Whilst birding the Dhahran Football field in mid-April area recently I saw my first records this year of Whinchat and Lesser Grey Shrike. Both these species are seen each year in Dhahran but only on one or two days in the spring. Migration of shrikes has been good through Dhahran this year with the majority being Turkestan and Daurian Shrikes but also Woodchat, Great Grey and Masked Shrikes have been seen. Other migrants seen have been a few Northern Wheatear, a species seen rarely in Dhahran, tens of Eurasian Hoopoe and one Whimbrel  Eurasian Hoopoe Lesser Grey Shrike ..read more

The Dhahran Waste Water Lake and the Percolation Pond both had Red-wattled Lapwing with the first location having a pair and the second asingle different bird. We has also seen on the day before at Khafra Marsh near Jubail. This was only the fifth time I have seen the species in Dhahran camp. The species is scarce in Saudi Arabia with records from Riyadh, the Empty Quarter and the Eastern Province. They are resident breeders at wetlands in United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait, and is gradually colonizing westwards. It was first recording breeding in Saudi Arabia at Sabkhat Al Fasl, a couple ..read more

Whilst birding Al Uqair im mid-April I came across a few migrants bit a lot less than previous days. One unusual species seen was a Barred Warbler which is an uncommon but widespread passage migrant in Saudi Arabia. This bird was on a barbed wire fence but normally they occur in dense undergrowth, tall scrub, overgrown plantations and hedges. They are very distinct and are a large, gray warbler with crescent markings on the breast and a prominent pale yellow eye. It is usually shy but occasionally appears in a very exposed position, and as a result it may be more common than it seems. It somet ..read more

I saw an odd shrike at the Waste Water Lake, but it was distant and good views could not be obtained. I tried to get close to the bird but it was always moving but I eventually managed to get behind a bush and it flew in landed briefly and flew off. I got a few close-up photos of it but it only stayed for a few seconds and was gone. I could not relocate it but on the views in the field and from the photo it appeared to be a keralini type Turkestan Shrike. I sent the photo to Alan Dean who is an expert on shrikes, amongst many other things, and he sent me the following very interesting informat ..read more

Birding the football fields near Dhahran Wastewater Lake at the end of March produced fifteen Yellow Wagtails. One of the Yellow Wagtails was a bright adult male lutea Yellow Wagtail. It was feeding around the grassy football fields but came close to the edge near the road allowing some close-up photos to be taken. The plumage variation of the male lutea in summer can by divided into three main types: a) wholly yellow head, b) yellow supercilium and forehead, and largely yellow ear-coverts & c) yellow supercilium, greenish forehead and crown, largely greenish ear-coverts, and distinct dark ..read more

Whilst birding the Dhahran Waste Water Lake recently I came across a few Carmine Darter Crocothemis erythraea. The Carmine Darter is a common dragonfly throughout the Middle East, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman. The male is carmine red, while the female is a significantly drabber yellow-buff colour with two paler marks on top of the thorax. It is a medium-sized dragonfly approximately 52mm in length. The abdomen is wider than other members of the family, flattened and tapering to the end. It is widespread in the Arabian Peninsula where it prefers a habitat of rocky areas ..read more

Whilst birding the Dhahran Hills football fields in the spring I came across a number of different subspecies/types of Yellow Wagtails. The main numbers were Sykes Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava beema amongst them, which is an early migrant with March and April being the best months for seeing them. They are more often seen in spring then autumn. A single thunbergi, also known as Grey-headed Wagtail was seen. This subspecies occurs from Scandinavia eastwards to northwest Siberia and they winter mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and across South & southeast Asia. Yellow Wagtails a ..read more

Whilst birdwatching at the bottom of the Raydah escarpment in the southwest of the Kingdom I came across a very bright butterfly with orange-red upperwings but much paler underwings and a distinctive white abdomen. The butterfly would settle and immediately close its wings so I could only photograph the underwing. This butterfly turned out to be a Doubleday’s Acraea Acraea doubledayi a butterfly in the Nymphalidae family that are the largest family of butterflies with about 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Many hold their colourful wings flat when res ..read more

Whilst birding Al Uqair at the end of March we saw at least four Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin Cercotrichas galactotes in a small date plantation. The species is an uncommon migrant and widespread breeding summer visitor throughout Saudi Arabia with birds arriving in late March and staying until October. They appear to be most common during the first week of May, with more than 10 recorded in one day. Birds of the Riyadh Region by Stagg (1994); mentions the species is a common breeding summer visitor, widespread throughout the region. Numbers have increased significantly in recent years ..read more

An early morning trip to Al Uqair looking for migrants proved very fruitful with a nice Eastern Cinereous Bunting. Seen feeding on the ground outside the small farm. The yellow underparts make it the eastern form semenowi from SE Turkey rather than Western form cineracea with its greyish coloued underparts that comes from western Turkey. This is only the third time I have seen the species in Saudi Arabia. It is a scarce passage migrant & rare winter visitor and migrates across the Kingdom from March to May and again from August to September. There are scattered records from ..read more