05/04/2008 at Kabd Reserve and the Sulaibiya Pivot Fields

Kabd: A trip to Kabd with the visiting birders from the UK (Chris etc.) yielded 1 Temminck’s Stint, 5 Harriers, including 1 male Montagu’s Harrier, 1 Eurasian Sparrowhawk, 6-8 Dunn’s Larks, 20+ Black-crowned Sparrow-larks, 60+ Greater Short-toed Larks, 1 Ortolan Bunting, 1 European Roller, 1 Upcher’s Warbler, as well as the usual Shrikes and Wheatears. The 2 European Scops Owls that I had seen on 03/04/2008 were no longer around.

Pivot Fields: Afterwards, wife and myself departed for the Pivot Fields, where we saw 60+ Cattle Egrets, 1 Greater Spotted Eagle, 1 female Northern Goshawk (with a captured Pied Wheatear and being harassed by a female Pallid Harrier), 3+ Montagu’s Harriers (including 1 male), 2+ Pallid Harriers, 1 male Hen Harrier, 1 Marsh Harrier (up to 4 had been there a few days previously), 50+ Collared Pratincoles, 1 Wryneck, 1 Masked Shrike, 2 Woodchat Shrikes, 4 Isabelline Shrikes several hundred Yellow Wagtails, 50+ Red-throated Pipits, 10+ Tawny Pipits, 30+ Namaqua Doves, 50+ Sand Martins, 100+ Barn Swallows, 30+ each of European and Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters as well as various Wheatears (Northern, Black-eared, Pied, Isabelline). The visiting UK birders who later turned up to see 2 Caspian Plovers apparently still around also reported a pair of Little Crakes at the Crocodile Pool.

Temminck’s Stint

Red-throated Pipit