A family outing to Khiran

Week 15, 10 April 2013 - Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City (Click to enlarge image)

We arranged a family outing to Khiran to enjoy the beach and sea - unfortunately the weather didn't get out memo and the wind was a lot stronger than we had hoped for.

I had a few small waders on the pristine beaches, a couple of Little Stint

Little Stint (Calidris minuta)

and a few more Sanderling's (note the lack of hind toe)

Sanderling (Calidris alba)

More Whinchats were seen and along one stretch of beach I had both male

Male Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra)

and female

Female Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra)

Where there was some habitat, of course Spring migrants were present. I had seen Barred Warbler last week, but was unable to photograph the bird. This time I was luckier.

Barred Warbler (Sylvia nisoria)

A male Common Redstart provided a splash of colour

Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)

Turkestan Shrike is still the predominant Shrike species

Turkestan Shrike (Lanius phoenicuroides) 

and I did get my first Lesser Grey Shrike for this Spring and what a cracker it was.

Lesser Grey Shrike (Lanius minor) 

The rest of the time, we just enjoyed the day out before the thermo-fan kicks in and the temp heads up to superheated in a month's time.

Bogey's, birdies, eagles and an overdue dose of green

Week 15, 09 April 2013 -  Golf Club Birding (Click to enlarge image)

You would be forgiven if you thought this was a golf report, it is but not about the golf itself. My son was having his lesson, playing 9-holes at Golf Club just off 6th Ring Road (I cant put the name of the Club, as it gets tagged with an unwanted pop-up - very annoying) and I lagged behind checking out the migrants that were enjoying the lush green fairways and very fast greens.

By far the most predominant passerine were Red-throated Pipits with almost all in their breeding plumage.

Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus)

I did find the odd bird that was still in non-breeding plumage

Non-breeding plumage Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus)

The odd Tree Pipit was also seen.

Tree Pipit (Anthus trivialis)

I have never seen so many Whinchats in previous spring migrations, they seem to be everywhere

Male Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra)

A stunning male Northern Wheatear almost jumps out of the frame with the soft background bokeh

Male Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe)

Normally Willow Warblers are seen foraging and gleening in dense bushes, but on the course they were foraging on the fairways, like all of the others.

Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus)

There were a few Shrikes seen, but only this Woodchat Shrike allowed me to get close enough for an image, looking very debonair

Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator)

After the Red-throated Pipits, Yellow Wagtails made up the second largest numbers - mostly a mix of beema and feldegg

Here is Sykes Wagtail in breeding plumage

Sykes Wagtail (Motacilla f. beema)

and non-breeding plumage

Sykes Wagtail (Motacilla f. beema)

and Black-headed Wagtail in breeding plumage

Black-headed Wagtail (Motacilla f. feldegg)

this could be either Black-headed or Grey-headed in non-breeding plumage

and a distant Grey-headed Wagtail

Grey-headed Wagtail (Motacilla f. thunbergi)

On the 17th I saw a male Crested Lark trying to woo a pretty disinterested female

Displaying male Crested Lark (Galerida cristata)

On the 18th, I was surprised to see a Spotted Crake skulking around the rocks on the waterhole.

Spotted Crake (Porzana porzana)

Oh, and how was my son's golf you might ask? I was also pleased that my son made a par on the 18th and obviously didnt lose his ball in the water trap!

Migrants in the south

Week 14, 03 April 2013 - Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City (Click to enlarge image)

I was back down at Sea City in the first week of this month and for this visit had favourable weather. I spent most of the time looking for migrants on the 4 islands where some of the shrubs and bushes were flowering and this is where many of the migrants were concentrated.

The first stop produced a White-throated Robin, not the striking male I was hoping for. It turned out this species was seen on all 4 islands.

White-throated Robin (Irania gutturalis)

A female Ehrenberg's Redstart was also present (note the prominent wing panel and dark centered median coverts - thanks Yoav)

Female Ehrenberg's Redstart (Phoenicurus p. sammamisicus)

As was this Daurian Shrike, although they are in the minority when compared to the numbers of Turkestan around (30:70)

Daurian Shrike (Lanius isabellinus)

Moving on I found some flowering Bottlebrush and this was literally a magnet for many species. On Green Island, these bushes are more mature and have numerous species feeding on the impressive flowers

Flowering Bottlebrush

Today it was mostly Blackcaps

Male Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

and Lesser Whitethroat, although I did catch a glimpse of a Common Nightingale in the depths of the shrub

Lesser Whitethroat (Sylvia curruca)

Other interesting species seen included...

3 Eurasian Wrynek's

Eurasian Wryneck (Jynx torquilla)

A single Masked Shrike

Masked Shrike (Lanius nubicus)

More White-throated Robin's

White-throated Robin (Irania gutturalis)

and both Ehrenberg's Redstart and Common Redstart's

Female Ehrenberg's  Redstart (Phoenicurus p. sammamisicus)

Male Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)

and good numbers of Rufous-tailed Scrub Robins

Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin (Cercotrichas galactotes)

Good numbers of Turkestan Shrike are still present and trying to harass and ambush some of the tired migrants passing through

Turkestan Shrike (Lanius phoenicuroides)

It is interesting to note that almost all of the Pied Wheatear's passing through now are females - sexual segregation in departure dates for this species during migration?

Female Pied Wheatear (Oenanthe pleschanka)

Sadly, even here in Khiran shooters make their way onto the islands to shoot migratory birds - is nothing sacred, even in this pristine area? This was one of many fresh shotgun cartridges found

Spring shooting continues like a plague

Back on mainland a few Red-throated Pipits were seen and the numbers of this species should slowly increase over the coming weeks.

Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus)

A stunning male Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush was seen on Road 278 on the way back to the site office.

Male Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush (Monticola saxatilis) 

Followed by a few more Common Redstart's

Male Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)

A photographer in the making

Week 13, 30 March 2013 - Jahra Pools Reserve (Click to enlarge image)

An upcoming photographic competition in the UK was the push for the outing to Jahra Pools. More specifically so that I could enter some images in the junior category for my 10-year old son Jaden.

On arrival, I set him up on the back seat of my car with my camera and prime lens and I was the nominated driver/guide to get him onto the birds.

He struggled a little with the weight and finding the birds through the viewfinder initially, but it didn't take long before he was shooting away like a veteran.

A White-spotted Bluethroat (a ssp I hadn't yet seen in Kuwait) had been seen at the pools a few days back and amazingly this was almost the first bird we saw. It is quite small, but Jaden did well to get some good images of this species. As far as I know this is the first time this ssp has been photographed in Kuwait; first by Khaled Al Ghanem and then a few others. I have been wandering what phenomena has caused this and the Caucasian Bluethroat (magna) I photographed on the 22nd to suddenly make an appearance in Kuwait.

White-spotted Bluethroat (Luscinia s. cyanecula)

It was quite difficult to get Jaden to photograph this small bird, as many larger and more colourful Purple Swamphen's were wandering about like farmyard chickens.

Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio  porphyrio)

There were numbers of waders foraging in the pools near the road, here a Ruff starting to come into it's breeding plumage

Ruff (Philomachus pugnax)

A Green Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus)

and a Temminck's Stint, the most interesting of the waders seen.

Temminck’s Stint (Calidris temminckii)

We were both was really pleased with his images and the best 3 have now been sent off to the competition - fingers crossed!