We were up with the lark today and off on a drive westwards into the desert - to the isolated farm of Al Abraq. This has always been a favourite site, mainly because it is so far 'out there' that it give the feeling it could turn up anything! It has one downside, the prevalence of shooting which turned out to be quite bad on this visit. We saw several raptors here and luckily all escaped the guns -
1 Montagu's Harrier, 1-2 Pallid Harriers, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Osprey and
2 Sparrowhawks. c4 Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters and a couple of
Hoopoes added some colour as we gave the area a thorough working. Almost the first bird we saw after leving the car was a splendid male
White-throated Robin! Shrikes were plentiful with
2 Steppe Grey Shrikes, Turkestan and Daurian Shrikes, 1-2 Masked Shrikes and
c4 Woodchats. A nice showy
Wryneck was called by Gary as I began a search of the more sparse cover towards the back of the farms. Within a short space of time I'd located the bird I was looking for - a nice male
Menetries's Warbler, a species which has graced this area on several of our previous visits. Within a few minutes most of the group had gathered for some really good views. A
Rufous Bush Robin was found in the same area before I got onto an interesting sylvia warbler low down in the sparse bushes. Closer inspection clinched it as a
Hume's Whitethroat, a little known species which we've now connected with 3 times with in Kuwait. We hope to publish an article on the ID within these pages very soon. Other migrants seen on our walk included
Eastern Orphean Warbler, 2 Eastern Olivaceous Warblers, Red-rumped Swallow, Spanish Sparrow, c10 Common Redstarts, numerous
Chiffchaffs and
Willow Warblers,
1 Wood Sandpiper and a
Squacco Heron. We then embarked on our usual drive around the outer cultivated fields and one of the first birds found was a very welcome
Upcher's Warbler which everyone got onto. Lucky really as it was the only one all week! The fields also yielded loads of Yellow Wagtails,
Red-throated and Tree Pipits and several
Isabelline, Pied and Northern Wheatears.
White-throated Robin, Al Abraq
White-throated Robin, Al Abraq
Wryneck, Al Abraq
Steppe Grey Shrike, Al Abraq
Hume's Whitethroat, Al Abraq
Hume's Whitethroat, Al Abraq
Woodchat, Al Abraq
Siberian Stonechat, Al Abraq
Osprey, Al Abraq
Masked Shrike, Al Abraq
Pallid Harrier, Al Abraq
Tawny Pipit, Al Abraq
Heading back towards the city we decided on a return visit to Jahra Farms next. Things were quiet there with
Hoopoe and
c10 Bank Mynas amongst a few of the commoner migrants. Suddenly
6 Hypocolious shattered the calm and we also added a
Quail seen by everyone thanks to a coordinated flush.
Hypocolious, Jahra Farms
Hypocolious, Jahra Farms
After the traditional afternoon refreshments (coffee in McDs!) we headed for Jahra Pools once more as a fitting place to spend the late afternoon. And we found it had livened up considerably. Concentrating on the reeds we'd noticed several rather brown looking phylloscs and close inspection proved then to be
Mountain Chiffchaffs. In all we had about 5 or 6 of this rather unexpected species which was obviously on the move with this small influx. Crakes were again much in evidence with
c3 Little Crakes, a couple of
Spotted Crakes and then I found and managed to photograph a
Baillon's Crake from the track which quickly melted away. A
Great Reed Warbler and several
Graceful Prinia's showed well and a
Moustached Warbler sang from deep cover but failed to show. Waderwise things were still quiet with only
Greenshank, Common Sandpiper and
Black-winged Stilt noted. From the 2nd viewing tower we finally nailed the elusive
Grey-headed Swamphen as one did a fly past in front of us before battling our way through the traffic back to the hotel.
Baillon's Crake, Jahra Pools
Baillon's Crake, Jahra Pools
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