Kuwait Birding: Full House

Week 47; 23 November 2019 - Pivot Fields

I spent a morning back at the Pivot Fields and arrived just as the sun was rising spreading a red carpet across the morning sky just after 6am.

Glorious sunrise on route to the Pivots

It took a little time for the sun's rays to creep across the farm, but found this Crested Lark catching the first rays

Crested Lark (Galerida cristata)

I searched for Larks in the fields, but there were only a few Skylarks present today

Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis)

I had a small flock of Spanish Sparrow's feeding in the maize field

Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis)

I then spent quite a bit of time at the marsh where many of the birds seem to concentrate; Common Chiffchaff were calling and foraging in the reeds - this one has some grey in the upperparts

Common Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)

A Streaked Weaver (Cat E species) was also calling from the reeds

Streaked Weaver (Ploceus manyar)

There were a few Stonechat's present, some with a lot of visible white in the tail which are Caspian Stonechat. I spent at least an hour with this individual trying to get flight images to show that diagnostic tail pattern and this proved to be quite challenging

Caspian Stonechat (Saxicola m. hemprichii)

and others with no visible white in the tail, which will remain as Eastern for now (but could be Armenian/Variegatus)

Eastern Stonechat (Saxicola maurus)

Female Eastern Stonechat (Saxicola maurus)

Walking part of the marsh, many Common Snipe were seen. The search for Pin-tailed continues unsuccessfully.........

Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago)

as well as Jack Snipe - swinging a big piece of prime glass was not easy for the flight images

Jack Snipe (Lymnocryptes minimus)

There were even a few Marsh Sandpipers which are pretty late

Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis)

In the grasses and short fields next to the marsh, Pallid Swifts were seen overhead

Pallid Swift (Apus pallidus)

With a surprise Red-rumped Swallow which could be of eastern origin - or just a late autumn migrant?

Red-rumped Swallow (Cecropis daurica)

Today I managed a clean sweep (Full House) of all 5 Lapwing species found in Kuwait and all at this location - I believe this is a first! Excuse the poor quality of some of the images, but I did manage to photograph all 5 as well

At the marsh, I had White-tailed Lapwing

White-tailed Lapwing (Vanellus leucurus)

and Spur-winged Lapwing

Spur-winged Lapwing (Vanellus spinosus)

In one of the newly ploughed fields, a single Sociable Lapwing with the many Northern's

Sociable (Vanellus gregarius) and Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus)

and lastly, perhaps the more difficult, I had 7 Red-wattled Lapwings in a field with quite long grass and contended with heat haze from water evaporating from the field