Health Safety and Environment (HSE) is offering two guided bird walks in November. They are open to all community members and give a great introduction to some of the exciting avifauna found here.
Walk one is on Friday, November 23 around the Island Mangroves. We meet at the Island Mosque at 7:00 a.m. and the walk should last around 90 minutes. This is a circular walk and a very good introduction to birding here. We should see a range of different water birds and if we are lucky also find some of the specialist mangrove species like Yellow Bittern or Clamorous Reed Warbler.
Walk 2 is on Sunday, November 25 at the Safaa Golf Club. We will meet in the golf reception area at 5:00 p.m. and the walk lasts about 1 hour. The walk ends up at the main lake where we will see a number of large water birds. As dusk approaches some birds arrive to roost in the large trees whilst other fly off to the nearby islands for the night. We will also spend some time trying to locate the local Nubian Nightjar an attractive bird but usually extremely shy.
We would also like to start offering family or ‘small group’ walks. These trips will last just over an hour and will be for parties of up to 6 people. If you are interested in such a walk please email HSE Biodiversity Conservation Coordinator, Brian James directly at briananthony.james@kaust.edu.sa including details about the size of your group and the ages of any children. I will then suggest a time and location for a trip although with young children the golf course tends to be best because the buggies can assist moving around.
To sign up for the community bird walks please visit this link. We hope to see you there!
https://b-hse.kaust.edu.sa/training/Pages/Environmental-Calendar.aspx