I'm back!

Week 10; 09 March 2017 - Souk Sharq and Green Island

It has been over a year since my last post and I cant blame my post op recovery for the delay. Actually its been a combination of a number of things; I upgraded to a full frame DSLR which had a knock-on effect, including upgrading my laptop and the version of Adobe I was using - since my current version couldn't process the new RAW files. On top of that I didn't seem to have the spare time I had before to process my images and before I knew it, had a backlog that seemed insurmountable.

I did consider, just starting from this year - but then that would have created a big gap in the chronology of my blog which I have painstakingly maintained since first arriving in Kuwait all those years ago. So, I bit the bullet and completed the post processing of all the remaining 2017 images over the past few months and I can now start posting again. However, it doesn't end there - I now also have a backlog for 2018, but it doesn't seem as insurmountable once I catch up on my year's worth of posts!

Winter is now past and spring is upon us. At Souk Sharq the wintering Common Black-headed Gulls are starting to gather before their imminent departure and there is still a combination of breeding and winter plumages between the many birds. It was also a good time to become familiar with the new body, which is blazingly fast.

Common Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) in breeding/summer plumage

Common Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) in non-breeding/winter plumage

A Caspian Gull was also present

Caspian Gull (Larus cachinnans)

Whilst Pallid Swifts were seen hawking in the sky above

Pallid Swift (Apus pallidus)

Later in the day, I made a stop at Green Island. The Rüppell's Weaver was easy enough to find, as I heard him singing before I found him near the tree where he normally builds his nest

Rüppell's Weaver (Ploceus galbula)

A lone Tree Pipit was found foraging on the lawn.

Tree Pipit (Anthus trivialis)