We had a low pressure system over Kuwait that dumped a substantial amount of rain. After dropping my son at school, I popped into Green Island on the way home under heavy grey skies for a quick walk to see which winter visitors were about.
If you want to hear bird song early in the morning, Green Island is certainly the place to go - we have minimal to no dawn chorus in the suburb that we live in. Most of the birds are the resident White-eared Bulbuls, Collared and Laughing Doves and Sparrows interspersed with Common Myna's and the Ruppells Weaver which is very distinctive.
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| Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis) |
A single Eurasian Hoopoe was an unexpected surprise as he seems to have been left behind when the others departed south
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| A very late Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) |
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| Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata) strolling between Slender-billed (Chroicocephalus genei) and Common Black-headed Gulls (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) |
Of course, these were not the reason for my visit, but rather the Hypocolius which is generally quite abundant at Green Island in the early winter months. I was not disappointed as there were more than 30 birds all adding their warbling call to the mix - what a pleasure.
So, please excuse my indulgence for this glut of grey Hypocolius images under a grey sky, but they are really cool birds and are not that easy to photograph as they are seldom out in the open.
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| Portrait of male Hypocolius (Hypocolius ampelinus) |
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| Female Hypocolius (Hypocolius ampelinus) |
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| Male Hypocolius (Hypocolius ampelinus) |
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| Male and Female Hypocolius (Hypocolius ampelinus) |
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| Male Hypocolius (Hypocolius ampelinus) feeding on the leaves of this tree |
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| Female Hypocolius (Hypocolius ampelinus) |
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| Male Hypocolius (Hypocolius ampelinus) |
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| Hypocolius (Hypocolius ampelinus) drinking water from an upturned table |
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