Kuwait Bird Sightings

I felt too tempted to twitch Masked Wagtail. Therefore I drove to Wafra in the morning and with the help from AbdulRahman and Khalid Al Ghanem I found the right farm. I managed to relocate the bird twice in the distance without any photograph. Luckily Rashed Al Hajji helped me to get pictures. In the area were million+ flies and few thousand stuck to my car. I had to open the window to get photographs and too many of them took the advantage to move in. Never before I have been restricted photographing because of flies.  Rest of the day I tried to get rid of them.

Masked Wagtail (Motacilla a. personata)

Masked Wagtail

I visited  Al Abraq with British group. We saw Buff-bellied Pipit, Menetrie’s Warbler, 4 Dead Sea Sparrows, Hume’s Leaf Warbler, two European Scops Owls, several Red-rumped Swallows, Lesser Whitethroat, 6 Blue-cheeked  Beeaters.

Dead Sea Sparrow (Passer moabiticus)

Hume’s Leaf Warbler (Phylloscopus humei)

Blue-cheeked Beeater (Merops persicus)

Desert Hyacinth (Cistanche tubulosa)

On 10/02/2012 the Swiss group found the second record of Masked Wagtail at Wafra Farms. Also found the following:

At Fahaheel park: Masked shrike 1, Woodlark 1,  Turkestan Shrike 1.

At Wafra Farms: Masked Wagtail 1, Hypocolius 10, Desert Lesser Whitethroat 2, Pied Weathear 1, Eastern Orphean Warbler 1.

At Khiran: Finsch’s Weathear 1, Red-tailed Wheatear 1,  black-necked Grebe 1, Pallas’s Gull 18.

Masked Wagtail Motacilla (alba) personata

A Swiss group started birding on 03/02/2012 and had seen the following so far:

03/02/2012: Black-crowned Sparrow-lark 5, Crab Plover 20, Macqueen’s Bustard 7, Asian Desert Warbler 4, Menetries’s Warbler 2, Bar-tailed Lark4 and other birds.

04/02/2012: Greater Spotted Eagle 2, Eastern Imperial Eagle 2, Steppe Eagle 1, Hume’s Leaf Warbler 1, Buff-bellied Warbler 1, Pallid Harrier 1, Richard Pipit 2, Common Myna, and others.

05/02/2012: Red-tailed Wheatear 1, Swift Tern 2, Red-vented Bulbul, Hypocolius  4, Bank Myna, and others.

06/02/2012:  Hypocolius 14, Lesser Flamingo 1 which is a 3rd record! Common Gull, and of course other birds.

Here are some photographs of the Red-vented Bulbul that were photographed on Green Island on 02/02/2012 that I thought I need to share them with others. The Red-vented Bulbul is an established breeder introduced from escapes. It is now mainly found on Green Island, but also on others sites.

Red-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus cafer 

Updated 4.2.2012 adding picture of Mediterranean Gull.

We wanted to see Hypocolius well and therefore we returned to Green Island. First we saw a pair of Rüppell`s Weavers and they are naturally category D birds in Kuwait. However, we keep on eye their breeding attemps. Next bird was, indeed,  Hypocolius stealing a date from Weaver. We found two Swift Terns and soon after that British team discovered Mediterranean Gull which is just sixth record for Kuwait if accepted by KORC. After trying to see Indian Roller at the airport in vain we visited Pivot Fields briefly. Only interesting things  over there were two Hen Harriers and Spotted Eagle. Next we tried to find Dunn´s Lark and Black-crowned Finch Lark at their known site. Surprisingly Dunn´s Lark was found practically as a first bird in the area and soon after that we saw about half a dozen Black-crowned Finch Larks.

Male Rüppell´s Weaver (Ploceus galbula)

Female Rüppell´s Weaver

Hypocolius (Hypocolius ampelinus)

Swift Tern (Sterna bergii)

Mediterranean Gull (Larus melanocephalus) Photographed by Robert Swann

Mediterranean Gull by Pekka Fågel

Mediterranean Gull by Pekka Fågel

Dunn´s Lark (Eremelauda dunni)

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Update on 4.2.2012 by adding two pictures of unidentified Pipit

I visited today with British group Al Abraq. We managed to relocate Hume”s Leaf Warbler as well as Buff-bellied Pipit though the latter one wasn´t  easy. The bird spent long times hiding in grass. We saw first Yellow Wagtails of race feldegg. They are really early migrants to arrive with Southerly wind. It would be nice to know where are they coming from. We saw also very strange looking Pipit. I´ll post the picture once I receive it from British photographer. I didn´t manage to photograph it by myself. It loks like miniature Tawny Pipit.

Buff-bellied Pipit (Anthus r. japonicus)

Male Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla f. feldegg)

Female Stonechat (Saxicola torquatus)

Unidentified Pipit which looks like miniature Tawny Pipit (Anthus campestris) Both pictures by Robert Swann

Same Pipit

For a nice surprise British team spotted Indian Roller just outside of  the car park. We have had before that only one day bird at Pivot Fields in mid December. After this unexpected record we headed to Green Island in hope to see Hypocolius but in vain. We had few Red-vented Bulbus over there. In the afternoon we enjoyed good views of Crab Plovers and other waders at Manchester Club. We saw also one Desert Wheatear. We ended our day at University Campus with House Crows and Rose-ringed Parakeets.

Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis)

Red-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer)

Desert Wheatear (Onanthe deserti) This individual was photographed in Al Abraq on 26. Jan.