Our trip ‘up
north’ had proved fairly successful with Hypocolius and Finsch’s Wheatear
already seen and we had not even explored many of the pivot irrigation fields,
that are mainly around Qarat Al Ulya. We continued in this direction stopping
at any good-looking fields with access. The normal fields we have checked in
the past were barren but a few new ones had appeared so we looked in these.
Almost every field had good numbers of Eurasian Skylarks with groups of up to
60 birds but normally around 30 in each field. As the crops were short it was
easy to examine the fields but the only other birds seen in numbers were
Isabelline Wheatears and Water Pipits. A few Common Kestrels were around the fields
as always and Laughing, Eurasian Collared and Namaqua Doves were regularly
seen. Otherwise apart from a scattering of White Wagtails things were quiet. We
spent quite a bit of time looking at Pipits but could not locate anything out
of the ordinary. Another bird that was commoner than normal in the fields and
nearby areas was Desert Wheatears. We normally see one or two on a trip up here
but this time saw more than ten. Whilst checking the Wheatears I found another
male Finsch’s Wheatear in a pivot field and although as normal for the species
it was wary and timid, I managed to get a poor flight shot showing the tail
pattern as well as one on the ground. At one stage we also saw a Mauryan Grey
Shrike on top of a set of haystacks that was nice as this type of grey shrike
has been scarce in the local area this year.
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| Finsch's Wheatear |
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| Finsch's Wheatear |
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| Water Pipit |
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| Water Pipit |
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| Mauryan Grey Shrike |
