April 8-11th: spring kicks in

I began this four day period at Rainham Marshes as the weather had improved to suggest the arrival of summer migrants. The walk from the station through Rainham West bore that out with two singing Sedge Warblers. It’s good to get the first ones for the year even if these early arrivals sing from low down in the reeds and remain hidden; give them another two weeks and they’ll be leaping off bramble bushes to perform their display flights in the hope of attracting Mrs Sedge.

I took the route via the barges and as I walked across the car park a Fox brazenly walked up to me hoping I’d offer it a free breakfast. All it got from me was its picture taken. It’s a shame that some people have to treat wild animals as pets and feed them; urban Foxes are perfectly capable of finding their own food.

Fox

I carried on along the river and then took the path up over the tip in the hope of a Wheatear but I wasn’t in luck, however I did hear my first Med Gull of the year calling although I couldn’t locate it. The Barnacles were still on Wennington but I couldn’t find anything else of note until a Swallow flew over the Serin Mound. Aveley Bay still contained its regular waders. I met Andy by the visitor centre who’d just found a Black Redstart on the river wall.  I saw it fly across behind some trees and we tried to locate it but it had completely vanished.

After a pause for a coffee at the centre I did a circuit of the reserve. The sunny weather and light breeze continued to offer hope of more migrants but they remained hidden from me. Near Aveley Pool I ran into a close male Bearded Tit which eventually showed well despite never coming fully out into the open.

male Bearded Tit

I heard another Sedge Warbler by the Targets where the Ruff was still hanging around. I managed to walk past a Wheatear without seeing it but I’m sure I’ll catch up with one over the next few days.

I spent Saturday morning at Brent Reservoir. The drake Garganey was still present, having now clocked up a week here but aside from more Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, there were no other summer visitors.

The following day I decided to pop down to the Wetland Centre as they have early opening on Sundays for members. It was nice to walk around without hordes of screaming kids and I saw a lot more birds than usual including Willow Warbler and a Collared Dove, neither of which I’d previously recorded here.

Collared Dove

At the wader scrape the number of Sand Martins had increased since my last visit and I also saw a pair of Mandarin fly past. I spent most of my time in the Peacock Hide. I couldn’t locate the pair of Garganey that had been around for a few days (typically they were seen later in the day) but did see my first Wheatear of the year and a Jack Snipe.

I was back at Brent the next day; the Garganey actually showed well for most of the morning, even displaying to the female Teals. They weren’t interested as they were already paired up. Four House Martins flew around, a relatively early date to see them, although a couple of other sites in London also recorded their first ones today. The sun had brought out quite a few butterflies and I managed to get in a transect although I only saw a Green-veined White on my route.

This was my last UK birding for a week as I had a week long trip to Saudi Arabia beginning the following morning.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia April 2022

This was a week-long private trip for three of us organised through Bird Tour Asia. All I had to do was book my international flights and a hotel for the first night. Other pre-tour ‘paperwork’ consisted of an online visa, a covid arrival form and the NHS covid pass, all of which were straightforward.

On April 12th, we met up at Heathrow T5 for the afternoon flight on BA although it was delayed by 75 minutes which meant we didn’t arrive in Riyadh until midnight. Unfortunately John and Jane’s luggage was left in London (only retrieved on our penultimate day!) so by the time we'd sorted that out we arrived at our hotel in the early hours and had to be ready to leave by 4am. Our guide, Carlos, picked us up and we headed off into the desert to look for larks. This was the only birding we did up in the north of the country which is mostly stony desert with low bushes.

Our principal target was Arabian Lark, a recent split from Dunn’s Lark which I’d seen in Israel but we couldn’t locate any. There were plenty of Greater Hoopoe-Larks along with Bar-tailed and Crested Larks, and the first of several Turkestan Shrikes of the karolini race.

Greater Hoopoe-Lark

Turkestan Shrike

We only had the first part of the morning here as we had to go back to Riyadh for a domestic flight down to Abha. Despite it being Ramadan we were still able to get lunch at the airport. We had been warned that the fasting was strictly observed so expected food and drink outlets to be closed but this wasn’t always the case. During our stay it was difficult to find restaurants open in the evening so we mostly had to rely on take-aways. We found most of the locals friendly but few spoke English.

A group of friendly Saudis asked for their photo to be taken

We spent five days birding the southwest corner of Arabia including a day on the coast along the Red Sea not far from the Yemen border. This area is unlike the rest of the country in being quite high, above 2000 metres, and often quite green. The weather was sunny and pleasant in the highlands but much hotter along the coast where the temperature soared into the mid-thirties.

Escarpment at Habala Plateau

Acacia desert

abandoned farm in Raidah National Park

Arabian endemics

Our trip was geared to locating the Arabian endemics and we saw most of them, missing just three: Arabian Lark, Golden Sparrow and Grosbeak – the latter two were just not around this year. Others not photographed include Arabian Wheatear and Arabian Sunbird.

Arabian Partridge

Philby's Partridge

Arabian Eagle-Owl

Arabian Scops-Owl

Arabian Woodpecker

Asir Magpie, a recent split from European Magpie

Rufous-capped Lark (also occurs in Somaliland)

Yemen Thrush

Yemen Warbler

Arabian Waxbill

Arabian Serin

Yemen Serin

Yemen Linnet

Middle Eastern birds

With its varied habitats, Saudi Arabia hosts many of the birds found across the Middle East. As well as those photographed below we also saw Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, Long-legged Buzzard, Saunder's Tern, Blackstart, White-spectacled Bulbul, Graceful Prinia and Nile Valley Sunbird.

Crab Plover, fairly common on coastal lagoons

Namaqua Dove

Sooty Gull

White-eyed Gull

Palestine Sunbird

Arabian Warbler

African birds

The East African coast is less than 25 miles away across the Red Sea from the SW corner of the Arabian Peninsula at its nearest point so this particular area hosts many African birds and mammals that don’t occur elsewhere in Arabia. Other birds seen but not photographed include Helmeted Guineafowl, Dusky Turtle Dove, African Palm Swift, Goliath Heron, Grey Hornbill and African Paradise-Flycatcher.

African Collared Dove

Hamerkop

Pink-backed Pelican

Grey-headed Kingfisher

Little Rock Thrush

African Stonechat

Violet-backed Starling

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

Migrants

The Red Sea is a major migration route for birds that winter in Africa and breed in Europe and Asia including raptors, waders, bee-eaters and many small birds like warblers and flycatchers. We bumped into migrants at most green spaces (one park had four races of Yellow Wagtail) and during our last day on the coast we saw several flocks of Black Kites passing through with the odd Booted Eagle and Marsh Harrier.

Black Stork

Black Kite

Oriental Honey-Buzzard - the tail pattern easily separates this from European H-B

Lesser Sandplovers

Masked Shrike

Black Scrub-Robin

Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robin

Red-throated Pipit

Other wildlife

Few mammals were seen apart from large groups of Hamadryas Baboon and feral Camels but when we went out looking for Nubian Nightjar we saw Midas Free-tailed Bats and a Desert Hedgehog.

Dromedary Camels

Baboons heading into a cave to spend the night away from predators

Desert Hedgehog

Yemen Rock Agama

Anderson's Agama

unidentified agama

Arabian Tree Frog

Blue-spotted Arab

Pioneer White

Slender Skimmer

Northern Banded Groundling

unidentified dragonfly egg-laying