Lorna sent me the following reports of birds seen at KFUPM recently “I've
had a few more migrants on my patch in the last fortnight or so, nothing out of
the ordinary but enjoyable sightings nonetheless. I saw a few Wheatears most
days, mostly Northern but a good few Isabelline as well, and there seem to be
good numbers of European Bee-eaters around, I have seen groups of around 20
most days, and a group of 40-50 passed right overhead a few days ago. There are
lots of Hoopoes around just now, I tend to think of them as residents because
there are certainly some year round, but over the past few weeks there are noticeably
more, I easily see ten in a walk around the patch. There has also been Ortolan
Bunting, Barn Swallows, one or two Swifts and a few more Shrikes, all single
birds but in addition to Woodchat and Southern Grey I have now seen Lesser
Grey, Isabelline, Turkestan and my first Red-backed was on the 25th
September. On the same day I had my first close-up sighting of Indian Silverbill,
I rounded a corner and came across a group of 20 or so on the ground. I've been
seeing groups of them in flight often but that was my first really good look at
them as they were only a couple of metres away from me. The last couple of days
I've been seeing House Crows as well, actually quite a few of them”.
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| Indian Silverbill |
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| Red-backed Shrike |