On 5 February Phil Roberts and I travelled to Haradh
an area of extensive pivot irrigation fields three hours drive from Dhahran. We
left at 03:00 hrs to allow us to be at the site at first light. We tried the
big farm complexes first but were not allowed entry to any so tried a set of
fields off the main road some distance and eventually found some access to some
very good looking fields in various stages of growth from ploughed to fallow to
newly growing. We eventually came across a very damp newly ploughed field that
had a single Northern Lapwing in it, but as we got closer more and more birds
flew out. After a couple of minutes I saw two Sociable Lapwings in flight at
the back of the flock that flew around and landed in the ploughed field. We
drove around to the area where the access track was to the pivot irrigation
bars and moved down this into the middle of the field. Here we scanned through
the Northern Lapwings we could see and eventually found eight Sociable
Lapwings. We also found a second large flock of Northern Lapwings in a second
ploughed field and went to look at this flock and found another eight Sociable
Lapwings in amongst them. At one stage both the flocks joined together and so
did the Sociable Lapwings but they split up again with eight staying with each
flock. These birds are only the second time the species has been recorded in
the Eastern Province after an adult at Haradh farm on 25 February 1982
The species status in Saudi Arabia is a locally scarce
passage migrant and winter visitor, which has historically been recorded north
of Jeddah near the coast. Other records come from north of Yanbu, one near
Riyadh, An adult at Haradh farm 1982 and one near the National Wildlife
Research Center at Taif. Previous historical records include flocks 25 in 1934
and 45 in 1988 and there have only been eight records since 1950. These include
one satellite-tagged bird from central Kazakhstan that wintered in Saudi Arabia
for several weeks in 2011, just north of Tabuk by the main road and another satellite-tagged
bird in the same area in November 2013, where they probably used irrigated
fields for feeding. On 17 November 2012, a group of 10 birds were recorded
north of Tabuk in the same area as the satellite tagged birds had been recorded
and 35 birds were in irrigation fields north of Jizan 14 January 2013. Whilst
birding in the Jizan area on 19 November 2013, Seven birds were in a stubble
field near Sabya 21- 22 November 2103. Satellite tracking of Sociable Lapwings
from their breeding grounds in central Kazakhstan has suggested that Saudi
Arabia is an important stop-over and wintering area. Tagged birds appear to be
associated with agricultural areas in the north of the country, especially
Tabuk and Al Jawf. In October 2015, three satellite tagged birds were in Saudi
Arabia - west of Tabuk, west of Al Jawf and also west of Tayma. Following a
request from BirdLife International, The Saudi Wildlife Authority organised a
rapid survey to try and locate the Sociable Lapwings in northern Saudi Arabia.
The survey was conducted from 13-16 November 2015 and found17 birds in west
Tamya 13 November 2015 with 22 birds at west Tabuk 15 November 2015 that
increased in size to a flock of 46 on 20 November 2015, this being the largest
flock seen in the Kingdom for many years. Sociable Lapwing is listed as
Critically Endangered because its population has undergone a very rapid
reduction, for reasons that are poorly understood. This decline is projected to
continue and increase in the future. Fieldwork in Kazakhstan (and counts in
Turkey and the Middle East) has shown the population to be substantially larger
than previously feared, but recent demographic studies have found low adult
survival, possibly largely driven by hunting pressure along the migration
routes and wintering grounds. Important wintering areas have been identified in
Saudi Arabia in the northwest of the Kingdom from satellite tracked birds. Below is a photo of the field where the Sociable Lapwings were seen.
