Mixed Grill

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

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...

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!

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!