A few birds of prey at Phil’s Fields near Sabya – Bird records by Phil Roberts

Phil saw a few birds of prey at Phil’s Fields near Sabya during his recent trip to the southwest of Saudi Arabia of which he managed to take a couple of very good photographs of both Long-legged Buzzard and Common Kestrel. Phil told me he saw the Long-legged Buzzard sitting on the pivot irrigation equipment but by the time he had approached the bird had flown off and away. He then spent some time birding the area where he saw three Black Kites, one Yellow-billed Kite, 10+ Laughing Dove, one Green Bee-eater, two Siberian Stonechats, one Isabelline Wheatear and two White Wagtails. Then he saw three Lesser Kestrels in the air and went and took photographs of the birds, when he saw a bird out of the corner of his eye in flight. It turned out to be the Long-legged Buzzard returning and Phil took some excellent photos of it at this stage. Phil has kindly allowed me to use his pictures on my website and they are shown below, the copyright of the photos remains with Phil. The bottom photo of an Arabian Babbler was also taken by Phil but not at Phil’s Fields but at the campsite at the top of Mount Soudah near Abha in the Asir mountains.

Long-legged Buzzard

Lesser Kestrel

Lesser Kestrel

Arabian Babbler