05 December 2013

A few interesting birds – Dhahran Hills


Birding the local patch this week has produced a few interesting birds. The small flock of Eurasian Skylarks increased to six birds and were seen feeding along the edge of the spray fields and a very nice northern Caspian Stonechat (NCT – Now called North Caspian Taxon) was in the fields themselves. Neither of these two species are particularly common on the camp but do occur every year in small numbers. Two Eurasian Sparrowhawks were in and over the fields as was a single Western Marsh Harrier. An Isabelline Wheatear and a Turkestan Shrike were seen in the shrubs between the spray fields and the settling pond and the settling pond itself had 28 Western Cattle Egrets coming in to roost in the reeds. All the birds mentioned above are winter visitors to the region and it now looks like the autumn migration has ended in the Eastern Province at least.
Isabelline Wheatear
Turkestan Shrike
Western Cattle Egrets