One of the Owls I was watching suddenly took off and flew low over the ground in a direction behind me. When I relocated it I saw it perched on a rock with this rear portion of a rodent in its beak. It was struggling to ingest the whole set of hindquarters and it took several attempts to manipulate them down its gullet. Finally after a bit of effort they disappeared down the hatch tail and all
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I have known of two Owl sites on the farm. Pairs bred successfully at both sites last year. In the last couple of months one pair had moved a short distance away from their burrow of last year and have regularly been seen in another rocky outcrop. This is the pair where the one Owl has no feathers on its head. See post dated 3/02/2016. Recently when I have visited this site I have seen this bird regularly perched on the rocks. The other owl has been out of sight. I don't know if it is incubating eggs or not, I suppose time will tell. At the other site I had seen no activity for quite a while. This all changed today when I went to check it out and to my delight a pair of Owls were present. They were both out in the open and quite approachable. The Owl with the bald patch perched on its outlook rock. Note the left eye also looks a bit below par. I will monitor this to see how it improves. The other Owl of this pair was not to be seen At the other site I found one of the Owls investigating in amongst the rocks It then hopped up onto a rock and started vocalising The other Owl stares intently in the direction of the calling
I managed to capture a few images of what was a fast and furious burst of action between these two Grey Francolins. There was a third bird in attendance which I presume may have been the female these two males were fighting over.
With the welcome rains we had a few days ago there was also some strong winds. Sadly many of the trees at my local patch have been uprooted, branches snapped off or trees topped. Most of the trees affected were the large mature ones. It is a scene of carnage which will take years of recovery.The good news is despite this there was also signs of migratory movements. Large numbers of Yellow Wagtails and Red-throated Pipits were on hand. I also found a Whinchat , a bird I last recorded here in May 2014. Whilst I was there a large flock of Bee-eaters flew past overhead, their distinctive calls audible. The other piece of sad news is that the brood of ducklings is already down to three from seven a week ago. I wonder what is predating on them? Whinchat Another wave of Red-throated Pipits were to be seen As were large numbers of Yellow Wagtails The Mallard female with her three surviving ducklings A duckling swims close to the cover of the reeds
I have been a bit disappointed thus far this season in what I have seen. That all changed this morning. The were big numbers of Barn Swallows with a few Sand Martins amongst them. For the first time I came across a mass of Yellow Wagtails on one of the open areas between the fields, darting around stocking up on insects. There was a Ruff and some Collared Pratincoles on one of the irrigation fields. There were also a few European Bee-eaters on show. In the Wadi I recorded Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, a Blackcap male, a Common Whitethroat, a few Ortolan Bunting, a Barred Warbler a couple of male Common Redstarts and a female White-throated Robin. European Bee-Eater Yellow Wagtail Common Whitethroat Male Blackcap Male Common Redstart Eastern Olivaceous Warbler Ortolan Bunting Sand Martin Barn Swallow
When I started bird photography a few years ago I opened a Flickr account as a means to display my images.There is a link to this account included below. Flickr have a top 10 feature where I can see the most popular images by hit count. I add them here as I think they make up an interesting collection. My most viewed Flickr image, a Lilith owl In second place a female Western Marsh Harrier The Bronze medal goes to this Black-winged Stilt. My first observation of a Stilt swimming 4th place goes to this Blue-cheeked Bee-eater 5th place to this dark morph Western Reef Heron complete with catch 6th place to this rather tired Lilith Owl 7th place to this Wood Sandpiper 8th place to this pale morph Western Reef Heron fishing in the surf 9th place to this Osprey drying out on a rock after attempting to catch a fish in the sea And in 10th place a juvenile Black-winged Stilt rounds up the ranking
There are still plenty of shrikes to be seen. Here are some of those that I came across on the farm the other morning Turkestan Shrike Masked Shrike Arabian Grey Shrike Daurian Shrike
I came across this Pallid Harrier sunning itself early in the morning. Luckily I was able to set up in time to capture this take-off sequence, as they don't tend to stay on the ground too long when you come in range Pallid Harrier
Apart from the ducklings there was some more excitement and activity to record I had dipped on the pair of Semi-collared Flycatchers seen out at the farm a few weeks ago, so was very excited to come across this male hawking insects in a shaded wooded area. This is only my 4th record of this species in Qatar. I had previously seen a pair in March 2014, a female in April 2014, and another male also in April 2014 According to the literature these Flycatchers usually hawk insects in flight, so it was unusual to see it using the branches as a perch to predate insects off the ground The Indian Pond Heron is still in the house. Long may that last A male Little Bittern. I only saw this bird because it moved. They tend to stand still for extended periods of time and are hard to pick up. Once again I last saw one of these birds here this time last year, so another good record Some more Red-throated Pipits were to be found scurrying around on the grass hawking tasty morsels
On my regular visit to the local patch I was surprised to come across this female Mallard with her newly hatched ducklings. They emerged from the cover of some reeds next the waters edge and ventured out into the open. I sat and watched as they fed on algae. After a while they returned to the water's edge to rest up. Female Mallard with seven chicks Resting at the water's edge
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