Birds of Saudi Arabia: Ringing some migrants

An early morning ringing trip saw me going to Jasaer rather than our normal site of Alba Marshes. As migration has picked up in Saudi Arabia, I thought it would be a good idea to try for a few migrants as this site is on the coast of Bahrain. It is a site with a few trees and a place where Brendan and Abdulla have ringed in the past. One very nice thing about the site was it was dry and I did not need to wear waders, another was it did not smell like a sewer. We set up all five nets in various places and although the place was not full of migrants there were a few birds about. We caught 12 birds including four House Sparrows, three Common Chiffchaffs, two Daurian Shrikes, one Turkestan Shrike, an eastern Lesser Whitethroat and a Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin. We had one retrap Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin which Abdulla had ringed at the same site three days before. The Eastern Lesser Whitethroat is an interesting bird as it is a dark individual with a long wing and may be of the race althaea sometimes treated as a searate species Humes Whitethroat? although the races of Lesser Whitethroat are very complex and intergrades are common.