Whilst birding the western mountains we visited An Namas an area where we had seen nests of both Arabian Woodpecker and Arabian Magpie previously. The area where we had seen these has been badly damaged by road building and neither nest was seen this visit. We did however see a single male Arabian Woodpeckeras wells a few other good birds including Bruce’s Green Pigeon, Arabian Wheatear and Gambaga Flycatcher. This entire area is very good for finding breeding Little Owl, which can often be seen on the roadside walls. The area is not marked as a breeding area for Little Owl in Mike Jennings Arabian Breeding Bird Atlas, but a good number of birds are present throughout the entire area to Billasmer at least.
