The ‘patch’
has been neglected a bit of late as I spent a weekend away in the southwest of
Saudi Arabia looking for Arabian Endemics and other different birds to those we
see in the Eastern Province, and a couple of evenings after work when I would
normally have been out catching up on sleep due to long hours in the field
looking for owls and Nightjars. It doesn’t, however, look like I may have
missed much as things are still very quiet. The only birds to see in good
numbers are Black-winged Stilts, Kentish Plovers and Little Grebes, species
that all breed on or very near the camp. I have looked for the Crested Honey
Buzzards a couple of times at 04:30 hrs but without luck and the best bird I
have seen all week in the area were two Red-vented Bulbuls in my garden. A few
Eurasian Hoopoes are still around looking for food for their young and a small
group of five Barn Swallows remain over the spray fields but little else has
been about worthy of reporting.
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| Black-winged Stilt - juvenile |
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| Little Grebe |