Debbie Barnes was back in Kuwait on business again and joined Paul Scott and I at the Pivots for an enjoyable winter mornings birding. At this time of year, we have welcome clouds, so the sunrises are enjoyable to watch and appreciate
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| Pivot Field Sunrise |
Slowly driving around the farm as the sun rose, we found the Indian Roller, but it was not at all obliging. We did get a single Corn Bunting on the pivot in pre-dawn gloom
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| Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra) |
Water Pipit and White Wagtail numbers seem to grow week-on-week
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| Caucasian Water Pipit (Anthus s. coutelli) |
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| White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) |
A few Sociable Lapwings are still present in the growing flock of Northern Lapwing
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| Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) |
We had both Long-legged and Steppe Buzzard with the latter being a little more accommodating
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| Long-legged Buzzard (Buteo rufinus) |
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| Steppe Buzzard (Buteo b. vulpinus) |
We spent some time at the marsh, where there were numerous Red-spotted Bluethroat
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| Red-spotted Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) |
As well as Stonechat's, which will remain as Eastern type's for now
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| Eastern Stonechat (Saxicola maurus) |
A Eurasian Sparrowhawk passed by overhead
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| Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) |
As did some Pallid Swift
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| Pallid Swift (Apus pallidus) |
a 'dirty' Sand Martin against the light had me going for awhile
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| Sand Martin (Riparia riparia) |
A couple of White-tailed Lapwing's did a fly past
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| White-tailed Laping (Vanellus leucurus) |
Checking the other side of the marsh, we found a small flock of Eurasian Siskin
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| Eurasian Siskin (Carduelis spinus) |
We continued driving, flushing two Eastern Imperial Eagle from a field
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| Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) |
We also stopped to see both Greater Spotted Eagles perched together on a pivot
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| Greater Spotted Eagle (Aquila fulvescens and Aquila clanga) |
And whilst checking out some Greater Short-toed Lark's, this one popped up into view - by best and closest sighting ever of Bimaculated Lark!
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| Bimaculated Lark (Melanocorypha bimaculata) |
Earlier we had seen a couple of Mauryan Grey Shrikes, but this one sitting on the overhead wire was distinctly more grey below and appeared to be slate grey above - a good candidate for Arabian Grey that will need to be submitted to KORC for adjudication
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| Possible Arabian Grey Shrike (Lanius aucheri) |
As time was passing and the tide would be favourable, we drove to Sulaibikhat Bay for the Flamingo flock and to check if our 'pink lady' was still present - she was!
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| Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor) |
Again, the Greater Flamingo's were quite entertaining and quite tolerant of our approach
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| Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) |
I caught one of them doing its 'man with a semafor flag' impersonation, but have often seen quite a number in the flock doing the same thing. The appear to stand upright and erect and then suddenly and deliberately snap open both wings and hold this pose for 10-seconds. This is repeated a few times. I guess it is some kind of display, but it seems odd in winter when breeding is still a few months away?
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| Displaying Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) |
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