An early morning trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl was conducted with not too much hope of seeing anything good as the birds had almost completely dried up in Dhahran. I was to be pleasantly surprised by the birds I saw at Sabkhat. Nothing was seen on the way into the site and not much around the concrete bunded area with the exception of a few Little Terns and White-cheeked Terns. At the far end of the site there was a nice gathering of Barn Swallows and Sand Martins but little else. A very scruffy Turkestan Shrike was seen on the way back to the main reed bed showing that at least some migrants were still about. A very late Western Marsh Harrier was over the reed beds, this being my latest record for the species at the site. The wet scrape had a number of Little Terns including adults feeding juveniles on freshly caught fish and an adult male Little Bittern flew across and landed in the reeds on the far side.
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Little Tern - adult |
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Little Tern - juvenile |
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Little Tern - adult & juvenile |
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Little Bittern - adult male |
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Purple Swamphen |
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Squacco Heron - adult summer |
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Squacco Heron - adult summer |
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Greater Sand Plover |
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Little Stint |
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White-winged Tern - adult summer |
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White-winged Tern - adult summer |
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White-winged Tern - adult summer |
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Indian Reef Heron |