Birds of Saudi Arabia: Tufted Duck

Showing posts with label Tufted Duck. Show all posts

12 December 2024

Tufted Duck – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

Whilst birding the Dhahran Hills area recently I saw seven Tufted Duck. This is an unusual visitor to Dhahran where it is one of the rarer of the regularly occurring duck species. The species has migratory populations breeding in Iceland and northern Europe across most of Russia and wintering 6,000 km south in northern and eastern Africa and southern Europe through India to Japan and south into the Arabian Peninsula. In Saudi Arabia it has a status as a scarce passage migrant, uncommon winter visitor and very erratic summer visitor. They are mainly seen between October and February on large, open wetland sites, particularly with pools lacking surface vegetation, such as reservoir lakes, the Riyadh River and ornamental lakes. The Dhahran Waste Water Lake is an ideal place to see them and one where they are now seen annually.

31 January 2024

Pallid Swift – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

An early morning trip to Dhahran Waste Water Lake in January produced a few good birds including the Red-wattled Lapwings still present. The lake still held two Tufted Duck and a small number of Great Cormorant, although significantly less than last year. Egrets and herons included two Squacco Heron, one Great Egret, thee Little Egret and ten Grey Heron. Several Daurian Shrikes are wintering at the location and the Pied Kingfisher was also seen in flight, hovering, and perched briefly. A small number of Pallid Swift are still around, dropping down occasionally to drink from the lake. Graceful Prinia are now singing again, with males calling from a lot of different locations. This species has increased significantly in numbers over the last ten years and is now a common sight when out at any time of year. Another species that is singing commonly around the lake is the Crested Lark, a common resident breeder.

Pallid Swift

Crested Lark

Creat Cormorant

Little Egret

Tufted Duck

25 January 2024

Some good birds – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

Dhahran Waste Water Lake has had some good birds on and around it recently. A recent visit produced the same Pied Kingfisher as seen the week before, initially seen in flight flying up the lake but eventually seen well on its favoured perch of the dead tree. A very noisy Red-wattled Lapwing was busy chasing off the wintering Western Marsh Harrier and the Indian Roller was still about although not photographable this time. Herons included two Great Egrets, ten Grey Herons, three Western Cattle Egrets and two Little Egrets. A couple of Daurian Shrike were in the scrubby area as were plenty of singing Graceful Prinia, a White Wagtail and a single Common Chiffchaff. A few Pallid Swift were overhead as were several Rose-ringed Parakeets. The only wader seen was a single Common Sandpiper. The three Tufted Duck are still present for their second month.

Little Egret

Great Egret

Graceful Prinia

Tufted Duck

Pied Kingfisher

White Wagtail

White Wagtail

06 January 2024

Plenty of birds – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

There have been a good number of Northern Shoveler in Dhahran with well over thirty birds present flying between the Percolation Pond and Dhahran Waste Water Lake. The Waste Water Lake has still the two Tufted Ducks from a couple of months ago and they have been joined by another female making three in total. A few Grey Heron, One Black-crowned Night Heron, two Western Great Egrets and several Squacco Heron are still around. A few more birds are now around the scrubby areas at the edge of the lake including Daurian Shrike, White-eared Bulbul, Graceful Prinia, Lesser Whitethroat, Common Chiffchaff and Eurasian Hoopoe.

Common Chiffchaff

Eurasian Hoopoe

Northern Shoveler

Squacco Heron

Tufted Duck

White-eared Bulbul

16 November 2023

Pair of Tufted Duck – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

Whilst birding the Dhahran Hills area recently I saw a pair of Tufted Duck. This is an unusual visitor to Dhahran where it is one of the rarer of the regularly occurring duck species. The birds were seen at first light, and at long distance, but I managed to walk around the lake and get closer without them noticing me. I saw a pair earlier this year and wonder if they are the same returning birds? The species has migratory populations breeding in Iceland and northern Europe across most of Russia and wintering 6,000 km south in northern and eastern Africa and southern Europe through India to Japan and south into the Arabian Peninsula. In Saudi Arabia it has a status as a scarce passage migrant, uncommon winter visitor and very erratic summer visitor. They are mainly seen between October and February on large, open wetland sites, particularly with pools lacking surface vegetation, such as reservoir lakes, the Riyadh River and ornamental lakes.

26 February 2023

Dhahran Wastewater Pond – Dhahran Hills

The pair of Tufted Duck are still happily residing on the Wastewater Pond in Dhahran Hills, where there have also been seven Mallard on a couple of occasions. The Great Crested Grebe is also still present where it has now been for almost a year. Great Crested Grebe is relatively common in the winter in the Half Moon Bay area but is not so easy to get close too, so this bird is a refreshing change. Although, like the Tufted Ducks, it always stays on the far side of the lake, it is nevertheless close enough to take some reasonable photos. Other birds using the pond are Great Cormorants, where birds spend the entire day with some roosting in the large trees around the edge of the water. They are joined by the three Glossy Ibis which have been around for more than a month now, but as it gets light the Glossy Ibis fly and start feeding, often out of sight in the pools behind the reed beds. Grey Heron, Indian Reef Heron, Western Cattle Egret, Western Great Egret and Little Egret are all common feeding mainly on frogs. Up to four Gull-billed Terns have been flying over the pond catching small fish for the last few weeks, but last time I visited in mid-February I did not see any.