These are the last three from my short stay in Bahrain.


Wheatear chasing flies


Juvenile isabelline shrike


Yellow wagtail (Feldegg)

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Here are three more shots from my couple of days in Bahrain.


Blue rock thrush in the perfect environment.


Another of the very accommodating quail.




A red-throated pipit showing far more red than I've seen before.

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I spent all Thursday and Friday in Bahrain. These are the first three of a bunch of pictures I intend posting. The first was very pleasing for me because I like prinias and they pose in the best settings. This one was very tame and allowed me to drive very close to his bush.


Graceful prinia.


This snipe was also quite accommodating, allowing me to get several shots off before he scarpered.


For the past couple of weeks, I'd spotted quail but only managed to get a shot of their behinds as they vanished into the grass. This week, one field had been cut and quail were visible feeding near to the piles of cut grass. I managed to get quite a few shots which was pleasing as they are my first of quail.

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I was going through some recent pictures last night and came across two I don't think I've posted before. Here they are then, first a stonechat on a precarious perch, then a harrier patrolling Badaan Farm.

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I didn't get much photography done this weekend as I was not feeling well on Thursday and on Friday I was escorting a visiting birdwatcher from Canada (Hazel). We spent just over three hours on Badaan Farm and recorded 31 species. I'm sure Howard would have done 131 but he wasn't here. The few pictures I did get were this stonechat (Maura race) an Isabelline wheatear and a pallid harrier.











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The weather on Friday was very dusty and there was not much doing. However on Thursday it had been much better and I got a couple of pictures at some casual water near to my home.


A sneaky snipe, trying to hide


A Saudi sparrow


Yellow wagtail (Feldegg)


Isabelline shrike as are the next two. The first two pictures are the same bird but in different lighting. The last one is through the dust on Friday.





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When I was at home in the UK, I bought a throw-over bag hide. It's proving to be a good investment as I used it on Thursday at a pool in Saudi Arabia and had a grey heron land quite near to me and lots of gulls landed on the pool. On Friday I put it over my head as I was driving round Badaan Farm and I think it must have broken my silhouette, as I managed to get closer to some of the birds.


Grey heron from the pool.


One of the gulls, I think it's slender-billed but I'm sure Howard will correct me. You can just see a small fish in the end of it's bill.


Bluethroat from Badaan Farm. Unfortunately it would not turn round to show the orange.


Snipe from Badaan.


Sqacco heron from Badaan


Scaly-breasted munia enjoying some of Badaan's finest grass seeds.

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I went out late this afternoon and this was the closest I got to any of the birds. There was quite a bit about, I did see, marsh harrier, peregrine falcon, sand plover, little stint, dunlin, redshank, five mallards, black-winged stilts, lots of gulls and a water pipit.

When I saw this stonechat it was quite late and very dull. I had to use 1/50th second on this shot.



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Well I'm back with a new camera in tow. Unfortunately the exposure settings got disturbed during the journey and were set to "Bracketing". As a result most of my pictures were massively overexposed. I did manage to rescue this picture of a desert warbler in Photoshop.



Now I've got the knack of Photoshop, here's another image of the same bird.



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