17 January 2012

Grey Heron - Dhahran Hills

Bird watching yeserday produced a number of birds incluing two Grey Heron that allowed close approach. These birds have been around for a few months and must be finding it difficult to feed as the draining of the pond and removal of the reeds also removed any fish that were present I suspect. There are still frogs calling from the area so I suppose they are feeding almost exclusively on these.
 Grey Heron

Grey Heron

Other good birds seen on the pond included two Great Crested Grebes that have been missing for a week but have now returned and six Little Grebes. Three Eurasin Coot and six Common Moorhen are still present and 40 Cattle Egret came in to roost in the spray fields in the late evening and the Great Cormorant Roost now exceeds 2500 birds. All the trees surrounding the pond are full of birds at night as I went there very early one morning to look. Whislt doing this I saw the resident Arabian Red Fox in the headlights of the car at close range.A single Southern Grey Shrike was present at the jebals along with two Tawny Pipits but no other birds of note were located in the area.