Birds of Saudi Arabia: Grey Plover

Showing posts with label Grey Plover. Show all posts

01 November 2021

Late autumn migrants – Jubail

Whilst birding the Jubail area in late October I saw a few late migrants including Spotted Flycatcher, Daurian and Turkestan Shrikes as well as a Common Redstart and a few Yellow Wagtails. A few Common Coot were seen, with this being the best location locally to see this species as well as a single female Norther Shoveler. There were still a few waders about with plenty of Common Snipe, Wood Sandpiper, Little Stint and Common Ringed Plover. Along a flooded area of sabkha we found a few Dunlin, Eurasian Curlew and Grey Plover allowing me to take the best photos so far in Saudi Arabia of the last species mentioned. A few White Wagtails have arrived for the winter and now winter birds will make up the majority of sightings. One exceptional record was a count of 534 Caspian Terns, easily the largest number recorded in this area.

31 December 2019

Wetland birds – Jubail

Whilst birding Jubail recently I came a cross a good selection of wetland birds. Waders were quite numerous with good numbers of Dunlin, Little Stint, Marsh Sandpiper, Ruff and Wood Sandpiper. Common Greenshank, Grey Plover and Little Stints were about in smaller numbers. The resident Grey-headed Swamphen was enjoying the large amounts of wet areas and where seen I a few places where they are seldom seen, as the water levels were very high inundating previously dry areas. Egrets were also around in varying numbers with Western Cattle Egret and Western Great Egret in small numbers and Little Egret in much larger numbers.

Common Greenshank

Grey Plover

Little Stint

Dunlin

Little Egret

Marsh Sandpiper

Ruff

Western Cattle Egret

Wood Sandpiper

08 February 2018

Jizan Sewage works outfall – Jizan

Whilst in Jizan and looking for colour ringed Baltic Gulls we went down the coast towards Yemen. As there is unrest in Yemen and it is not too safe to go too close to the boarder we stopped at Jizan Sewage Works about 12 kilometres south of the city centre. This sewage works is a modern facility so few birds occur where the water is treated but some overflow goes out to a small area of mangroves and into the sea. This area proved to be a good new site with plenty of good birds seen. The mangroves held plenty of Eurasian (Mangrove) Reed Warblers, and many Greater Flamingo were around. Birds of prey seen included a single first calendar year Greater Spotted Eagle, tens of Black Kits and a single Long-legged Buzzard. Waders included Green Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Grey Plover, Black-winged Stilt, Common Redshank and Pied Avocet. Hundred duck were recorded nearby with three species were there including Pintail, Northern Shoveller and Eurasian Wigeon.

Black Kite

Bar-tailed Godwit

Greater Flamingo

Grey Plover

Northern Pintail

Northern Shoveler

Eurasian Wigeon

House Crow

Mangrove Reed Warbler

19 November 2016

A few Waders – Jubail

A reasonable number of waders are still around the wetland areas of Jubail with good numbers of the common species and a few less common winter birds such as Greater Sand Plovers, Grey Plovers, Pied Avocets and Marsh Sandpipers. The majority of birds seen were Black-winged Stilts, Kentish Plovers, Common Ringed Plovers, Little Stints and Dunlins. I also saw a single Green Sandpiper at the edge of a wet area and two Common Greenshanks. The below photos show three different Greater Sand Plovers.

Greater Sand Plover

Greater Sand Plover (left) & Common Ringed Plover (right)

Grey Plover

Marsh Sandpiper

21 September 2016

Last of the Egyptian Nightjars – Jubail

The last few Egyptian Nightjars are still present in Jubail although I suspect this will be last time I see them this year. I saw five birds in different locations during the day, but they normally leave in early September. Wader numbers continue to build with large numbers of Common Ringed Plovers seen and smaller numbers of Terek Sandpipers and Grey Plovers. Numbers of Squacco herons are increasing steadily with well over fifty birds seen and a couple of the less common Little Bittern also present.

Egyptian Nightjar

Common Ringed Plover

Grey Plover

Terek Sandpiper

Squacco Heron

25 January 2016

A quite winter day but plenty of Eurasian Coot – Sabkhat Al Fasl

My last trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl was quite quiet with few birds seen. I did manage to still see eight Greater Spotted Eagles and 28 Western Marsh Harriers but numbers of other species were low. This was possibly because it was a cool and overcast day and sunlight was at a premium, which is unusual in Saudi Arabia. As always a few Grey-headed Swamphens and Squacco Herons were about but wader numbers were very low with a few Dunlin, marsh Sandpipers and Grey Plovers noted along with 38 Common Snipe. The best thing seen was a large group of Eurasian Coot numbering 121 birds, easily the highest count for the location where any double figure counts are noteworthy.

Grey Plover

Greater Spotted Eagle

Eurasian Coots

05 December 2015

Waders, Winterers and residents – Sabkhat Al Fasl

My last trip to Sabkhat Al Fasl produced a number of waders of various species including the highest number of Marsh Sandpipers I have seen for a while. Most waders were Dunlins with good numbers of Common Ringed Plover scattered amongst them. A few smart plumaged Kentish Plovers were feeding around the shoreline and a single Grey Plover was also present. Waders seen inland included Green Sandpiper and Common Snipe. Wintering species seen included good numbers of Greater Spotted Eagles and Western Marsh Harriers and a single Water Rail although others were heard calling from the reed beds. A few European Stonechats, plenty of Water Pipits and White Wagtails plus several Bluethroats were all seen along the edges to the reed beds. Squacco Herons were still around in good numbers as were Grey Herons and a singe Purple Heron was located in amongst them. Three species of Kingfisher were also seen including Common Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher and White-breasted Kingfisher and good numbers of Grey-headed Swamphens made up the good birds seen.