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10 April 2015

Birding the northern desert – Bird records by Phil Roberts

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.
Temminck's Lark
Temminck's Lark
Pallid Harrier
Pallid Harrier
Common Kestrel
Common Kestrel