Common Quail
Greater Short-toed Lark
Tree Pipit
Little Tern
Whilst driving along the edge of the reed beds we found a single White-spectacled Bulbul, but unfortunately it flew off before any photographs could be taken. This is a rare vagrant to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia with only one previous record involving five birds at Harad in 1982 (Bundy et al . The species is not scarce in Saudi Arabia and is a common breeding resident in the south-west of the country and can be seen regularly around the Riyadh area, but very rarely wanders to the Eastern Province. There is a small chance the bird may have been an escape from captivity but it looked in very good plumage and health so we are assuming it was a wild bird. A single Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin showed well but the light was not good for a photo as it posed quite nicely on the reeds. Good waders seen included two Spotted Redshanks, three Wood Sandpipers, three Common Snipe, three Marsh Sandpipers, one Temminck’s Stint and three Green Sandpipers. Purple Swamphen sightings are increasing again with a number of birds with young being seen and Little Terns are now being seen in good numbers all over the site. The flooded sabkha at the back of the site held over a thousand Greater Flamingos, 200+ Pied Avocets, 100+ Ruffs and 20+ White-winged Terns. Western Marsh Harriers were still about in reasonable numbers and a fine adult male was seen by the pumping station which is unusual as almost all records are of female and immature birds. The only other birds of prey we saw were two Common Kestrels. A sinlge Great Reed Warbler was the first returning bird of the year for me and was seen well in the reeds behind the flooded Sabkha.