03 May 2015

Plenty of common migrants near Buraydah – Bird records by Ragu Shanbhogue

Ragu has been birding near to Buraydah over the last few weeks and has sent me a number of photographs of bird he has seen. Ragu has been seeing a very similar selection of species to the ones we have been seeing in the Eastern Province showing many of these birds pass on broad fronts through the Kingdom. One weekend all the photos of species Ragu sent I had seen that weekend as well but many hundreds of kilometers to the east of Ragu’s location. Good numbers of Tree Pipits and Yellow Wagtails have been passing through with other migrants including Rufous-tailed Scrub Robins, Turkestan Shrikes, Spotted Flycatchers and Whinchats. Two species seen may be either late wintering birds or passage migrants and were a Lesser Whitethroat and a Siberian Stonechat.
Turkestan Shrike
Turkestan Shrike
Tree Pipit
Tree Pipit
Yellow Wagtail - thunbergi
Yellow Wagtail - thunbergi
Yellow Wagtail
Yellow Wagtail
Whinchat
Whinchat
Spotted Flycatcher
Spotted Flycatcher 
Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin
Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin
Lesser Whitethroat
Lesser Whitethroat
Siberian Stonechat
Siberian Stonechat