Birds of Saudi Arabia: Great Crested Grebe

Showing posts with label Great Crested Grebe. Show all posts

22 March 2023

Displaying Great Crested Grebe – Al Uqayr

Whilst birding Al Uqayr recently I saw four Great Crested Grebes. These birds were in two pairs and one pair started to display to each other, a sight I have not seen before in Saudi Arabia. The species is a very rare breeder in Saudi Arabia where it once built nests and bred on the percolation pond in Dhahran. Let’s hope these birds stay and breed in the area. Great Crested Grebe is not an easy bird to see in Saudi Arabia with the Eastern Province the best area to see them. Several lakes are good for the species including the one at the end of Abu Ali Island and Khafra Marsh. The Dhahran Waste Water Lake is also a regular place to see them. The best place appears to be the sheltered bays of the Arabian Gulf where up to fifty have been seen together in recent years.

01 January 2023

Wetland birds Dhahran Hills Lake – Dhahran

Whilst birding Dhahran Hills Lake in late December I saw a few good typical wetland birds. A singing Caspian Reed Warbler was in full song on the edge of the lake in the reedbeds and Delicate Prinias were also singing and making claim to their territories on the lake edge. A tree on the lakeside was full of Cattle Egret and much more unusually two Glossy Ibis. It also had a good number of Great Cormorant. Most of the birds flew as soon as the sun got up, presumably to feed elsewhere. On the lake itself was a single Eurasian Coot and a rather fine plumaged Great Crested Grebe, with 33 Little Grebes. Herons were around in good numbers including eleven Grey Heron, two Great Egret, three Squacco Heron and two Little Egrets. Two Gull-billed Tern were also feeding over the lake and a single Western Marsh Harrier was also present causing the birds to move around as it flew over.

Eurasian Coot

Great Cormorant

Great Crested Grebe

Western Great Egret

Gull-billed Tern

Gull-billed Tern

Little Egret

04 December 2022

A few interesting birds on the Wastewater Pond – Dhahran Hills

Birding the Wastewater Pond in Dhahran at the end of November produced a few interesting birds. As always, the main birds were Great Cormorant and Little Grebe but also amongst the Little Grebe was a single Great Crested Grebe. This is a species that is uncommon with most records coming from the Half Moon Bay area where they remain quite distant. The pond allows relatively close approach and therefore some reasonable photos. Around the edge of the pond were two Western Great Egrets, plenty of Squacco Heron and five Little Egrets with a similar number of Grey Heron. Two Eurasian Coot and a Single Common Moorhen were seen. A single Whiskered Tern, two Gull-billed Tern, ten Common Black-headed Gull and a single Pallid Swift were seen in flight over the pond with a female Western Marsh Harrier also located. Walking around the pond and looking in the vegetation produced a few Delicate Prinia, several Clamorous Reed Warbler including two young birds and three Bluethroats. A male and female Siberian Stonechat were present near the water edge along with lots of White-eared Bulbuls.

Western Great Egret

White-eared Bulbul

Great Crested Grebe

Grey Heron

Siberian Stonechat

Clamorous Reed Warbler

17 September 2022

Typical late summer birds – Jubail

Whilst birding Jubail recently I found some typical late summer birds. A White-throated Kingfisher was a little unusual, although they have become much more common in recent years and may possibly breed in the area. Great Crested Grebe is a not so common species but again a possible breeder in recent years with two adults with young seen last year in the summer. White-cheeked Terns breed on the nearby offshore islands and many worn looking adults are around onshore now as the breeding season is ending. Numbers have increased significantly in recent weeks with hundreds of birds present. They occur in large flocks often associated with Slender-billed Gulls. This is a species that now stays throughout the summer but breeding has not been proven yet. Thousands of birds are in the Jubail area with adults and first year birds together. These large flocks of gulls also often contain Gull-billed Tern, Little Tern, White-winged Tern, Whiskered Tern, Caspian Tern and Common Tern in varying numbers. A few waders are now starting to move with the commonest being Little Stint and herons are increasing with hundreds of Squacco Herons and smaller numbers of Western Reef Heron and Western Cattle Egrets. Western Cattle Egret is another species that has started to stay all year in the area with seven seen throughout this summer.

Great Crested Grebe

Little Stint

Slender-billed Gull

Slender-billed Gull - first calendar year

Slender-billed Gull

Western Cattle Egret

Indian Reef Heron

White-throated Kingfisher

White-cheeked Tern

23 February 2022

Great Crested Grebes – Al Khobar

Whilst birdwatching Al Khobar on 22 February I came across at least ten Great Crested Grebes. The species is not an easy bird to see in Saudi Arabia with the Eastern Province the best area to see them. Several lakes are good for the species including the one at the end of Abu Ali Island and Khafra Marsh. The percolation pond in Dhahran was also a regular place to see them. These birds were on a protected bay area of the Arabian Gulf and were scattered over a large area. Six birds were seen together, and six Black-necked Grebes were also located in the same bay. This is the largest gathering of Great Crested Grebes I have seen in the Kingdom.

04 March 2014

Spring is here at last – Dhahran Hills

Spring finally appears to have arrived with climbing temperatures and few good and brightly coloured birds to liven up the birding. It is very difficult to work out how many Rock Thrushes have been present in Dhahran hills over the last week but there has been a minimum of four Blue Rock Thrushes (two males & two females) and two Rufous-tailed Rock Thrushes (A male and a female). A Eurasian Sparrowhawk and two Western Marsh Harriers, an adult male and female/immature have been present over the spray fields and pond. My first Mauryan (Steppe) Grey Shrike of the spring was seen in the scrubby desert area where a few Pied Wheatears are also present. The percolation pond has only a handful of birds on it but the Great Crested Grebe has retuned and is looking in very fine plumage. Let’s hope it attracts a mate and breeds again this year. Six Little Grebes and three Eurasian Coot are also in residence along with ten Black-winged Stilts and a Green Sandpiper and Indian (Clamourous) Reed Warblers are singing again from the reed beds.