Testing conditions at the Pivots

Week 29; 20 July 2019 - Pivot Fields

I was solo at the Pivots this morning. It had been a week of strong winds with blowing dust at times, so I was expecting a few new migrants to have arrived - but there wasn't too much new, from what was seen last week.

With the fine dust in the air, it wasn't great for photography unfortunately. I was off to a great start finding one of the Black-winged Kites we saw last week, fighting the wind, as it searched for food.

Black-winged Kite (Elanus c. vociferus)

The family of Common Kestrel were still present hawking over the fields

Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

I saw one of the Kestrel's giving a dark form Booted Eagle a hard time as it came in to find a place to rest and roost.

Dark Form Booted Eagle (Aquila pennata)

I was fortunate with the Lapwings, recording 3 species; Red-wattled (3), Spur-winged (3) and a single young White-tailed

White-tailed Lapwing (Vanellus leucurus)

That was flying together with 2 Pied Avocet's which were not seen last week

Pied Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta) with White-tailed Lapwing (Vanellus leucurus)

Pied Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta)

There was a good assortment of waders and Green Sandpiper's had increased somewhat since last week

Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus)

Driving around the fields, I found the family of Cream-coloured Coursers

Cream-coloured Courser (Cursorius cursor)

And big numbers of Black-crowned Sparrow-Larks which are now dispersing, post breeding elsewhere in Kuwait.

Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark (Eremopterix nigriceps)

By this time, I had enough of the wind and dust blowing through my car - so retreated to a restaurant for breakfast. A few good species were seen this morning and of course over the coming weeks diversity and abundance will only increase.