Kuwait. Odd place for a birding trip, right!? But a weekend away from Abu Dhabi in the small country, most famous I guess, for oil, and for being invaded by Iraq / Saddam Hussein in the early 1990s, proved to be really excellent.
From almost my first week in Abu Dhabi, I have gone birding with fellow ex-pat and fellow “bachelor” Ted Burkett. I’ve birded a number of places locally with Ted, as well as a few slightly more ambitious trips (eg Kazakhstan, Socotra and Oman — I was also due to go to Sri Lanka with him last Oct, but a health scare led to a last minute cancellation on my part), but when Ted first suggested Kuwait in spring I was not immediately excited by the small target list. On the other hand, Ted and others reassured that migration in Kuwait is much more active and concentrated than in UAE, and this coupled with a gradually greater familiarity with the regional targets swayed me. The other deciding factor was that here was another super-convenient weekend away from Abu Dhabi — relatively cheap flights on a Friday afternoon, returning late Sunday, to a pretty exotic and less-travelled place, and no precious annual leave expended.
So what are/were the targets? Just two regional specialties were on the radar as we planned the trip: Basra Reed-Warbler, intermediate in size between Eurasian and Great, and with a very small breeding range, restricted to Kuwait and Iraq (it’s named after the southern Iraqi town of Basra, funnily enough). The other, regional endemic, Afghan Babbler, is a long-tailed, characterful Argya babbler, closely related to the Arabian Babbler that we get in UAE. It has a bigger range than the warbler, but with most of that range in Iraq and Iran, Kuwait is the best place — indeed, at moment, the only safe place — to see them. A third, the very lovely pink-winged Desert Finch, was not one we had realised was a possibility until Ted and I were discussing our itinerary in the days immediately before. Ted had been in regular contact with local birder and guide Abdulrahman Al-Sirhan, co-author (with Oscar Campbell and Richard Porter) of Birds of the Middle East. Abdulrahman was going to be occupied guiding an Italian photographer the whole weekend, but was very generous with gen, and sorted out permits for us to a couple of sites where prior permission was required for entry. And notably, he told us about a site an hour south of Kuwait City where both the babbler and the finch breed.
The lead-up was not without stress. While away in Dubai at a conference, less than 48 hours before we were due to travel, I received a whatsapp message from the rental car company telling me that a new law in Kuwait required an international driving permit to be presented by all non-GCC citizens or they would not turn over the car. After a brief panic on Thursday morning and exchange of messages with Ted (who, it turns out, also does not have one), I realised that I could duck out of my conference for 45 minutes and score one at the Emirates Post Office a short walk from my Dubai hotel. Phew. Friday came and we both had very busy mornings at work, dealing with work email from the Etihad Lounge right up to departure.
We landed in Kuwait on time after the 90min short flight from Abu Dhabi, faffed a bit getting our visas printed (another gotcha of the entry process is that the electronic version on our phones was not sufficient and we had to attend a special desk where they made hardcopies for us), picked up our car with my newly acquired IDP, bought one SIM between us, and rolled towards downtown Kuwait City.
The city — and indeed the whole country — is a curious mix of opulence and ramshackle third world. Fancy skyscrapers dominate the skyline like they do in Abu Dhabi, but at street-level it feels more like a run-down version of an east coast town like Fujeirah, or somewhere in Oman, or a dry area of India — a bit unkempt, unsanitised, bustley. The road surfaces are poor, pavements messy or non-existent, beat-up old cars lurch around the back-streets with little regard for rules of the road, driven by the sub-continental workers and shop-owners that run the economy. We stayed at the Kuwait Continental Hotel, recommended by Abdulrahman as decent (it was) and very close to Al Shaheen Park (it is) a city park that, being a large tract of green and with permanent water, is a strong attractor for migrants. Looking west over the highway we could see the park and the modern glass-clad towers, while out the back of the hotel, a walk through the dusty, sandy car-park past some broken down construction equipment led to a few small crammed shops, useful for stocking up on water and snacks.
After dropping our bags at the hotel we braved the highway traffic, crossing over to Al Shaheed Park and spent the next 2 hours before sunset exploring the park. Despite walking the almost the length and breadth of the park, we could not find our acro targets. We did not even see much evidence of the migration we’d been hoping for. For a while our best finds were several Tree Pipits and a White-throated Kingfisher (the latter, presumably resident), until later we saw a few Eurasian Hobbies hawking high, two Ortolan Bunting, a single Spotted Flycatcher at the southern end of our walk. The best came very late in the day, almost at dusk, when Ted found a roosting Eurasian Nightjar.
It was pleasant birding — don’t get me wrong — but not what we paid for, if you understand my meaning. Perhaps we are just bad birders… 😜. It was doubly-disappointing to run into Abdulrahman at the hotel and realise that the best spot for BRW is the one area we had not looked — yep, that empty spot directly opposite the hotel in the top-right of the park with no blue trail is exactly where he and his punter had had four at 8am. Yes, we are definitely bad birders, who don’t even read their gen properly! 🤣
Maybe it was time of day thing. We would return at dawn. Meanwhile we licked our wounds and indulged at the quite good Indian restaurant — though we could not partake of the usual Kingfisher beer accompaniment to curry, because Kuwait is completely dry.
As we had hoped, dawn was a very different proposition. Crossing the highway, dodging traffic already heavy and fast at 5am, we paused on the wide, dusty median strip dotted with gaff bushes and other scrub. From almost the first bush we brushed past, multiple warblers shot out, taking cover in the next one — we realised that every bush and small tree held several small migrants. In just a few minutes we counted 18 Greater Whitethroat, 8 Blackcap, 4 Upscher’s Warbler, a Barred Warbler, 7 Rufous-tailed Scrub-robin and a couple of Turkestan (Red-tailed) Shrike. No doubt there was even more here in the median strip, but we needed to push on to the park proper to get to the BRW site before it got too late. Inside the northern part of the park we had more warblers, a couple of Nightingale and a Thrush Nightingale which sang but would not reveal itself. On the lawn outside the park, a Tree Pipit was joined by a Great Reed-Warbler. This was more like it, I’m sure you’ll agree!
We made straight for the area we had failed to visit the night before, a saline depression where a small, scruffy reedbed has grown, and immediately found our quarry, Basra Reed-warbler. Stockier than Eurasian Reed-warbler (there were also few here), but not as bulky as Great Reed (we noted a couple during the morning), and with a long thin bill that looks like it has been pulled forcibly from its head to elongate it. We spent quite a while with all three species, getting to grips with the differences and trying to get pics of all three. We actually found ID in the field rather easier than looking at our inanimate pics later. Can you pick which is which in the gallery below?
On our way out we continued to find new migrants including a cracking Wryneck just outside the park.
After a very successful early morning, we picked up breakfast boxes that had been prepared for us by the hotel and hit the road south, confidence restored, and aiming for the site that Abdulrahman had indicated as possible for both Afghan Babbler and Desert Finch.
The exact spot was a fairly desolate-looking area of scrubby desert, sandwiched uncomfortably between a bunch of middle-class beach resorts and a military base. From 8am for the next couple of hours we tramped around the scrub, then when it got too hot and uncomfortable, retreated to the air-conditioned car, cruising the sandy tracks for another hour, as far as we dared in our 2WD. Early on, after about 30 minutes, I had picked up a distant Afghan Babbler which we were gradually able to approach for some decent photos of the second of our main targets. We also accumulated a reasonable additional supporting cast — including European Roller, Blue-cheeked and European Bee-eater, Turkestan Shrike, Pied Wheatear — but failed to find a Desert Finch. This was rather disappointing — although it had not been a target until 24 hours earlier, it was the smartest of the possible local specialties, and for me there would have been a nice symmetry with my Crimson-winged Finch “twitch” of October last year.
By the time we left it was pretty hot — high 30s, if not 40s — and we had a long drive to the best-known birding site in Kuwait, Al Jahra Reserve. After a stop at a roadside truck for Red Bulls to restore our waning energy, we arrived at midday. Worryingly, a huge opaque metal gate barred the way into the reserve and the whole area felt very quiet. Ted tried knocking and peered and called through a small “window” in the gate, and after a few minutes I honked the car horn to get attention. A sleepy-looking guard slid the gate back and poked his head around. Ted presented our permits (thanks Abdulrahman!) and we were in.
Midday in a reedbed is not the ideal time, but you can’t be everywhere at dawn. We had used the dawn hours wisely getting our top two targets, and at Al Jahra, although there was almost no singing or other discernable activity in the reeds themselves, we were able to drive to the outflow and the beach, at the very head of the Arabian Gulf, where it was high tide and 1000s of shorebirds and gulls had gathered. On the beach itself, in the shade of a large watchtower, and driving past the muddy fringes of the outflow, we observed at least 24 species of shorebirds, including large numbers of Grey Plover 100+), Red-necked Phalarope (180+), Common Ringed Plover (160+), Curlew Sandpiper (350+), Little Stint (80+), Terek Sandpiper (50+), Ruff (40+). Of the less common species, the highlights were six White-tailed Lapwing, a Broad-billed Sandpiper and at least one Black-winged Pratincole. Another pratincole that Ted found might also have been this species but the poor bird was so heavily oiled that it was impossible to identify. Also present on the beach was a large flock of a few hundred Slender-billed Gulls and several distant Greater Flamingos. We located at least five Spotted Crake on the outflow fringes, and though the viewing conditions from the car through the heat-haze were tricky, we managed some passable pics.
In the reedbeds, mid-late afternoon, it remained pretty quiet, with zero acros, though we found a very territorial pair of Spur-winged Lapwing, a few dozen Squacco Heron, White-throated Kingfisher and a few Ferruginous Duck.
Notable here — in retrospect — was a single Grey-headed Swamphen. At the time neither of us realised the significance of this bird, having seen dozens in UAE. However the UAE ones are feral, so ebird has now recognised this Al Jahra bird as our lifer! A few pipits (Tree and Red-throated) and a single Yellow Wagtail were the only passerines of the afternoon. A brief return to the beach revealed that the tide had fallen significantly and the shoreline was now at least 1km away, so no good for wader watching. We cruised the fringes again, enjoying the crakes and the phalaropes, then headed for home. One ebird hotspot, the “Traditional Sulaibikhat Cafe”, was only a small diversion from our route home, so we checked this to, but of course the tide was out here too.
Approaching the main city we made another small diversion to fill the car with fuel so we would not have to worry about this the following morning. I mention this because we discovered, on parting with a mere 2 Kuwaiti Dinar (about USD7) for half a tank of petrol, just how cheap fuel is in Kuwait. According to this article, it is in fact 7th cheapest in the world, 3 times cheaper than Australia (but more than 10x more expensive than the cheapest, in Iran and Libya).
We arrived back at the hotel around 1715, still with more than an hour of light, and I contemplated suggesting a return to Al Shaheed Park. Ted seemed intent on getting back to the room for a shower after a very long, hot day in the field, so I didn’t say anything. Turns out, reflecting on the day, the same thoughts went through his mind, but my body-language likewise discouraged him from suggesting more birding. After “re-humanising” with showers and changes of clothes (the right call, I am sure), and a trip to the market to replenish water and snack-supplies, we reconvened over another Indian buffet and worked on a plan for tomorrow. One ambitious option we contemplated was this site, an oasis not far from the Saudi border that had produced a spectacular list a week earlier. But it appeared from google maps that it was likely to be 4WD only, and this was confirmed by text from Abdulrahman. Even if we had splashed out on a more appropriate vehicle, driving 20km along an unfamiliar, unmaintained, sandy track alone, felt like a disaster in waiting.
From our remaining options, I sought the advice of the Maha Survey crew:
Pretty unequivocal, blunt even, from the guys.
Next morning we were up and about in Al Shaheed Park and the highway median strip at dawn. As we worked the median strip at 530am, a white 4wd drove past and Abdulrahman called out — he and his client were heading for the Babbler/Finch site. Momentarily I questioned our decision to follow the guys’ advice, but the quantity of migrants here in this unpromising spot, jammed between two 4-lane highways, refocused my attention and confirmed we had made the right call. We took our time, trying to give the median strips and northern section of the park a more thorough treatment than yesterday. The only unequivocal addition to the trip list was Lesser Whitethroat, but we enjoyed another good array of migrants, including at least 50 Blackcaps, scattered throughout the park, many feeding on fallen berries on the lawns, and more good numbers of BRW and GRW. I also felt initially confident I’d found an Eastern Orphean Warbler — a brief view of a warbler with a solid black hood and white throat got the brain-cogs whirring. My first thought was Sardinian, but I then quickly realised Orphean was a realistic possibility. Sadly this was too late to take in any more detail on the bird, and it disappeared into the next bush and we were unable to relocate it. By 8am hunger drew us back to the hotel. Instead of breakfast boxes (which had proven adequate and super-convenient yesterday), today we availed ourselves of the buffet on the top floor, enjoying a very decent selection as well as a superb view of the areas we had just birded. We even, on departure, checked out the scrub right next to hotel, finding a nice array of warbler migrants here too (though nothing new for the trip list).
Next stop on our itinerary for catching the best of Kuwaiti migration was Kabd Reserve, about 50 minutes drive away. This was another spot where Abdulrahman had very kindly sorted out permits for us, so we were waved past the entrance gate by the initially suspicious security guy once he’d inspected our paperwork. The scruffy farm and research station doesn’t look like much, but to birds migrating through the desert, any area with bushes, trees, and a little water is a potential safe haven for resting and feeding, and although the birding required patience, persistence and skill — not to mention some local knowledge and assistance — we had an excellent five hours here, with smallish numbers but great diversity of migrants.
A small puddle had attracted a couple of Ortolan Bunting, and bushes around the experimental greenhouses held a small number of warblers: Eastern Olivaceous, Upscher’s, Greater Whitethroat and a couple of Blackcaps. As we drove further into the reserve shrikes were prominent on the electricity wires and pylons that join the two small “settlements”. We had Turks (Turkestan (Red-tailed) Shrike), Lesser Grey Shrike and Great Grey Shrike along here, and elsewhere observed Daurian (Isabeline) and Masked, for a 5-shrike site! (say that quickly 3 times). Other birds of the more open areas included at least two Desert Wheatear.
Spotted Flycatchers lined one “avenue” in the second small vegetated settlement, then we searched another sandy track lined with tamarisks, on a tip-off from Abdulrahman, for Scops, unsuccessfully. We did find a party of Rufous-tailed Rock-thrush and a European Turtledove.
In the meantime, Abdulrahman and his punter had arrived to Kabd (having scored both babbler and finch earlier 😬) and messaged Ted that they were grilling a variety of sparrows and larks. We drove back to meet them near the first area, finding them parked up in Abdulrahman’s 4WD next to three small puddles. In the 40deg heat of the day, as many as 20 Crested Larks were either drinking or had settled in to dust baths next to the water, and a lone Red-throated Pipit, dwarfed by the larks, shyly wandered around, occasionally coming to drink. A couple of Ortolan Buntings hung about, and were then joined by a plainer, larger bunting. For a while we tried to turn this into a Cinereous Bunting, but this was wishful thinking brought on by hope and inexperience. The humble, but sage response from Abdulrahman was “have you considered Corn Bunting?”. Of course, doh! How embarrassing!
A few times the common House Sparrows were joined by a couple of cracking Spanish Sparrows, and for a few minutes a Trumpeter Finch joined the party. Best bird for me here was an LBJ, Turkestan Short-toed Lark. I had seen Greater in UK (twitched a bird at Southwold with SMR Young in 1997!), Spain and UAE, and Steve and I had seen Lesser on the plains of Los Monegros. But Lesser has recently been split into Mediterranean and Turkestan. The field-guide says they’re “extremely similar”, so I’m mainly, but probably dangerously, ticking on range here. Although we were in an area of potential overlap, it seems Med is rare in Kuwait, and we did have one of the book’s authors in the next car helping confirm the identity 😬🤫.
When the Italian punter was keen for a change of scene, and we realised their next destination was an appointment with the scops, we sought permission to follow and help in the search. Abdulrahman carefully inspected the larger tamarisks, walking around each one, peering from every angle, but to no avail. Ted and I had checked most of these an hour or so earlier, but not as rigorously. When Abdulrahman and Ted appeared to be distracted by something that was clearly not a scops (they were looking at the ground), I carried on along the track to check the last of the larger tamarisks that we’d not reached earlier. Adopting Abdulrahman’s technique I peered through the wispy, twisted branches where a lump in the base of a fork was shaped ever so slightly inconsistently with the tree. Then I saw it had have a pair of eyes and a bill — Eurasian Scops Owl! As I manoeuvred to see if I could find an unobstructed view (I could not), it pricked up its ears, a warning sign — it clearly knew I was here — so I retreated and called over the others. With multiple pairs of eyes now trained on the same tree we also now found a second bird, though the third that had been present a few days earlier was nowhere to be seen.
Abdulrahman’s punter, struggling in the extreme heat, was keen to return to the puddles (and the air-conditioned comfort of the Land Cruiser) for further Spanish Sparrow viewing. Ted now related that his search earlier, when I’d seen him and Abdulrahman peering at the ground, was for a robin-or-nightingale-sized bird. They had been unable to secure a decent view, but on behaviour, Abdulrahman suspected a possible White-throated Robin.
We moved back to the tamarisk they’d seen it. Ted moved around to the back of the tree and I kept my bins trained on a small clearing between two of the trunks of the tree. As if by magic, a grey bird hopped into view, then turned a little revealing a bold white supercilium and a white-and-orange throat – a stunning male White-throated Robin. It was only visible for a few seconds, but we now knew it was here and observed it over 5-10 minutes, gradually getting better and better views. The light was harsh and it stayed the deep shadows on the ground by the tamarisks, so pics are not the best, but it was otherwise beautifully cooperative. My second bonus lifer at this site!
Perhaps the adrenaline from finding a few good birds in a short space of time pepped me up, because I felt surprisingly sprightly as we stalked a passerine a long way into a now-dry pivot field in searing heat. We failed miserably to obtain decent views of this (Ted’s blurred pic later revealed it to be an Ortolan), or any other birds for that matter, apart from a bold Lesser Grey Shrike. Returning to the aircon of the car was a welcome relief and at 3pm we made the call to leave Kabd Reserve.
Some nearby pivots, to which we had no access permission, seemed to me to be a low probability option, so we agreed we would drive to Al Ahmadi (the babbler site from yesterday) and use the last of the daylight for another try at Desert Finch. We would have a couple of hours birding there, and still have plenty of time to get to the airport in time for our 10pm flight to Abu Dhabi.
We arrived at at around 1645 and stayed here until sunset. Armed with better, but still annoyingly vague gen from Abdulrahman — who’d had the finch at dawn — we concentrated our search in the “right” area but without any sign. I drifted off, following an interesting call which I realised I should have recognised — it was an Afghan Babbler. In fact they were much more active in the evening than we had observed yesterday morning. Over the 90 minutes we were here, we observed a family of around 6 birds, singing to each other and doing the familiar babbler thing of chasing each other from bush to bush, flying low or running across the sandy ground.
We had been scouring this one area for the best part of an hour when I heard a different twittering sound and saw three finches fly in and perch atop a thorny bush several metres in front of me. There they were: a family of Desert Finches! I called to Ted, but he was already on them, having likewise been alerted by the obviously different call as they arrived. They had evidently been feeding some distance off and had flown in to roost. In lovely evening light we now enjoyed our last bonus lifer of the trip as they posed beautifully. For some reason (actually I know the reason now) my camera struggled a bit for focus but I took enough images that I still managed decent number of keepers. Meanwhile Ted banged out a cracking sequence of the juvenile bird being fed before they both disappeared deep into the bush to roost (see our ebird checklist for these pics).
This was a fitting way to conclude a weekend that had far exceeded my expectations. In the end I had scored 5 out of my 2 “targets” (6, even, if you include the swamphen) and had a chance to observe northwards migration on the Arabian Peninsula. The car drop off was smooth and because our flight was with Etihad rather a budget carrier, we were able to partake of the lounge facilities (though this was not one of the better lounges I have visited). Will I return to Kuwait? Maybe not in a hurry, but I am certainly glad to have gone.
Here is the ebird trip report with links to all the lists from the trip.
