01 September 2011

Sabkhat Al Fasl

We arrived early in the morning on Thursday 25th August at Sabkhat Al Fasl, but the hunters were there before us. They had done  good job of scaring off most of the birds and were aimlessly shooting anything of medium to large size they could. We saw a number of dead birds including Black-winged Stilt and Purple Swamphen. About the only things they were not shooting at were small waders so I got a few photographs of some of these. We saw a few good birds flying over disturbed by the hunters including two Purple Heron, ten Caspian Tern, three Barn Swallow, five Yellow Wagtail and two Egyptian Nightjar. One of these was in the same general area as last week and one other in a new area. The normal bank where they have been seen over the last six years and also in July this year did not have any birds were could see.
 Ruddy Turnstone
 Common Ringed Plover
 Common Sandpiper
 Purple Swamphen
Caspian Tern
Egyptian Nightjar