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15 January 2013

Red-tailed Wheatear again - Dhahran Hills

I have been trying to see and photograph the Red-tailed Wheatear that I saw a few days ago in recent days. I have seen the bird each time I have visited the ‘patch’ but it has been quite mobile and until yesterday did not allow me to get any decent photographs. Yesterday I saw the bird on the main track to the percolation pond by the scrubby desert and managed to get a few decent shots. Mike Pope a birder from Kuwait, who was visiting Saudi Arabia, mentioned to me he had seen the bird a few days before I saw it in roughly the same place. He did not manage to get any photos, which is a pity as he is an excellent photographer. Red-tailed Wheatear is meant to be a confiding species allowing close approach, but this bird did not read the manual and is tricky to get near.