09/08/09
Census at Khiran -
Categories: Week 36 - 05 September 2009, Khiran Pearl City
Anand and I conducted an early September bird census at Khiran this morning. Images by Mike Pope
I left home at 5am and drove south down "The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahad Bin Abdul Aziz Road" more commonly known as the 40. I saw the full moon set in the west which means we are mid-way into Ramadan
Followed shortly by the rising sun in the east
On the way to the site office, I stopped at the pond fed by the rising ground water and found a 1cy Red back Shrike
This time the boat was moored in Phase A2 and our first bird seen was a feeding Osprey on the abundance of fish in the system.
As the Osprey departed it put up a roosting flock of 260+ Caspian Gulls which scattered in all directions
We went north up the coast to the sandbank at Zour and found 2 Socotra Cormorants and many Lesser crested Terns
It was time to check out the last buoy outside the harbour entrance to Khiran and to our delight found 13 roosting Socotra Cormorants which gave us a total of 15 for the morning, exceeding the count from August. Excuse my indulgence in the next few images, but it is a good bird to see and photograph in Kuwait
Landing gear down, flaps up
Up close and personal for a quizzical and curious look
We only saw two White cheeked Terns (adult and juvenile) with the adult appearing to be showing the juvenile how to catch fish
On island #4 we found a few migrating passerines and shrikes, a Lesser Grey passing by
A few Common Whitethroats
and a lone female Stonechat (maura)
On the way home, a quick stop at the pond produced 9 Short toed Larks, cryptic against the background at the waters edge
