Whilst coming out of my house
at lunchtime on 26 August I flushed a small owl from under our hedge. The bird
flew up and into our large tree that grows in the front of the house and
although my binoculars were in the car I could still see the bird was a Scops
Owl. We have two Scops Owls in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabian, European
Scops Owl and Pallid Scops Owl. Both are seldom seen with Eurasian Scops Owl
being an uncommon passage migrant and Pallid Scops Owl being a scarce passage
migrant and winter visitor. I quickly got my binoculars, found the bird again and
could see it was a Eurasian Scops Owl, but it was quite nervous and would not
stay in one place for long. I got my camera but then could not relocate the
bird so as I needed to go back to work I put the camera back in the house. Then
on the way back out I saw the owl again in the same tree but had not time to
try to photograph it. I could not see the bird again despite looking each,
morning, evening and night for it but there is a small chance it may still be
about. Eurasian Scops Owl was a new species for me in Saudi Arabia and thus for my 'patch' as well, a lucky sighting in my garden. As a result of the above I failed to photograph the bird so am using an excellent
photo of the species taken in Saudi Arabia by Mansur Al Fahad, who kindly gave
me permission to use the photo some time ago when he saw the species himself.
