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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

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  1. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    As requested, non-Golden females (y)
  2. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    Annotated trip list of butterflies to follow and photographs
  3. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    Birding Jeddah, surprisingly good
  4. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    8 April. Jeddah. Final day, city life in Jeddah. Rather than head out to any of the dry wadis in the hinterland, I decided to instead simply walk the city's Corniche along the seafront. And a very impressive affair it is - two or three kilometres of well-vegetated greenery, a mix of palms...
  5. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    That was more or less my expression when I spotted the flock of yellow birds whilst I was happily tootling north on the highway :)
  6. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    Mega gold, bird of the trip, indeed probably going to be bird of the year. Not bad for a sparrow :)
  7. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    7 April. Al Lith, Acacia Tree & Mecca. 6.00 am, warm and muggy, Crab Plovers and assorted waders from the car as I awoke, a motley assortment of Sooty Gulls, White-eye Gulls and both Crested and Lesser Crested Terns lingering on the beach. Hoped-for passerines in the town's straggly corniche...
  8. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    And near Khairah
  9. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    On the high escarpment This is Khairah Forest earlier the same day:
  10. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    37 C, but recent rains had brought green desert
  11. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    6 April. Khairah Forest & Wadi Ileeb. Weather refugee. I hadn't come to Saudi Arabia for cloud and rain, so I decided this day to leave the highlands and return to the coast, guaranteed to be hot and sunny. First however, I wanted another day of butterfly action, focussing this time on...
  12. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    Best bird is still to come :)
  13. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    5 April. Wadi Dahna & Shaibamah Dam. Why did I sleep in the car? I woke at an unearthly early hour, thick fog blanketing everything at Mahvar and not a peep of any calling owls or nightjars. Couldn't even make a coffee! At dawn an hour or so later, with Mahvar still in fog so dense it was...
  14. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    Oops, forgot the most important part on the 4th :) On route to Mahvar, stopped in at a nondescript valley at coordinates 18.666713, 42.231191. Nice enough selection here, including yet another African Paradise Flycatcher, a White-browed Coucal and a couple of Arabian Waxbills, but my eyes were...
  15. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    They make a nice backdrop to Barred Warbler and Wryneck :)
  16. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    4 April. Reydah & Mahvar. Quick look at Soudah early am, added a Yemen Warbler without much effort, then returned to Reydah, heading this time almost directly to the butterfly zone at the bottom. Main job this day was to photograph some of the skippers that had been skittish in the heat of the...
  17. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    Reydah
  18. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    3 April. Reydah. Officially a permit is required to visit this jewel in Saudi's crown. I had originally planned to visit some days later, so I wasn't sure if I would be allowed in or not. I needn't have worried, the guy on the gate was pretty laid back and friendly, he took my passport...
  19. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    Company in the Bishah
  20. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    2 April. Habala & Wadi Bishah. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Well, Habala certainly takes the latter two! Sitting on the edge of the continental plateau, sheer cliffs dropping hundreds of metres, it could be one of Saudi's natural wonders. But the Saudis have managed to make it the site I...
  21. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    1 April. Sabya & Abha. Quick return to the pivot fields early morning - pair of Abyssinian Rollers, several Arabian Green Bee-eaters, one Common Buzzard, umpteen Zipping Cisticolas, several Singing Bush Larks and African Silverbills - then across to the more extensive and better habitat farm...
  22. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    Cream-banded Charaxes
  23. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    31 March. Lake Al-Saad & Fayfa. Having very much enjoyed the previous day, especially the butterfly extravaganza at Fayfa, I decided for a repeat dose this day. At Lake Al-Saad, I concentrated more on the acacia scrub this time - a Pied Wheatear nice, plus among all the African Collared...
  24. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    Bird and butterfly photos will follow later, but today's star butterfly, Clouded Mother-of-Pearl ...taken through a bush, they didn't like to settle :)
  25. Jos Stratford

    Saudi Arabia, Birds and Butterflies.

    30 March. Lake Al-Saad & Fayfa. Time to leave the coast, my first destination Lake Al-Saad, about 50 km inland. In many ways, this was my favourite locality on the whole trip - acacia woodland opening out to broad grassy lake margins full of birds, shallow waters thereafter. With the evocative...
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