28 February 2015

Some water-birds on a small pond – Dhahran golf course

A trip to Dhahran golf course to see if I could see the Long-tailed Shrike and the three species of Kingfisher that had been present produced neither Long-tailed Shrike, Pied Kingfisher or White-throated Kingfisher but did turn up a few interesting water-birds on the small pond. The female Common Kingfisher was still present hunting from the reed bed and alongside it at one stage was a nice male Little Bittern. There is a good chance the Little Bitterns are nesting at this site as we caught a female Little Bittern at Sabkhat Al Fasl two weeks ago that had a brood patch and probably had eggs as well. Other interesting birds were a few Great Cormorants including one drying it’s wings whilst standing on a concrete fountain built in the pond. Also sitting on this structure as well as fishing in the pond was a white phase juvenile Indian Reef Heron. There were very few other birds of note although a small number of Pallid Swifts were flying overhead. The trip was short as this is a restricted area so the good birds mentioned above may still be present somewhere.
Little Bittern - male
Little Bittern - male
Great Cormorant
Great Cormorant
Great Cormorant
Great Cormorant
Indian Reef Heron
Indian Reef Heron
Pallid Swift
Pallid Swift