On
8 April 2016 Phil Roberts and I went birdwatching on the NADA dairy and juices
farm in Hofuf. The farm is part of Al Othman Agriculture Production and
Processing Company (NADA), and is one of the leading producers, manufacturers
and distributors of fresh dairy and juice products in Saudi Arabia. This dairy
farm is one of the largest dairy enterprises in the Kingdom and currently
accommodates about 20,000 cows. The cows are given feed, some of which is grown
locally on the farm, with the feed fields creating excellent habitat for birds
in the way of very large pivot irrigations fields. We spent most of our time
birding these fields to see what birdlife was present as we had been to Haradh
the weekend before and seen a lot of birds in the fields and scrubby areas
nearby. The weekend we went the weather was very poor with a huge thunder and
lightning storm and a lot of rain on the way to the location. The number of
birds seen was significantly down from the previous weekend but this was the
case throughout the Eastern Province according to reports from other
birdwatchers out that weekend. We saw high numbers of European Bee-eaters with
close to 200 birds seen in small groups many of which gathered together in some
trees totaling over a 100 birds. House Sparrow was the other common bird with
hundreds seen. A small number of Spanish Sparrows were also seen in the farm.
The fields had relatively few birds present but Crested Lark was common and
doves of various types such as Namaqua Dove, Laughing Dove and Eurasian
Collared Dove were all seen in small numbers. White-eared Bulbul was resident
as was Graceful Prinia but we failed to locate any birds of prey at all,
species that normally use pivot irrigation fields at this time of year. A
single Eurasian Hoopoe was seen that may have been a migrant and other migrants
seen were Tree Pipit, Barn Swallows, Pallid Swifts and Masked Shrike. The best
bird located was a Common Grasshopper warbler (posted about previously) that is
a rare visitor to the Kingdom. Although we did not choose the best day to go
birding on the farm we enjoyed our trip and saw a new location that has
excellent habitat for birds. These farms have plenty of varied habitat types for
passage migrants and must be a tremendous help to birds migrating through the
harsh deserts of the region.I would like to thank the kindness and generosity
of Abdulaziz Al Othman for allowing us access to his company’s farm in Hofuf as
well as to Kumar from the Al Othman group for arranging access and security
clearance to the property and to Shahul Hameed the farm supervisor who met us
at the gate, arranged access with security and showed us around the farm taking
us to good areas for birds.
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| European Bee-eater |
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| European Bee-eater |
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| Graceful Prinia |
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| Namaqua Dove |
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| Tree Pipit |
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| Tree Pipit |
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| Pallid Swift |