hypocolius		x
Desert lark	x
Persian wheatear	x	x
Blackstart	x
Blue rock thrush	x	x
Graceful Prinia	x	x
Asian desert warbler		x
Desert lesser whitethroat	x
White cheeked bulbul	x	x
House sparrow	x	x
Spanish sparrow		x
Streaked weaver		x

Hypocolius and the Intercontinental hotel

Today, I had the pleasure of birding for the first time with Clive Temple. He is an accomplished birder who has very recently moved from UAE to Riyadh.

We spent the day from mid morning onward in the gardens of the Intercontinental hotel, Riyadh.  The gardens are large and help provide the landscape for a nine hole golf course. There are also three lakes.

The Intercontinental is almost certainly the best place in Saudi Arabia to see grey hypocolius in winter.

male hypocolius in the garden of the Intercontinental hotel.

During the day we kept seeing ones, twos and threes of the bird. However,as the afternoon waned the numbers grew dramatically as birds seemed to be returning from other parts of the city to two places in the gardens. These are most probably a pair of night roosts. On a conservative count there were at least 220 birds in the garden by four pm.

a view of part of the garden

At first it looked like the birds were shy, keeping to the inner parts of trees but as time progressed they were more and more confiding.

part of one flock of hypocolius

Only about a quarter of the birds were adult males with their characteristic face masks.

female hypocolius

Though I don't know for sure, the assumption must be that first winter birds look similar to females. This would explain the apparent low proportion of males.

possible first winter bird

It has been said that male grey hypocolius look like slim versions of shrikes. We were lucky enough to see a wintering masked shrike in the gardens to check this comparison!

masked shrike

The gardens were thronging with bulbul. Once again, and like most of central Arabia, the predominant bulbul was white cheeked bulbul.

white cheeked bulbul

However the Intercontinental hotel is the first place I have seen yellow vented bulbul (white spectacled bulbul) in central Arabia. It is a common bird on the west coast (for example in Jeddah) but not inland. Here it was probably outnumbered 8 to 1 by white cheeked bulbul.

yellow vented bulbul

There was also a third species of bulbul present in lower numbers - red vented bulbul. I have only seen a single bird before at Al Waha compound. 

red vented bulbul

Like all the residential compounds in Riyadh that I have visited before, black bush robin was present and relatively tame. I consider it to be a garden bird in Riyadh.

black bush robin

Again like the other compounds I have visited there were common myna. The  rule of thumb that larger compounds house ring necked parakeet was kept.

common myna

Last week I was surprised to see Indian silverbill penetrate into the city up the upper reaches of the "Riyadh river". Today we saw a flock in the hotel gardens. This is the first residential environment that I have seen them in within Riyadh. 

Indian silverbill

Rivalling the observation of so many grey hypocolius were two unexpected sightings.

African rock martin

There are two pairs of stone pavilions on the golf course. In one of them there was an African rock martin which seemed to be practising building a nest in readiness for spring (under the internal roof) and then alternately resting. The picture above captured him resting. 

grey wagtail

Just before we left the gardens for the day, a wagtail was spotted on the place where the water from one of the lakes cascades down half a metre or so into the another. This small spot mimics a fast moving stream and a grey wagtail has picked this place out among all the dry wilderness of central Arabia!

This was my first sighting of a grey wagtail in Saudi Arabia and totally unexpected. It rounded off an excellent day.