I received an e-mail from Cenen Mendoza who is
a photographer from Al Khobar. He often goes out with his friends to photograph
birds at the weekend and this year he has bought a new telephoto lens (Tamron
150-600) that allows him to capture more details of birds especially those in
flight. Whilst out on 13 November 2015 at Shubaily in Al Khobar he photographed
a bird he had not seen before and took some photographs of it from directly
underneath. The bird turned out the be a Short-toed Snake Eagle. This is a good record as in the Eastern
Province of Saudi Arabia the species is a scarce migrant and winter visitor and
has only been recorded since 1979 although birds have been seen in all months
of the year except July and August. Most records have occurred in March and October
& November suggesting most birds just pass through the area although single
records in December to February show some birds may winter here. I have seen a
few birds whilst being in Saudi Arabia in the Eastern Province with the last
one at Ash Shargiyah Development
Company Farm, near Jubail on 11 September 2015. Cenen has kindly allowed me to
use his photographs on my website some of which are shown below.
