We left at 6am and drove for 20 minutes to the narrow valley we visited yesterday (2200m). The sun was just starting to creep over the surrounding hills as we arrived and the temperature was very pleasant indeed. The valley reverberated to the sound of birdsong, with all the usual culprits adding their input to the dawn chorus. Our first good bird was Philby's Partridge on the hillside above us. And it took several hours of hard scanning before tracking down a single Arabian Grosbeak after several hours of searching and scanning the valley. This is undoubtedly the best place in Saudi Arabia to find this bird, and even so it's not easy.
We also saw Eurasian Hoopoe, a superb Arabian Woodpecker, a pair of Arabian Warblers, Yemen Thrush, Spotted Flycatcher, Little Rock Thrush, several Arabian Wheatears, some more Arabian Waxbills, 2 Long-billed Pipits, Olive-rumped Serin, Yemen Linnet and Cinnamon-breasted Bunting.
One of the valleys we checked out today...
We moved on to another valley and I was really surprised to see a Levant Sparrowhawk circling above us. We saw another one a little bit later in another valley, along with another Arabian Woodpecker, and thankfully our first Gambaga Flycatcher - from looking at eBird this is the earliest recorded Spring arrival in Saudi Arabia (and we saw 2 in the same valley!!). A little later we had another Gambaga Flycatcher, along with another Arabian Woodpecker.
We spent the early afternoon down at 700m at Thee Ain Ancient Village, driving through incredible scenery to reach it.
The route down from 2200m in Al Baha to 700m at Thee Ain
Thee Ain Ancient Village
Here, we notched up Bruce's Green Pigeon, Arabian Babbler, Black Scrub Robin, Arabian Sunbird and 4 African Silverbill.
Black Scrub-Robin
It was so hot here that we decided to return to the hotel (just 35 minutes away) and have an hour off to rest and shower before heading out at 6pm to try for Arabian Eagle Owl.
No eagle-owls here tonight but a nice place to chill....
Arabian Babbler
This was a no-show, although some confiding Arabian Babblers were pretty cool, but in my opinion the crippling views of a Montane Nightjar perched on a dead tree, flying right over our heads and circling us was much better! And to cap it all off, we had a pretty good dinner in an Egyptian restaurant to round of a very successful day.
Took the early morning flight to Al Baha, where a surprisingly quick car rental procedure saw us on the road for 50 minutes to Al Khaira Forest. In the city we spotted a group of 6 Ortolan Buntings on the rocks beside the traffic lights we were stopped at. It was a bit windy and getting quite warm by the time we arrived at a nice vegetated wadi where we scanned the Juniper clad slopes for an hour.
Everyone loves an Eurasian Hoopoe
Things were a little slow to begin, but we eventually picked up Eurasian Hoopoe, Yemen Thrush, Arabian Serin, Brown Woodland Warbler, Abyssinian White-eye, Little Rock Thrush, Arabian Wheatear, Palestine Sunbird, Ruppell's Weavers and a Cinnamon-breasted Bunting. A nice little selection and we'd see most of these species again during the day. At the next stop, a pair of Arabian Warblers showed very nicely indeed on the slope just below us, but better yet was the pair of Arabian Waxbills giving stunning views.
Arabian Waxbill
Masked Shrike
At 2pm we drove back in to Al Baha to check-in to our apartments, seeing a cracking Masked Shrike en-route, and have a nice coffee before returning to Al Khaira Forest. This time we explored the dam where a pair of Red-knobbed Coots was a surprise. There were better views of Olive-rumped Serin and more gorgeous views of the waxbills, but amazingly an Arabian Scops Owl began calling at 4.30pm and we managed to track it down and even scope it!
I phonescoped this Arabian Scops Owl
It's always nice to get an owl in daylight. We ended the day eating Arabic food, local-style on the floor of a restaurant near our hotel.
At 9am i'd been awake 5.5 hours!! And boy it felt like it, but the excitement of birding in the desert was exhilarating. Maybe 20+ Greater Hoopoe Larks were the highlight, some being very, very close, but several Bar-tailed Larks were also pretty cool.
Always a stunner - Greater Hoopoe-Lark
Both Blue-cheeked and European Bee-eaters were streaming north on migration making for a spectacular sight, whilst a female Western Marsh Harrier had other ideas and was heading south! We'd been searching for 5 hours for the elusive, mysterious, enigmatic, nomadic, unpredictable and flipping annoying Arabian Lark..... Needless to say it remains invisible and the news of zero sightings for 2.5 months continues..!!!
But the best birding was an hour away in a narrow wadi. A small pool attracted an Ortolan Bunting, and some lush grasses proved enticing to 6+ Willow Warblers and a female Menetries's Warbler. But the standout species was White-throated Robin, two of which we found without too much effort.
I managed to phone-scope the first White-tailed Robin....
Trumpeter Finch was a good find today...
Add to this Rufous-tailed Bushchat, Red-throated Pipit, Barred Warbler, several Spotted Flycatchers & Common Redstarts, a few White-crowned Wheatears, Brown-necked and Fan-tailed Ravens, Whinchat and even a Trumpeter Finch were all much appreciated. So not a bad day!
I had the opportunity to visit Al Hai'ir this afternoon after collecting our rental car. It's only an hour from the hotel in Riyadh and I was surprised to find an area of marsh, small lagoons and reeds. Amazing. This is where Basra Reed Warbler sometimes breeds, and despite a couple of hours searching all I had were numerous Eurasian Reed Warblers. But it's a great area and after roughly 25 inches of rain here this year, the main channel was full of water...
An adult and immature Purple Heron flew over, along with a Western Cattle Egret and the odd Pallid Swift, whilst trackside bushes held Common Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and a fine Eurasian Wryneck.
Eurasian Wryneck
Purple Heron
I also had a brief glimpse of a sylvia warbler that eluded identification, and a Turkestan Shrike was seen distantly.
Turkestan Shrike
Several Arabian Green Bee-eaters were also present,. along with many White-eared Bulbuls. However, I was particularly pleased to get 3 Saudi ticks: Red Avadavat, Indian Silverbill and Streaked Weaver! Yay!!
Indian Silverbill
Red Avadavat
Not a bad 2 hours birding and I only wished I had longer! So I have 4 hours sleep tonight before starting our Saudi Arabia trip in the deserts north of Riyadh......
It's a 'chicken & egg' scenario with regards to booking a cruise and then flights isn't it? Should I have done it the other way around? Dunno! But i'm pretty sick of the stupidly exorbitant cost of flights being charged these days, especially when you leave it a bit late like i've done for Japan. But anyway it's all done and we are off on 14th June to Tokyo. I think it's a pretty good time to visit, especially for the summer visitors, but I have to check it out as i'm planning to do this next year starting the cruise on 16th May. That may be a better time for seabirds (maybe) but we will see....
Anyway, i'm currently in Riyadh ahead of our Saudi Arabia trip that starts tomorrow. There's negative news on Arabian Lark in that there haven't been any sightings for 2.5 months due to extremely wet weather creating ideal AL habitat for hundreds & hundreds of miles in every direction. So the signs aren't promising but we will try.... And I can get back to posting about birds & birdwatching again....!
It was off. It was on and then off again. And today it's definitely on as we've booked the cruise! Woohoo!! So 22nd June we are off and sailing south from Tokyo to Okinawa and Taiwan. Of course i'm hoping for Short-tailed Albatross but what else is out there? With 2 full days at sea on each leg of the cruise i'm hopeful of some goodies but i'm thinking that next year, mid May should be a better time, so with that in mind.....
Mount Fuji (12,389 feet high)
I'm off to Mount Fuji (Copper Pheasant & Japanese Accentor) for a few days and then taking the ferry over to Miyake-Jima (Owston's Tit, Izu Thrush, Izu Robin, Ijima's Leaf-Warbler & Styan's Grasshopper Warbler. Nice!) before boarding the cruise ship. And afterwards there's a short flight to Hokkaido for Sakhalin Leaf Warbler, Japanese Robin, Middendorff's & Sakhalin Grasshopper Warblers, and maybe a little pelagic too! Oh and would be rude not to have a look at Blakiston's Fish-Owl as well. And i'm planning this around the itinerary for next year's tour..... More info to follow.
Man, I just can't wait! But i've got to tell the wife about the new Japan field guide i've just ordered......!!!
Well Japan will have to wait for a bit, so onwards with the plan for 2024. It's just over 3 weeks until i'm off to Saudi Arabia for my 3rd trip there. Then it's just over 2 weeks until I do Turkey and Mongolia back-to-back - all great trips and very exciting. I will come back to them in another post. And I really need to lose a bit of weight after the recent Cape Horn cruise first!!
The ever-angry Yemen Warbler from Saudi Arabia...
A gorgeous Oriental Plover from Mongolia
So today i'm a little preoccupied with my trip to Tanzania in July. I've been seeing plenty of great photos posted on Facebook from my guide over there, and it's really whetting the appetite. This isn't going to be the usual safari thing but what people call the Eastern Arc Mountains Tour, a region choc full of endemics and really rare stuff. Well, actually, i'm super-excited about this one and having visited Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, northern Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and a bit of South Africa in the past, there's still a whole bunch of lifers possible. But why does it tantalise the tastebuds so much? Hmmmm....
Firstly, it's just an area that's not really one of those places high on birders wish lists of places to visit - and that always draws me for some reason. Secondly, there's a feast of new birds for everyone. Thirdly (and possibly most importantly) it's going to be a bit of an adventure. Ahh yes, adventure in the safest possible terms but it also means the dreaded camping! After doing a Snow Leopard trip in Ladakh years ago I swore I wouldn't be camping ever again! But the lure of some great birds and the passage of time has swept that hatred of camping away. And it's only 6 or 7 nights, we'll be in the mountains so it won't be hot 'n' sweaty, which would drive me mad and we will have a ground crew looking after us. The rest of the time will be spent in much better accommodation. The camping aspect has already put several guys off joining the 4 of us already committed to the trip and it's obviously not everyone's cup of tea. But you gotta suffer for your birds right?!
Bohm's Bee-eater is a big deal...
Chapin's Apalis
Rubeho Akalat
Rubeho Warbler
Uluguru Bushshrike
Usambara Thrush
Usambara Weaver
And there really are plenty of cracking birds to look forward to. The photos above show a small sample of what is ahead. Oh, and we've booked a couple of nights on Pemba Island for a few more endemics as well. Our flights are booked, and the East Africa field guide is dusted off and ready. There's still 2 spaces available for anyone who fancies a shed load of lifers, a bit of an adventure and a few laughs along the way. The full itinerary can be viewed here - Eastern Arc Birding Adventure
It's always the same when I return from a trip, after the jet lag hits and the tiredness dissipates. That anti-climatic feeling. The birding's over. That high. The adrenaline rush of the chase, of finding good birds, of feeding off everyone's excitement at getting a lifer. A bird I've seen a dozen times takes on a whole new meaning entirely when it's a lifer for someone in my group. In fact that feeling is just as good as a lifer for myself. Having ADHD may well increase that feeling for me, I don't really know. My brain works differently to most people's, so I relive these moments over and over and not being able to quieten my brain from racing away with never-ending thoughts makes trying to sleep now a problem.
So it's just under 5 weeks until I go to Saudi Arabia, so when my ever-patient wife suggests we do the Japan cruise that's been at the back of my mind for a while.... I'm off, checking flights, how far to birding sites from the 7 shore stops, and can I really get up to the north of Okinawa in the time we've got ashore...? And then the realisation of the stupid cost of flights....... Everything comes crashing down again and we have to rethink. I begrudge being ripped off by these greedy airlines......
So it's time to breathe and recap on the past month. And what a whirlwind ride it's been. From Hooded Grebe to Diademed Sandpiper-Plover, Antipodean Albatross to Magellanic Plover, Magellanic Woodpecker to White-throated Cachalote, Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross to Ringed Teal, Curve-billed Reedhaunter and more...! But my overriding memory is of those King Penguins at Volunteer Point on the Falkland Islands.....
So I probably won't go to Japan just yet, but one day.... But don't tell the wife...!
The main purpose of my visit to Patagonia in southern Argentina was to see Hooded Grebe. The medium to long-term picture for this species is bleak and that's why you simply have to see it soon.
Hooded Grebe - Strobel Plateau, 12th February 2024
It is classified as Critically Endangered by BirdLife International. And I quote: "This species's population size has declined rapidly over the past three generations and it therefore qualifies as Critically Endangered. It appears from recent counts that the population is now stable, probably as a result of extensive conservation actions. If evidence continues to show that the population remains stable, the species may be downlisted to a lower category of threat in the future."
It is an endemic breeding species to Argentina with an estimated population size of 650 - 800 mature individuals. Again I quote from BirdLife International: "This species breeds on a few basaltic lakes in the interior of Santa Cruz, extreme south-west Argentina. The only known wintering grounds are located at the estuaries of rÃo Coyle, rÃo Gallegos and rÃo Chico on the Atlantic coast of Santa Cruz (Johnson and Serret 1994, Imberti et al. 2004, Roesler et al. 2011b). It is apparently a summer visitor in the Torres del Paine National Park in Magallanes, southern Chile, but there are no confirmed breeding records for the country (Roesler et al. 2011b, S. Saiter and F. Schmitt in litt. 2013, Donoso et al. 2015, Roesler 2015)."
Now consider this......For this breeding season 2023-24 there are no confirmed successful breeding pairs! The previous season only 1 chick survived and according to the volunteers of the Hooded Grebe Project severe stormy weather destroyed the remaining nests on the Strobel Plateau. In the 2021 - 2022 breeding season only 4 chicks survived and none in 2020 - 2021 & 2019 - 2020. And only 1 chick survived in 2018 - 2019. Isn't that unbelievable?
For the full lowdown from BirdLife International follow this link: Hooded Grebe Info
There's also a very interesting article by BirdLife International and again follow this link to read in full: Hooded Grebe - Dancing on the Edge
When you consider the species was only discovered on a lake near El Calafate in 1974 and there's been an 80% reduction in their numbers since then, you have to ask if there's any hope for the species. But the Hooded Grebe Project volunteers have been doing a stirling effort to help by introducing breeding platforms, guarding nests and trying to do something about the introduced Salmon, Trout and American Mink that are their main predators, along with Kelp Gulls now expanding their range. And of course the elephant in the room of climate change resulting in hotter, drier summers with more wind resulting in many favoured breeding lagoons drying out.
Everything points to the species heading to extinction but the volunteers remain committed to their cause. With the climate change threat creating drier conditions year upon year, the subsequent demise of their favoured plant to build their nests and find their favourite food within (aquatic invertebrates) is going to be the biggest challenge I think.
So I had to go. or at least try to see them and figure out a way to help and bring more tourists/birders here and raise awareness of the species' plight. Well, it's an epic journey just to reach El Calafate, followed by a straight 6 or 7 hour drive to one of the estancias to stay overnight. Followed by a rough 2 hour drive to meet the land owner who takes you on a bone-jarring 2 hour drive over one of the roughest, rockiest roads you've ever been on to reach the lake. And then the whole journey back to El Calafate. Throw in birding stops etc and it's one hell of a ride! But absolutely worth it.
We saw 9 Hooded Grebes here....
We were lucky to see 9 Hooded Grebes amongst a flock of approximately 70 Silvery Grebes here. We were due to visit another lake but had information a few days before getting here that only two had been present and they had suddenly disappeared. So we managed to get access with a different landowner as volunteers from the Hooded Grebe Project had told the owners of the estancia about the presence of the grebes here.
Upon arrival I wasn't optimistic about seeing them but with scopes set up from the top of the escarpment above managed t quite quickly spot one. They are bigger and much heavier than Silvery Grebes and glow really white from a distance....
Hopefully the above photos give you some idea of how much the Hoodies stand out from the Silveries...
So walking down to the lake we spotted a few more Hooded Grebes. Setting our backpacks down amongst some rocks we walked slowly closer and each time the closest pair of Hoodies dived underwater we walked quickly closer and froze when they resurfaced. By doing this we got close to the water's edge opposite where they were present and had amazing scope views. Getting decent photos was tricky with some haze, a little wind and general adrenalin pumping through my body from the excitement. Phonescoping was much more effective and I even managed to film a pair displaying...... Wow!!
And here's a few more photos...
So i'm hoping to run a trip to see them in December this year and 2025. Will post details as soon as i'm back from our Epic Cape Horn Cruise next month.
