Birds of Saudi Arabia: An amazing barbed-wire fence

16 March 2023

An amazing barbed-wire fence – Al Uqayr

I arrived at first light at Al Uqayr in early March and as the sun was not up decided to drive along a fenced off area with a small area of trees enclosed. As I was driving, I came across a Great Grey Shrike sitting on the fence and this was closely followed by four Eurasian Hoopoe and a male Namaqua Dove. The light was not good as otherwise I may have got some good photos of these species. A few small warblers were also seen flitting about, but I could not get close to make any positive identifications. As it appeared migrants were about, I went to a nearby small farm for a few hours and returned to the fence at about 10:00 hrs. The light was better but not ideal and more birds were seen lined up along the fence. Two Asian Desert Warbler were noted and further down the fence a Daurian Shrike was perched. It took flight before I could get close but luckily flew straight towards me and perched almost directly beside the car. As I watched this bird another Shrike joined it which was a nice Turkestan Shrike also very close to the car. The amazing fence then had a male Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush on it that allowed me to get very close. This bird was even doing some sub-song that I recorded on my I-phone. Lastly three Pied Wheatears were also on the wires of the fence making an amazing hour or so of birding.