BirdingRob
Brit abroad
On Friday I had a magical day's birding in southern oasis of wadi Dawasar.
There was a strange assortment of steppe eagle, eastern imperial eagle, pallid harrier, song thrush, and a wintering egyptian nightjar as well as lots of small passerines but the biggest surprise was coming across 14 Caspian plover in a field.
Saudi Arabia is on a direct line between their central Asian breeding grounds and their known wintering grounds in East and South East Africa.
However there are two main reasons why the sighting was a shock albeit a very pleasant one. First, conventional wisdom has it that they should all be in East Africa by now. Second they are much more rarely seen in "autumn" than in spring. Some people reason that they fly directly in autumn over the Middle east without stopping.
There are pictures on my blog http://www.birdingforalark.blogspot.com
Rob
There was a strange assortment of steppe eagle, eastern imperial eagle, pallid harrier, song thrush, and a wintering egyptian nightjar as well as lots of small passerines but the biggest surprise was coming across 14 Caspian plover in a field.
Saudi Arabia is on a direct line between their central Asian breeding grounds and their known wintering grounds in East and South East Africa.
However there are two main reasons why the sighting was a shock albeit a very pleasant one. First, conventional wisdom has it that they should all be in East Africa by now. Second they are much more rarely seen in "autumn" than in spring. Some people reason that they fly directly in autumn over the Middle east without stopping.
There are pictures on my blog http://www.birdingforalark.blogspot.com
Rob
