Phil Roberts went with some friends
to a desert area some distance northeast of Riyadh, near the village of Hazwa
which is close to the boarder of the Eastern Province and Riyadh regions. He
spent two days in the desert looking for birds towards the end of March 2015.
The main aim was to try to locate Eurasian Stone Curlew which was not achieved but
the trip was successful in all other respects. The area Phil went to was really
good and he saw a lot of migrants plus a few residents including 50+ Lesser
Kestrel, 1000+ Greater Short-toed lark (they were everywhere), one Bimaculated
Lark, two Temminck's Lark, Northern Wheatear, Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, Pied
Wheatear, Desert Wheatear, 4 Cream Coloured Courser, Pallid Harrier and Tawny
Pipit. Phil also thinks this area may be better as the migration season
progresses as he feels sure more birds will arrive in the area. Phil has kindly
sent me a few photographs of his trip, that was not great for photography, and
has kindly allowed me to use them on my website and which are reproduced below.
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| Temminck's Lark |
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| Pallid Harrier |
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| Common Kestrel |