A leaky tap in an Acacia grove

On Friday morning, having finished birding a second time at the Rabigh waste water wetlands we decided to go well inland from Thuwal to go "bush bashing". 

Bush bashing is when you look hard at bushes and trees, particularly acacia and tamarisk in this part of the world. Our aim was to look for warblers as an antidote to all the large birds viewed during much of the trip.

Our hopes weren't high as it was getting towards the hottest part of the day which was up to 44C.

We struck very lucky. As we parked the car to start we noticed we were next to a water butt with a leaky tap and some shade underneath.  Before even getting out of the parked car we saw one or two birds in the shade and they were warblers.  Two were barred warbler and lesser whitethroat. 

barred warbler and lesser whitethroat

They were obviously very hot and oblivious to our presence. We decided to stay put in the car and watch. Indeed in the end we stayed fully two hours as a steady stream of warblers and other birds queued up to drink and take in the shade. 16 species called by in all.

the leaking tap with several nile valley sunbirds

Starting with the warblers: seven different types made appearances. Only Arabian warbler made a brief one while the others returned time and time again or even stayed for several minutes such as the barred warbler.

Eastern olivaceous warbler

Three different eastern olivaceous warbler were among them.  I know there were at least three because one was very thin and two others appeared at one time. The water may well have saved the thin ones life on such a harsh day.

willow warbler

A willow warbler was present for the second shortest time after the Arabian warbler. 

common whitethroat

Two common whitethroat made many appearances. One was a male (see above) and the other a juvenile or female.

Menetries's warbler

The warbler we wanted to get best views of was a Menetries's warbler and it didn't give good views at first. One reason we needed good views was to separate this first year bird from a first year sub-alpine warbler which is also possible in this area.

Menetries's warbler cocking tail

However a contrasting darker tail against the mantle colour and the habit of dropping its wings and cocking its tail is diagnostic for Menetries's warbler even in a young bird like this.

four warblers

Sometimes, several warblers were present at once. The picture above shows barred warbler, lesser whitethroat, willow warbler and common whitethroat all in the shade at the same time.

Incidentally there were at least three lesser whitethroat.

The warblers couldn't drink directly from the tap unlike some of the species but dived into the tyre from time to time where we believe some water had collected or went outside to drink from a trickle. 

Shining sunbird

Species which could drink directly from the tap or even aerially were Nile valley sunbird and shining sunbird. The former usually appeared several at a time.

white spectacled bulbul

Larger birds appeared too. White spectacled bulbul came a few times. They wouldn't tolerate other birds around the tap and tried to bully them off.

two Arabian babbler

The largest birds to arrive were two Arabian babbler, one was adult (with a light eyes) and one was a juvenile (with dark eyes). There came and went three or four times. On two occasions, the juvenile remained while the adult left.

male Ruepells weaver

At times the scene was quite colourful especially if the Nile valley sunbird were present at the same time as Ruepells weaver.

male house sparrow

One small surprise was the lack of large numbers of house sparrow though one individual did stay in the shade for 20 minutes.

black bush robin

A black bush robin favoured the trickle outside the shaded roofed area but this species is used to heat.

Isabelline wheatear

An Isabelline wheatear was one of very many birds with its mouth wide open which is a sign of a bird over-heating. We weren't getting any cooler ourselves since the car engine was off and with it the air conditioning.

Masked shrike

The final species seen was a masked shrike who looked fully fit if not a bit thin like many of the migrants.

This proved a fascinating and unexpected end to my trip to the Thuwal area north of Jeddah.

The area proved once again to give very rich bird watching. Indeed my initial estimate of 114 species seen in 2 days was well short. It was actually around 130. A list is given below which may be amended slightly as my records and photos are compared more closely with Brian's.

This is the largest list I have had over a weekend while in Saudi Arabia.

	KAUST campus	East of Thuwal	Rabigh waste water wetland	Wadi Rabigh
Garganey	x
Northern shoveller	x
Mallard	x
Little grebe				x
Glossy ibis			x
Black crowned night heron	x			x
Cattle egret	x
Squacco heron	x		x
Striated heron	x
Grey heron	x
Purple heron	x
Little egret	x
Western reef heron	x
Demoiselle crane	x		x
Osprey	x
European honey buzzard	x	x	x	x
Yellow billed kite				x
Marsh harrier	x		x
Pallid harrier			x
Montagu’s harrier			x
Steppe buzzard		x	x	x
Long legged buzzard			x
Greater spotted eagle			x
Steppe eagle			x
Booted eagle		x
Kestrel		x
Corncrake	x
Moorhen	x
Purple swamphen	x
Eurasian oystercatcher	x
Crab plover	x
Black winged stilt	x		x
Spur winged lapwing	x		x
Grey plover	x
Pacific golden plover	x
Common ringed plover	x
Little ringed plover	x
Kentish plover	x
Lesser sand plover	x
Bar tailed godwit	x
Black tailed godwit	x
Whimbrel	x
Eurasian curlew	x
Spotted redshank	x
Common redshank	x
Common greenshank	x
Common sandpiper	x		x
Green sandpiper	x		x
Wood sandpiper	x
Terek sandpiper	x
Little stint	x		x
Sanderling	x
Curlew sandpiper	x
Dunlin	x
Ruddy turnstone	x
Collared pratincole	x		x
Sooty gull	x
Caspian gull	x
Gull billed tern	x
Caspian tern	x
Lesser crested tern	x
Saunder’s tern	x
White winged tern	x			x
Chestnut bellied sandgrouse			x
Rock dove	x	x		x
European turtle dove	x
Eurasian collared dove	x	x		x
African collared dove	x
Laughing dove	x	x	x	x
Namaqua dove	x	x	x	x
Rose ringed parakeet	x
Common cuckoo			x
European roller			x
Eurasian hoopoe	x	x	x	x
Blue cheeked bee-eater	x		x
European bee-eater	x		x
Little green bee-eater		x	x	x
European wryneck	x
Eurasian golden oriole	x
Woodchat shrike	x
Masked shrike		x
Red-backed shrike	x		x
Daurian shrike	x	x	x
Lesser grey shrike	x		x
Asian grey shrike (aucheri)	x
Arabian babbler		x
House crow	x
Brown necked raven		x
White spectacled bulbul	x	x		x
Black crowned sparrow lark				x
Greater hoopoe lark			x
Crested lark	x	x	x	x
Greater short toed lark			x	x
Desert lark				x
Sand martin	x		x	x
Pale crag martin				x
Red rumped swallow	x		x
Barn swallow	x		x
Graceful prinia			x
Eurasian reed warbler			x
Eastern olivaceous warbler		x
Upcher’s warbler	x
Olive tree warbler	x
Willow warbler	x	x
Barred warbler		x
Arabian warbler		x
Lesser whitethroat		x
Common whitethroat		x
Menetries’s warbler		x
Common myna	x
Rufous tailed scrub robin		x
Black scrub robin	x	x	x	x
Whinchat	x		x
Isabelline wheatear		x
Northern wheatear
Blackstart		x		x
Black eared wheatear				x
Desert wheatear	x		x
Spotted flycatcher	x
Nile valley sunbird		x
Shining sunbird		x
House sparrow	x	x	x	x
Pale rock finch				x
Ruepells weaver		x
Yellow wagtail	x		x	x
White wagtail			x
Tawny pipit			x
Tree pipit			x
Striolated bunting				x
Creztschmer’s bunting			x