Birding Kuwait 21/12 - 2/1

Rocki’n Roller!!!

2008-01-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

Kuwait City Zoo?

Rumors last day from Mr Abdulrahman Al-Sirhan told us that the local birder Rashed had found a Indian Roller in the gardens of Kuwait University gave us last-minute hopes for this outright tricky WP-blaster.

We started our day at Sulaibikhat NR and once more scanned through the Flamingos without finding any small one. At 07:30 we anxiously met up with Abdulrahman, who took us and the Belgian team through the campus guardpost without any problems. After only a short search we managed to relocate the bird and adding a real winter-blaster, and a beautiful bird, to our Kuwait-trip-list. To Arnes great delightment the roller had teamed up with two House Crows (a species his team members decidedly had refused to search for...).

We certainly couldn’t have got a better end to this fantastic trip. Celebrating with a close-to-ten full burger and fries breakfast we decided to spend the rest of the day at Jahra East Outfall (4 Citrine Wagtails and 1 Little Bittern) and Doha spit (160 Crab Plovers, 2 Pallas’s Gulls, 21 Broad-billed Sandpipers and 20 Terek Sandpipers). While we birded Jahra East Outfall we recieved information from the Belgians who told us the had found another two Indian Rollers together at Jahra West, amazing!

Today's Isabella; a Daurian

Birding JEO

Hans, our very special driver of the day, caught a nail on the road at Doha Spit. Pfffffffff... But we managed to change the wheel in 20 minutes or so.

Once again: Great thanks to all Kuwaiti birders who has helped us planning and arranging this trip. A special thanks to Mr Abdulrahman Al-Sirhan for assisting us in the field several of the days.

We will certainly be back during migration period!

Best regards,
Team Swedes

Back on track after two full days of birding!

2007-12-31T11:50:00.000-08:00

Hardcore birding

Yesterday we started our day at Salmiya Sports Grounds to have a short look for White-vented Mynah. I didn’t take very long before we found two birds of this escaped species, possibly Category C in the future. At the same site we were surprised to find a wintering Masked Shrike.

Masked shrike

We continued to the Sabah Al-Salem area where we found a nice variegatus Caspian Stonechat, a Menetrie’s Warber and a few Lesser Whitethroats of which one was calling with both the normal ”tek” and another chattering ”che-che-che-che...” call. However, the bird looked like a curruca. Probably something of eastern origin... Gullheadz also got some Steppe, Caspian and Heuglin´s at close range.

variegatus Caspian Stonechat

Steppe and Heuglin's Gull

From Sabah Al-Salem we drove to the harbour to catch the 12:30 ferry to Failaka Island. Before entering the boat we had a nice brakfast at a café close to the harbour. The boat ride took about 1½ h and produced a Pomarine Skua and a few Pallas’s Gulls.

On Failaka we got a hotel room immediately and then went exploring the island. The scenery was striking as the island still almost is fully abandoned. Lots of empty houses everywhere, some of them full of bullet holes. The only interesting birds we found during the afternoon was a few Steppe Grey Shrikes and a Crested Tern. Unfortunately we also found some shot birds under a few trees; Hobby, Hoopoe, Corn Crake, two Sparrowhawks, Scops Owl, Collared Dove, Slender-billed Gull and Steppe Gull. A sad sight.

Scenery on Failaka

Pieces of the abandoned holiday village

After almost nine hours of sleep we began our New Years Eve birding close to our hotel on Failaka. It was very quiet except for two Poms, four Crested Terns, ten Black-necked Grebes and a Black Redstart. Also today we saw Lesser Whitethroat, this one gave a House Sparrow-ish call; ”che-che-che-che-che-che...”, somewhat faster and higher pitched than the odd fella yesterday, and without any "tek" calls.

halimodendri Lesser Whitethroat?

Black Redstart

Reef Heron

Then we moved on to the abandoned holiday village along the southern shoreline. Not much happening here either, but a Persian Wheatear showed well at the old sewage farm, the only Wadi-like habitat in sight.. On our way back we spotted an adult Steppe Grey Shrike. Always nice, but why do they always fly as far away as possible before any descent digi-shots can be made??

Some dudes on the road

Persian Wheatear

After enjoying a nice snack the sun got more intense and most of the crew suffered from the sudden heat. In the desert we saw a man who was preparing some kind of trap with a living Brown-necked Raven as a bait. Let’s hope he didn’t catch anything. A short stop at the small lake near our hotel produced one Smyrna and three Pied Kingfishers as well as 48 feral Geese, then we didn´t do much until it was time to catch the ferry back to Kuwait City. New Year´s Eve was spent at Pizza Hut :)

NICE snacks

Pied Kingfisher

Chillin' in the sun

In the evening we recieved SMS's from both the Belgians and from Abdulrahman. The Belgians had birded SAANR all day today finding one Persian Wheatear, the five Maqueen's Bustards and eight Dunn's Larks. The had also had a nice cup of tea with the warden at Tulha, since they had got stuck in the sand... Abdulrahman gave us some good news saying that Rashed had found an Indin Roller at the University in Kuwait City today. We'll team up with the Belgians and Abdulrahman at Sulaibikhat tomorrow at 07:30 to go and try to relocate the bird. See you next year!

Larks and raptors

2007-12-29T10:49:00.000-08:00

The Isabelline Shrike of the day; an isabellinus

In the morning we teamed up with Dirk and Kris at Sulaibikhat NR. There we once again enjoyed the Long-tailed Shrike as it was singing in the same reed bed as usual. Despite fairly high tide we didn’t find the Lesser Flamingo today either.

Long-tailed Shrike

Arne after having scanned the Flamingos

Five Bluethroats were fighting in the Reserve

From Sulaibikhat we drove to Kabd together and there met with Abdulrahman and Gary. Gary got us access to the KISR area where we thanks to Gary’s expertise had good views of at least five Black-crowned Sparrow-larks and eight Dunn’s Larks.

Black-crowned Sparrow-lark

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Tawny Pipit

After Kabd we all drove to the nearby Pivot Fields, which always has a lot to offer. Today was not an exception. The Litte Curlew was still there which made Dirk very excited. Other good birds at this site were: Buff-bellied Pipit 1, Golden Plover 2, Pallid Harrier 1 2cy male, Dotterel 2 and many Eastern Imperial and Greater Spotted Eagles. Unfortunately we weren’t able to relocate the other good birds that were seen yesterday.

Hasse, Joppo, Steve-O and Arnie scanning the fields

Greater Spotted Eagle

Crocodile Dundee

Eastern Imperial Eagle

Namaqua Dove

Long-legged Buzzard

Dotterel

Tomorrow we might go to Failaka Island. And if we do, we will stay there overnight and won't be able to update the blog before monday. Cheers!

Southeast without Österlen

2007-12-28T10:56:00.001-08:00

Boys chillin' at Wafrah Farms.

This day was mostly spent at some underwatched or even unknown sites in the south, close to the Saudi border. But first we took a stroll in the park Next-to-the-sea at Fahaheel, where an extremely elusive Lesser Whitethroat (possibly of some subspecies...) caused frustration among the crew members. The two most Larus-damaged of us went in the opposite direction to the pier, smoothly until it was clear we had trespassed into a guard post... The personel weren’t really fond of us watching and photographing the gulls on the beach. And it all made sense when we saw that just behind the gulls, behind three barb wire high voltage fences, Kuwaits oil shipping complex was located. Bright...

Slenders-billed Gull

After this lesson we stopped at two sites, Sewer Plant Reeds and a site that we call Slyshål 1, which was some small pools, bushes and reed south of Sewer Plant Reeds. Slyshål 1 hosted one Menetries Warbler, three Bluethroats and some Desert Warblers, as well as one Jack Snipe, shot dead not too long ago. Sewer Plant Reeds was really empty exept for some hunters in a SUV shooting at a Grey Heron...

Menetrie's Warbler

After visiting these rather small sites we decided to give Wafrah Farms a try. But when we got there we understood that birding this area would be rather hopeless. So after visiting one of the farms and only finding a Daurian Shrike and a Black Redstart we went back to the coast and to a site we call Slyshål 2, a small rubbish dump in the desert surrounded by bushes and some small pools. But also this site turned out to be a rather bad one and the only interesting bird was a Turkestan Shrike.

Daurian Shrike

The rest of the day was spent at Khiran Sand Spit at the coast, a beautiful place with sandy islets off-shore. We arived about three hours before high tide and immediately found three Crested Terns in a large flock of terns, gulls, cormorants and waders. As the tide became higher the birds flew closer to the shore and finally gave really great views. We enjoyed at least 12 Pallas’s Gulls, 20 Lesser Sand-plovers, one Lesser Crested Tern and surprisingly an adult Common Gull among all the roosting birds.

Khiran Sand Spit

Larus rex

Crested, Capsian and Lesser Crested Terns

Crested Tern, Common Gull and some other stuff

Greater and Lesser Sand-plover

Steve-O

Hasse making sketches of the gulls

Yesterday the Belgians saw the Long-tailed Shrike and a male Shikra at Sulaibikhat NR and today the made a cleanup at the Pivot Fields where they saw: Black-throated Trush 1, Pacific Golden Plover 2, Dotterel 2, Red-wattled Plover 1, Bonelli’s Eagle 1, Shikra 1, but unfortunately the couldn’t find the Little Curlew.

After visiting Kabd tomorrow morning with Dr Gary Brown we plan to revisit the Pivot Fields. Sleep tight ya’ll!

Mixed Grill

2007-12-27T11:11:00.000-08:00

Turkestan Shrike

Today we started at South Doha Nature Reserve where we birded the pools, reeds and surrounding shrubs during the morning. Some nice birds were a Clamorous Reed Warbler, three seistanicus Purple Swamphens, an adult Eastern Imperial Eagle and some Isabelline Shrikes.

Clamorous Reed Warbler

Daurian Shrike

Chiffchaff

Then we moved on to Doha Spit and Doha North, but since it was low tide there wasn’t anything to see at all. We had found out that the place we thought was Doha Spit that we had visited earlier in fact was just a part of Sulaibikhat Bay, but now we got it right. To cheer ourselves up after this we went to our standard falafel place and had lunch with the gulls in Sulaibikhat Bay.

A quite unfortunate young Flamingo

At Sulaibikhat we also met the Belgian team and showed them the way to Jahra East Outfall where Abdulrahman met us all in the afternoon. JEO was a really nice site with lots of pipits and wagtails, including two Citrine Wagtails and a probable Buff-bellied Pipit. The place was also crowded by lots of other birds, such as waders, herons and quite a few raptors, including a juvenile Eastern Imperial Eagle. Gunshots were heard in the distance and we found one dead and one wounded Pallid Swift...

JEO

Greater Spotted Eagle

Citrine Wagtail

Pallid Swift

Late in the afternoon we made a desperate try at Doha Spit again but the light was too poor. All we could find that was of interest was 150 Crab Plovers and two Pallas’s Gulls, a first-year bird and an adult.

Bitter Little

Tomorrow we’ll go to the southeast part of the country and try to find something mega. Adios!

SAANR – Sand turns to gold

2007-12-26T11:24:00.000-08:00

Birding SAANR

We gained access into this protected reserve with help from the local birdwatchers in Kuwait. A massive steppe-area of 320 square km’s to cover in one day. Hmmm... A stop about 100 metres after the gate for a roadside Mourning Wheatear produced a Persian Wheatear, the target species of the day, after only a few minutes.

Persian Wheatear

Mourning Wheatear

Spent the following hours along the gorges of the eastern ridge. Desert Warblers and Mourning Wheatears were common and a male Finsch’s Wheatear was showing well. Some sort of wild goat was chilling in the sand and another male Finsch’s Wheatear, the third for our trip made a brief appearance so we wondered if there really are any females of this species as depicted in our bird-guide...

Male Finsch's Wheatear

Pass the steppe towards the hot oasis of Tuhla we noted Bar-tailed Desert lark, Hoopoe Lark, Lesser Short-toed Lark, Short-toed Lark, Skylark and Crested lark. The oasis itself was a bit disappointing, but a very fine place to dive into the very fine remains from pizza-hut last evening.

Hoopoe Lark

First-year male phoenicuroides Eastern Black Redstart

Drive into the gorge of Wadi Um Ar-Riman and find the second Red-tailed Wheatear just at the entrance (and the third just at it’s exit). A skulking Menetrie’s Warbler and a - way out of range looking – male Grey Hypocolius flying over the wadi.

Olof spots a large bird on wings low over the wadi and after a moment we find ourselves with five huge Maqueen’s Bustards in the air!

Maqueen's Bustards

Steppe Grey Shrike

In the evening we closed the fast-food triangle by visiting KFC.

To have or not to have Shikra on your WP list, that's the question...

2007-12-25T10:06:00.000-08:00

Our wheels

After almost a half night of sleep we drove out to the desert again. This time Al-Abraq farm was the target, where several rarities have been spotted during the recent years, most notably maybe the first Forest Wagtail for the WP. Our effort didn´t reveal any megas at the farm today, but we had nice views of a male Finch´s Wheatear, two phoenicuroides Eastern Black Redstarts, one pallidirostris Southern Grey Shrike, two Desert Warblers, one Woodlark and one Short-eared Owl. Johan once again scored the best phonescoping with his stunning shot of a Daurian Shrike. Two Sparrowhawks did their very best to impersonate Shikra.

Desert Wheatear

Desert Warbler

Short-eared Owl

Daurian Shrike

Finsch's Wheatear

Woodlark

Adult Steppe Grey Shrike

After having lunch with the regular sprinkle of snacks, chocolate and pistage cookies, we headed to Jahra farms where we were greeted by a male Little Bittern that swiftly crossed our path. Shortly after that Olaf found the precious Shikra, beautifully perched in the only palm tree visible. Two Smyrna Kingfishers also amused the crowds, along with Ring-necked Parakeets, phoenicuroides E-B Redstart, Turkestan Shrike and Bluethroat.

Shikra!

Ring-necked Parakeet

White-throated Kingfisher

That´s all folks!

Christmas Eve!

2007-12-24T12:31:00.000-08:00

Santa Claus!

We spent the morning at Green Island. While four of us went out on the island the gull maniac Hans spotted a Crested Tern among all the gulls.

Crested Tern

Larus rex

Birds we found on the island included six Red-vented Bulbuls, ten Grey Hypocoliuses, a White-breasted Kingfisher, two Daurian Shrikes and suprisingly a very late adult Barred Warbler.

Red-vented Bulbul

Fantastic four?

Daurian Shrike

Barred Warbler

Grey Hypocolius

After this we moved on to Kuwait Towers to search for the Bank Mynahs. There we were surprised to find an adult Barbary Falcon sitting on one of the towers! After some time we also spotted eight Bank Mynahs among the Common Mynahs.

Barbary Falcon

Bank Mynah

The hours around noon were spent at the high tide roost at Doha Spit where we could enjoy 160 Crab Plovers and a lot of other nice birds. Despite driving to different places along Sulaibikhat Bay we couldn’t find the Lesser Flamingo. Is it gone or in another part of Kuwait Bay?

Crab Plover

Lesser Sand Plover

Greater Sand Plover

Broad-billed Sandpiper

Terek Sandpiper

Four of us went to Jahra East in the afternoon and Hans stayed at Doha Spit and continued to drewl over all the gulls. We never reached Jahra East Outfall due to the recent rain. Two of us wanted to test the car’s capacity but the other two didn’t, so we stopped and birded the surroundings instead, but didn’t find much of interest. At the same time Hans had filmed and painted quite a lot of gulls.

Heuglin's Gulls:

Steppe Gulls:

Caspian Gulls:

Armenian Gulls:

The evening was spent in the hotel room with Christmas presents and lots of coffee. After chilling with 1½ hours of gull film we decided to visit Al-Abraq tomorrow. Over and out!

Visit to the desert

2007-12-23T11:06:00.000-08:00

Fo shizzle my nizzle!

Once again we started our day at Sulabikhat Nature Reserve to search for the Long-tailed Shrike. After some time in the reserve Stefan noticed a strange Acrocephalus song in the reed. After some searching it turned out to be the Long-tailed Shrike that was singing! We had excellent views of this magnificent bird!

Long-tailed nice Acrocephalus

Turkestan shrike

The plan was to go to Abdali Farms but first Abdulrahman took us to a friend’s garden in Kuwait city where a group of six Grey Hypocolius has settled for the winter.

Grey Hypocolius

On our way to Abdali we also stopped at Sabriya Farm but it was almost totally empty except for one Steppe Grey Shrike and a male ochrorus Black Redstart.

At Abdali it didn’t take long before we found the Common Babblers. At least nine birds were present at the site today and were showing nice at times.

Rare Common Babbler

Before Abdulrahman drove back home he showed us the way to Ratqa Desert close to the Iraqi border. Unfortunately the place is popular among bird shooters, but birding close to the fence was quite productive and we found two nice Mourning Wheatears here.

Ratqa Desert

Mourning Wheatear

Steppe Southern Great Grey Shrike

Tomorrow we’ll do some Christmas birding on sites near Kuwait City. Cheers!

First day of birding

2007-12-22T11:12:00.000-08:00

Yo! Today we spent all day with the local birder Abdulrahman Al-Sirhan, who kindly showed us many nice sites and birds around Kuwait city. A rather strong northern wind was present all day, but the sun was shining.

White-cheeked Bulbul

Daurian Shrike

We started at Sulaibikhat NR and Doha Spit but couldn’t find the Long-tailed Shrike or the Lesser Flamingo. However, we got some really nice gull and wader watching at Doha Spit.

Among the large white-headed gulls at Doha Spit we managed to identify cachinnans, barabensis, armenicus, fuscus, heuglini and a few large, pale heuglini types, probably taymyrensis.

Isabelline Wheatear

The afternoon was spent at the Pivot Fields where we saw the Little Curlew and the Red-wattled Lapwing, an Oriental Skylark, the Nile Crocodiles and of course many other birds.

Little Curlew

Red-wattled Lapwing

On our way back to the hotel we worked hard to survive the heavy Saturday afternoon traffic. The evening was spent exploring our surroundings, where we found a big supermarket, KFC, Burger King, Pizza Hut and other vital stuff.

Siberian Stonechat

Now we REALLY have some catching up to do on our sleep, so goodnight!

On site and online!

2007-12-21T13:58:00.000-08:00

We are now sitting in our hotel Arinza Towers Quality Suites in Kuwait City. Olof brought his laptop and we were delighted to find a working Internet connection in the hotel room!

Our nice hotel room!

Our intention is to update this blog every evening with fun events and sightings. Tomorrow we'll start at Sulaibikhat to look for Long-tailed Shrike and Lesser Flamingo. After that we'll go to the Pivot Fields to search for the Little Curlew. And then we'll see what happens... We'll keep in touch!