Birds of Saudi Arabia: Lesser Sand Plover numbers increasing

06 July 2013

Lesser Sand Plover numbers increasing – Dhahran Expro Wader Roost

As the weekend changed in Saudi Arabia from Thursday and Friday, to Friday and Saturday I got an extra day off work. As a result I went to the Dhahran Expro Wader Roost to see if anything interesting had turned up. The tides have been very high recently and today a lot of waders had been pushed up onto the roosting area. Most were Greater Sand Plovers, numbering at least 300 birds, but there were also four Ruddy Turnstones, several Lesser Sand Plovers, three Terek Sandpipers and a Little Stint. At least fifty Common Redshanks made up the rest of the flock but they kept at the very back of the flock.

Lesser Sand Plover

Greater Sand Plover

Terek Sandpipers

Breeding Black-winged Stilts and Kentish Plovers were still about in good numbers but there was no sign of the Green Sandpipers that I saw a couple of days previously. The only other birds there that were not waders were a single Little Tern and five Gull-billed Terns.