Heading out at 6am we had a couple of hours to find Arabian Partridge before breakfast and departing for Abha. Our first stop drew a blank, so we returned to Wadi Dana and scanned from a different location resulting in decent scope views of Philby's Partridge - it's such a stunning bird but ' not the drone we were looking for...' (get the Star Wars analogy?). Anyway, we drove around to Wadi Al Gathal and immediately had the most co-operative and inquisitive Asir Magpie that stalked us the entire time we were here, calling repeatedly.  A true Saudi Arabian endemic - Asi ..read more

 We packed up and left the rather drab building that had pretensions of a hotel and drove for about an hour to a nice valley with a few houses dotted around. It was really like going back in time with small grassy fields and hedges and the valley was full of birdsong. We were hoping for Arabian Partridge but drew a blank on that, but we found some really great birds starting with an African Olive Pigeon perched on telegraph wires.  My phone scoped effort at an Olive (Rameron) Pigeon A White-browed Coucal was picked up by Keith and was scoped, as were 4 Red-throated Pip ..read more

 We left at 6am and drove for 20 minutes to the narrow valley we visited yesterday (2200m). The sun was just starting to creep over the surrounding hills as we arrived and the temperature was very pleasant indeed. The valley reverberated to the sound of birdsong, with all the usual culprits adding their input to the dawn chorus. Our first good bird was Philby's Partridge on the hillside above us. And it took several hours of hard scanning before tracking down a single Arabian Grosbeak after several hours of searching and scanning the valley. This is undoubtedly the best pla ..read more

 Took the early morning flight to Al Baha, where a surprisingly quick car rental procedure saw us on the road for 50 minutes to Al Khaira Forest. In the city we spotted a group of 6 Ortolan Buntings on the rocks beside the traffic lights we were stopped at.  It was a bit windy and getting quite warm by the time we arrived at a nice vegetated wadi where we scanned the Juniper clad slopes for an hour.  Everyone loves an Eurasian Hoopoe Things were a little slow to begin, but we eventually picked up Eurasian Hoopoe, Yemen Thrush, Arabian Serin, Brown Woodland Warbler ..read more

 At 9am i'd been awake 5.5 hours!! And boy it felt like it, but the excitement of birding in the desert was exhilarating. Maybe 20+ Greater Hoopoe Larks were the highlight, some being very, very close, but several Bar-tailed Larks were also pretty cool.  Always a stunner - Greater Hoopoe-Lark Both Blue-cheeked and European Bee-eaters were streaming north on migration making for a spectacular sight, whilst a female Western Marsh Harrier had other ideas and was heading south! We'd been searching for 5 hours for the elusive, mysterious, enigmatic, nomadic, unpredictable and ..read more

 I had the opportunity to visit Al Hai'ir this afternoon after collecting our rental car. It's only an hour from the hotel in Riyadh and I was surprised to find an area of marsh, small lagoons and reeds. Amazing. This is where Basra Reed Warbler sometimes breeds, and despite a couple of hours searching all I had were numerous Eurasian Reed Warblers. But it's a great area and after roughly 25 inches of rain here this year, the main channel was full of water... An adult and immature Purple Heron flew over, along with a Western Cattle Egret and the odd Pallid Swift, whilst trackside bush ..read more

 It's a 'chicken & egg' scenario with regards to booking a cruise and then flights isn't it? Should I have done it the other way around? Dunno! But i'm pretty sick of the stupidly exorbitant cost of flights being charged these days, especially when you leave it a bit late like i've done for Japan. But anyway it's all done and we are off on 14th June to Tokyo. I think it's a pretty good time to visit, especially for the summer visitors,  but I have to check it out as i'm planning to do this next year starting the cruise on 16th May. That may be a better time for seabirds (maybe) b ..read more

 It was off. It was on and then off again. And today it's definitely on as we've booked the cruise! Woohoo!! So 22nd June we are off and sailing south from Tokyo to Okinawa and Taiwan. Of course i'm hoping for Short-tailed Albatross but what else is out there? With 2 full days at sea on each leg of the cruise i'm hopeful of some goodies but i'm thinking that next year, mid May should be a better time, so with that in mind.....  Mount Fuji (12,389 feet high) I'm off to Mount Fuji (Copper Pheasant & Japanese Accentor) for a few days and then taking the ferry over to ..read more

 Well Japan will have to wait for a bit, so onwards with the plan for 2024. It's just over 3 weeks until i'm off to Saudi Arabia for my 3rd trip there. Then it's just over 2 weeks until I do Turkey and Mongolia back-to-back - all great trips and very exciting. I will come back to them in another post. And I really need to lose a bit of weight after the recent Cape Horn cruise first!! The ever-angry Yemen Warbler from Saudi Arabia... A gorgeous Oriental Plover from Mongolia So today i'm a little preoccupied with my trip to Tanzania in July. I've been seeing plenty of gr ..read more

 It's always the same when I return from a trip, after the jet lag hits and the tiredness dissipates. That anti-climatic feeling. The birding's over. That high. The adrenaline rush of the chase, of finding good birds, of feeding off everyone's excitement at getting a lifer. A bird I've seen a dozen times takes on a whole new meaning entirely when it's a lifer for someone in my group. In fact that feeling is just as good as a lifer for myself. Having ADHD may well increase that feeling for me, I don't really know. My brain works differently to most people's, so I relive these moments ..read more