Twitch!

Week 03; 18 January 2020 - Jahra Pools Reserve

A belated happy new year and decade to all - global challenges persist, but may it also be a decade where all that we wish for and more comes to fruition, says the eternal optimist!

I had a fantastic 2 and bit weeks in South Africa for the first half of January with some time also spend in the Eastern Cape. While I was away, a group of visiting birders found the 1st Brown Shrike for Kuwait on the 3rd Jan and updates I received suggested it would probably stay at JPR. 

I arrived back in Kuwait from SA mid-morning in thundery weather, grabbed a taxi home, dropped my bags, unpacked my bins and camera and headed straight to Jahra Pools where I met Neil Tovey and Paul Scott. We tried for 2-hours without any sign of the bird.

We did have some soaring eagles pass by overhead - note the size difference of the one bird which still has us scratching our heads - maybe Imperial?

Greater Spotted Eagle (Aquila clanga)

Possible Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca)

At the outfall, a Wood and Green Sandpiper were seen side-by-side.

Wood (Tringa glareola) and Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus)

At 4pm Neil and Paul called it quits - my internal battery was also running on low, but I persisted for another 1/2 hour. I sort of dozed off in my car when I suddenly heard a typical Shrike alarm call and there was the Brown Shrike sitting at the top of the tree where it had just flown up after having a bath somewhere inside the reedbed. Light conditions were awful, but a tick is a tick!

1st Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus)) for Kuwait