Today was an earlier pick-up for the long drive west to Al Abraq - great conversation on route really shortened the trip. We enjoyed a drive and then an exploratory walk around this working farm and added many new passerines to yesterday's list. The hoped for Shikra was elusive and in fact very few have been seen this winter, but we did have a female Eurasian Sparrowhawk
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| Female Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) |
In the fields, White Wagtails were present along with Caucasian Water Pipits
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| Caucasian Water Pipit (Anthus s. coutelli) |
David was also interested in plants and invertebrates, so it was great to include other aspects of Kuwait's biodiversity in the day's birding and photography. This is Pea Blue
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| Probable Pea Blue (Lampides boeticus) |
Next stop was the Diary Farm Pivots where we had a few Lark species and this Lizard that I still need to identify (possibly Fringed-toed?)
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| Lizard sp |
It was time to head east and to Mutla'a Ranch where the owners of the farm are removing a lot of the trees to make way for Date Palms and this will change the dynamics of the farm, but it should still remain as a migrant hotspot, as it is elevated above Jahra Bay on the Jal Al Zour escarpment. Not too many new bird species, but Black-eared Kite was a new species for the weekend
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| Black-eared Kite (Milvus m. lineatus) |
We also found Brown Playboy
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| Brown Playboy (Deudorix antalus) |
And an interesting Moth species
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| Moth sp. |
At Jal Al Zour, I located the two additional Wheatear species and the Mourning was quite obliging for David to get some great images. Last stop of the day was back to JPR and European Stonechat was also quite obliging for photographs
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| Male European Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) |
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| Female European Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) |
On the big pool, some distant Tufted Duck rounded off an enjoyable 2-days with David
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| Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) |
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