Shah's Birding: November 2010

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Summary of November, 2010

Here is the summary for the month of November 2010. Ticks (Lifers)/New Birds Photographed:

Tree Pipit (Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi)
Baillon's Crake (Green Mubazarah, Al Ain)
Black Redstart (Green Mubazarah, Al Ain)
Grey Hypocolius (Sila, Abu Dhabi)
Barred Warbler (Sila, Abu Dhabi)
Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Dubai Pivot Fields, Dubai)

All photos in this blog is copyrighted to Shah Jahan. Please do not use it without written permission. For more information please contact sjahanmi@gmail.com.

Monday, November 29, 2010

European Robin @ Safa Park

Neil Tovey reported a European Robin at Safa Park today. It's a bird I want. If found, a tick.

Left early from the office to Dubai to find the small cutie. Spent almost two hours twitching for the bird. When the bird showed at last there was no light at all. No chance of getting a photo. Bad luck. Met Simon Peter Lyod while I was Safa Park. He saw it about 20 min before I reached there. Simon also saw the Red-breasted Flycatcher and Shikra. Both worth a tick...

Well, its not my day. Went all the way to Dubai and returned without anything. Sad day. Will go back during one of the holidays and will try to find Shikra, European Robin and the Red-breasted Flycatcher.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Target Species for Dec, 2010

Target Species for the month of Dec, 2010 (UAE).

Every end of month I create a target list of birds to be ticked for the next month. Normally not even the half of list is ticked. Its quite common. By the time I get into the field, these birds are gone 1000s of miles. I normally only do birding during Fridays and Saturdays. It is mainly because of my job. After work, especially during the winter where day time is less, it is very hard to bird watch.

The Target Species for the month of Dec 2010 is as follows. Let us see how many ticks can I have!!! 14 new species for me. It does look tough. But if I can make 8 or 9 out of it, I would say that I am really lucky. And who knows? You will get new birds that are not in the list!!! This is what normally happens...

1. Bar-tailed Lark
2. Blyth’s Pipit
3. Black-throated Thrush
4. Broad-billed Sandpiper
5. Eurasian Blackcap
6. Eurasian Wigeon
7. Eurasian Wryneck
8. Eversmann's Redstart
9. Northern Shoveler
10. Oriental Skylark
11. Shikra
12. Short-toed Snake Eagle
13. White-breasted Waterhen
14. Houbara Bustard

Eversmann's Redstart and Five Eurasian Nightjars

Day: 26th Nov, 2010

Was busy making my pond at home when Khalifa ringed to say that they found a Evermann's Redstart at Emirates Palace Hotel. UAE has very limitednumber of sightings of Evermann's Redstart. They are considered as rare in UAE. Khalifa also said Oscar is speaking to the Emirates Palace Hotel manager to arrange a birders walk inside the Emirates Palace Hotel. He then confirmed that the walk starts at 3:30PM. Oscar Campell, Mark S, Huw Roberts and Steve James is going to be there.

Met Oscar, Mark and Huw at the gate we parked the car and started walking around the Emirates Palace Hotel grounds to locate the Evermann's

Redstart. Steve joined us later. There was also a report about spotting a Hume's Warbler at the same place. Spend almost three hours looking for the birds. We could not find both. All the effort was going on vain when Mark found 5 Eurasian Nightjars. Two of them roosting on the same tree! It was a feast for the camera. Both Huw and me were trying to get the best shot out of it.

The main attraction of the trip for me was not the European Nightjar but a Tree Pipit which is a common species in UAE. I have seen a lot of Tree Pipits, but never photographed any. So it was my turn to tick Tree Pipit as photographed. Now it is 235 species photographed in UAE. Not bad... Isn't it?

Apart from the common birds, there was one Chiffchaff and a juvenile Rose-coloured Starling.

I would like to thank Andy and Clare at the beach club, Khalifa, my friend and brother for letting me know about the bird and Oscar. And during the walk I have gained some important knowledge about the Swifts from Mark. Thank you Mark.

All photos in this blog is copyrighted to Shah Jahan. Please do not use it without written permission. For more information please contact sjahanmi@gmail.com.

Friday, November 26, 2010

The Variable Wheatear

Day: 25th Nov, 2010

It has been a long since myself and Mubish went on a birding trip together. Ahmed Al Ali has reported that one of his friend has spotted a Bustard in Ras Al Khaimah.

Started at home around 2:45AM and picked Mubish at 3:10AM. Drove the 250km to Ras Al Khaimah in one strech to find out that the coordinates provided by Ahmed is a military area. We reached there just before sunrise and dont have much to do than sending a text message to Ahmed asking for the correct location. He called in a minute to tell us that he is on his way to the same spot. In fact the coordinates given by Ahmed was right. There military fence had an opening. We didnt see the opening mainly becuase it was pitch dark when we reached there first.

Ahmed soon joined us and we started twitching for the bird. All we could find is only the

footprints of the Houbara Bustard. We searched the whole three km long half km wide area looking for the bird. But at the end it was just the footprint that we could get. The general birding was not good. It was just the common waders we could find apart from Desert Wheatears and House Crow. No sign of any raptors. Pipits and Crested Larks were quite common.

Finished from there we visited Hamariyan Fields. Around 30kms from the first spot, it took us an hour with our breakfast break. Again Hamariyan fields looks empty. There are not much birds other than Black Redstart, Isabelline Wheatear, Variable Wheatear and the usuals. To our surprise the Variable Wheatear was very cooperative and allowed us to have some great shots. At point of time, I have to back out as the bird was so closer to us. Both female and male birds were very cooperative but the male was an execption. I guess the photo shows the result.

Ras Al Khaimah Spot 1:

Great Egret

Great Egret was one of the first birds I have seen in UAE, mainly due to its size. It is one of the biggest bird in UAE. I always admired its beauty. We saw one in our first spot and it was quite coporative too. The result is not an awesome photo, but a normal one.

Grey Heron

Another bird from the first spot was a Grey Heron. I have photographed numerous Grey

Herons. This one when looked different to me mainly because of the morning light and the rock on which it was standing. Not very happy with the result. The bird flew away before I could get the photo that I wanted. Neverthless, I have no regrets.

Lesser Sand Plover

There we around 50 Lesser Sand Plovers mainly on the beach. They are quite corporative birds when it comes to photographing them.

Desert Wheatear

The Desert Wheatear is a common bird in UAE during winter. Sometimes they are quite tough to photograph. At times they become very friendly and allows the photographer to take some great shots. I guess I was lucky today.

Hamariyan Fields:

Black Redstart

Black Redstart is a winter visitor in UAE. I have not had so many chances to photograph the Black Redstart. As far as I am concerned, it is a shy bird. Always hides inside the bushes and very difficult to photograph.

All photos in this blog is copyrighted to Shah Jahan. Please do not use it without written permission. For more information please contact sjahanmi@gmail.com.