Migration still slow - Dhahran Hills

Migration has still not really picked up yet in Dhahran although a few migrants are very slowly making their way through. Autumn migration is always slower and more drawn out than spring migration, but normally there are a few more birds about that at present. Migrants seen in the last few days on the ‘patch’ include up to 20 Barn Swallows & five Eurasian Hoopoes, although it is difficult to know if birds are migrants or residents in the camp as a few birds breed here and stay all year. The percolation pond still has the juvenile Little Bittern present and a single Gull-billed tern was still catching frogs but apart from the breeding birds here very little else of note was seen. The main settling pond has one small area of water on it and this held five Little Ringed Plovers, two Little Stints and seven Black-winged Stilts. Dove numbers are building up with many juvenile birds now present. Eurasian Collared Dove is the commonest followed by Laughing Dove, Namaqua Dove & European Turtle Dove. Small flocks of House Sparrow and White-eared Bulbul are also forming in the spray fields and around the percolation pond and one or two Eastern Olivaceous Warblers and Rufous-tailed Scrub Robins are still about in the scrub beside the pond.


Laughing Dove



White-eared Bulbul