Anyone attempting some sort of Big Year Bird List who works for an airline and wants to see as many birds as possible (eg me, myself, I) needs to make at least one trip out to the Middle East, and preferably either in April or September/October, and even more preferably be able to hook up with a local birder who knows the best sites and has access to areas that most overseas visitors will simply not be able to get into. And that, in a nutshell, is exactly what this extremely fortunate birder (ie ME again) did last Saturday (27th Sept) when I pitched up in Kuwait after an overnight flight and went straight out to meet up for the first time with South African ex-pat Mike Pope (a really nice guy, as it turns out, who runs the excellent Birding Kuwait website - go check out his photos by the way, they’re absolutely stunningly good!).

‘Kuwait’, I hear you ask, ‘has birds? That tiny sandpit of a state at the top of the Arabian Gulf has birds?’

Oh, yes, my friends, does it ever.

Whilst parts of Kuwait consists of heavily-grazed desert with very little in it (and summer daytime temperatures average about 38c/100f) it also has an important coastline that attracts large numbers of larids and shorebirds, a number of small pools with reedbeds, an extensive protected area of desert (the Sabah Al-Ahmed Natural Reserve [SAANR]) with the local “thula” trees growing around two maintained water pools, and - of course - Kuwait City itself has large areas of ‘artificial’ lawns, roadside verges, and parks that are visited by huge numbers of passerines. On top of that local birders have recently negotiated access to the Kuwait Pivot Fields, a heavily irrigated area of crops that act like small wetlands and insect-rich feeding areas in very much the same way as the now critically-important rice paddies of East Asia provide stop-over and wintering sites for cranes, egrets, pipits, larks, and buntings etc (at least, that is, the ones not doused in gallons of insecticides).

Kuwait’s Pivot Fields

Black Kites sat on irrigation equipment, Kuwait’s Pivot Fields

Sulaibikhat Nature Reserve

Kuwait coastline (at Sulaibikhat Bay)

Crab Povers Dromas ardeola (and Dunlin Calidris alpina),
Sulaibikhat Bay

Inside the Sabah Al-Ahmed Natural Reserve (SAANR)

Bar-tailed (Desert) Lark Ammomanes cincturus, SAANR

The one reptile you’re likely to see in the desert: Spiny-tailed Lizard (or Dhab) Uromastyx aegyptius microlepis, SAANR. (Cold lizards are much darker, and it’s only after they’ve been in the sun for several hours that they turn so yellow. For some excellent photos go here)

All in all there is an amazingly varied range of habitats given Kuwait’s location and relatively small size (its land area is just 18000 sq km). Add in the fact that the Gulf itself is a major migration route between both northern/eastern Europe and Africa and between Turkey and India the potential for good birding becomes pretty obvious. In fact, the Kuwait Bird List (as detailed in George Gregory’s highly-recommended book Birds of the State of Kuwait and updated at www.alsirhan.com) stands at around 372 now. Many of those are migrants of course, but breeding birds include such sought-after specialities as Crab Plover and Basra Reed Warbler and wintering species sometimes include McQueen’s Bustard and Grey Hypocolius! Actually, given that Kuwait is easy to travel around and the locals - though a little barmy when they get behind the wheel of a car - are friendly and welcoming (bear in mind that visitors MUST respect Islamic sentiment to keep that welcome friendly), it’s surprising that more birders don’t come here. My Day List at the bottom of the page is pretty representative and include a whole raft of species that can be difficult to see elsewhere.

More visitors would probably help, because having said all that, not everything is rosy: there is very little protection given to habitats outside the SAANR and there is widespread and totally unwarranted hunting of birds that results in piles of cartridges being left at once bird-filled sites and car-loads of dead migrants. It’s a shameful situation that - sadly - will take an awful lot of work to turn around. Maybe developing eco-tourist businesses here may focus attention on the State’s wildlife. One can only hope. (As a footnote I was here during Ramadan, a very important religious observance that sees practising Moslems fast between sunrise and sunset and when (to quote from the Ramadan.co.uk website) “purity of thought and action is paramount. Ordained in the Quran, the fast is an exacting act of deeply personal worship in which Muslims seek a raised level of God-consciousness. The act of fasting redirects the hearts away from worldly activities, towards The Divine.” Sadly, the hearts of some Kuwaitis seemed less inclined to be directed with kindness towards the birds we all share the planet with, and many starving, dehydrated migrants were shot by people whose level of ‘God-consciousness’ didn’t appear to be quite as raised as might be hoped…)

Okay, let’s move on to the birds (the ones still living that is). A quick count of the Day List reveals that we saw just over 90 species in total, consisting of a rather remarkable 10 species of raptor, 25 species of shorebird, 4 species of wheatears (in mid-winter it’s possible to find as many as SEVEN), 4 larks, and (depending on which taxonomy you follow) as many as 7 species of shrike! Amongst those are 27 “new for the year” - quite remarkable considering it’s late-September and I was in a place that most people would assume is birdless!

A closer reading of the Day List also shows that we only found one or two of many of the species we saw (eg the four warblers we saw (though Mike saw plenty of Barred Warblers at a quick stop he made before my flight landed), and two of the four larks). Birds aren’t particularly plentiful away from well-watered areas like the Pivot Fields (which was a haven for birds like Collared Pratincole and Yellow Wagtail and where we relocated a Spotted Redshank, a Kuwiati rarity) and we put in a lot of effort during the ten hours we spent birding.

Of course I wouldn’t have seen even half of those birds if Mike hadn’t given up his Saturday to take me birding, so once again can I just offer my heartfelt thanks to him and other remarkably generous birders around the world who have put up with me yawning and mis-identifying common birds as I struggle to shrug off the after-effects of an overnight flight - most of them have families and work hard all week, so their time off is very precious). Without Mike (and George before him) I wouldn’t have been able to get in to eg the SAANR, Jahra Farm Fields, or the Pivot Fields, and I’d have undoubtedly missed such fantastic species as Bonelli’s Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Pallid Harrier, Hoopoe Lark and Collared Pratincole which makes birding out here so exciting…

Sub-adult Bonelli’s Eagle Hieraaetus fasciatus, SAANR

Juvenile Steppe Eagle Aquila nipalensis, Pivot Fields

Juvenile Pallid Harrier Circus macrourus (? or perhaps Montagu’s Harrier), Pivot Fields. ID comments welcomed.

Juvenile Pallid Harrier Circus macrourus, Pivot Fields

Juvenile Collared Pratincole Glareola pratincola, Pivot Fields

Hoopoe Lark Alaemon alaudipes, SAANR

Crested Lark Galerida cristata, SAANR

1st summer (?) Black-eared Wheatear Oenanthe hispanica melanoleuca,
Sulaibikhat

1st year female (?, note pale iris and almost unbarred underparts) Barred Warbler Sylvia nisoria,
Jahra

All that in just ten hours (08:00 - 18:00). Remarkable really, and all the more so considering that no weather front had passed through Kuwait for quite a few days (we didn’t see a single cloud all day), and many birds (eg bee-eaters) had already gone and many more (eg buntings and thrushes) were still to arrive.

I’ve got quite a few days of what’s known within the airline as ‘24 hour availability’ coming up in October - ie days that I haven’t yet been rostered but am available to be called for a flight. I’d be more than happy to be sent straight back to Kuwait for another day’s birding (though whether the hard-working Mike would be around mid-week is a little unlikely of course)…

Did I mention that Mike Pope (above) takes excellent photos which can be found at the Birding Kuwait website?

Day List/Trip Report (new for the Year underlined):
Grey Heron Ardea cinerea 20+; Little Egret Egretta garzetta 10+; Western Reef Egret Egretta gularis 3-4; Squacco Heron Ardeola ralloides 1; Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis 10+; Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus 20+; Osprey Pandion haliaetus 1 (2); Black Kite Milvus migrans c)20; Short-toed Eagle Circaetus gallicus 1; Western Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus 1; Pallid Harrier Circus macrourus 3-4; Montagu’s Harrier Circus pygargus 3-4; Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus 1; Steppe Eagle Aquila nipalensis 2; Bonelli’s Eagle Hieraaetus fasciatus 1; Common Kestrel Falco tinnunculus 2; Common Quail Coturnix coturnix 1; Crab Plover Dromas ardeola 6-8; Eurasian Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus 1; Collared Pratincole Glareola pratincola 10-15; Grey Plover Pluvialis squatarola 4 -5; Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula 3-4; Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubius 1+; Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus 5-10; Lesser Sand Plover Charadrius mongolus 4; Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago 2; Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica c)10; Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus 1; Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata 10+; Common Redshank Tringa totanus 20+; Spotted Redshank Tringa erythropus 1; Marsh Sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis 5-6; Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia 3-4; Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola 2; Terek Sandpiper Xenus cinereus 4-5; Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos 1; Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres 1; Little Stint Calidris minuta ; Curlew Sandpiper Calidris ferruginea 1; Dunlin Calidris alpina 50+; Broad-billed Sandpiper Limicola falcinellus 2; Ruff Philomachus pugnax 6; Lesser-black-backed Gull Larus fuscus 20+; Armenian Gull Larus armenicus 10+; Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus 3-4; Slender-billed Gull Larus genei 100+; Sandwich Tern Sterna sandvicensis 1(+?); Gull-billed Tern Gelochelidon nilotica 2-3; Caspian Tern Hydroprogne caspia c)10; Lesser Crested Tern Thalasseus bengalensis 20+; Swift Tern Thalasseus bergii 5-6; Common Tern Sterna hirundo 10+; Whiskered Tern Chlidonias hybridus 2; Little Tern Sterna albifrons 10+; Eurasian Collared Dove Streptopelia decaocto 30+; Laughing Dove Streptopelia senegalensis 10+; Namaqua Dove Oena capensis 5; White-breasted Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis 1; Blue-cheeked Bee-eater Merops persicus 5-6; European Roller Coracias garrulus 1: Eurasian Hoopoe Upupa epops 2; Bar-tailed (Desert) Lark Ammomanes cincturus 1; Hoopoe Lark Alaemon alaudipes 1; Short-toed Lark Calandrella brachydactyla c)30; Crested Lark Galerida cristata c)20; Sand Martin Riparia riparia c)20; Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica 20+; House Martin Delichon urbicum 4; Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava 50+; Tawny Pipit Anthus campestris 1; Tree Pipit Anthus trivialis 1; White-cheeked Bulbul Pycnonotus leucogenys c)10; Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla 2; Garden Warbler Sylvia borin 1; Common Whitethroat Sylvia communis 1; Barred Warbler Sylvia nisoria 1; Spotted Flycatcher Muscicapa striata 4; Black-eared Wheatear Oenanthe hispanica melanoleuca 1; Pied Wheatear Oenanthe pleschanka 2-3; Desert Wheatear Oenanthe deserti 2; Isabelline Wheatear Oenanthe isabellina 8-10; Red-backed Shrike Lanius collurio 1; Isabelline Shrike Lanius isabellinus 4-5; Southern Grey Shrike Lanius meridionalis 1; Steppe Grey Shrike Lanius pallidirostris 1; Masked Shrike Lanius nubicus 1; Woodchat Shrike Lanius senator 1; Bank Myna Acridotheres ginginianus 5-6; House Sparrow Passer domesticus 100+; Spanish Sparrow Passer hispaniolensis 10+; Common Rosefinch Carpodacus erythrinus 1; Ortolan Bunting Emberiza hortulana 1