18 August 2011

Two European Roller - Dhahran hill

Today the 'patch' had quite a few good birds. The percolation pond is now almost dry but there are still a few waders around the edge. There was one Common Greenshank, nine Ruff, thirteen Little Stint, twenty one Little Ringed Plover and fifty five Kentish Plover. There was also a single Common Snipe which is the first one I have seen this autumn. Other migrants were a single Spotted Flycatcher, again the first of the autumn for me, three Barn Swallow and a two European Roller sitting together at one stage in the same row of trees by the edge of the percolation pond. The pictures of the European Roller are a bit 'grainy' as I took them on a high ISO as the light was not very good as it was quite late in the evening. Another good bird was a single Grey Shrike, but unfortunately it was too far away to identify but was either a Steppe Grey Shrike or a Southern Grey Shrike.