Birds of Saudi Arabia: Western Great Egret

Showing posts with label Western Great Egret. Show all posts

20 December 2024

Winter birding – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

The Waste Water Lake in Dhahran has now started to get some regular winter species. The land around the lake is well vegetated but has been seriously lacking birds in the last couple of months. Now a few wintering species are turning up with Bluethroat and Daurian Shrike seen on every visit. Indian Silverbill are busy collecting nesting material and Graceful Prinia are singing loudly again after being quiet for a few months. Two Western Marsh Harrier are using the reeds for resting in and a minimum of three Eastern Stonechat are around, all in one small area with the regular Eurasian Sparrowhawk busy trying to catch any of the unwary birds. The lake itself has a few water birds with a juvenile Purple Heron, Western Cattle Egrets and Western Great Egret present. A few Gull-billed Tern are still present and Common Black-headed Gull drop in in very small numbers each day. Eurasian Collared Dove are again common in the area after reducing in number during the summer months.

Daurian Shrike

Eastern Stonechat

Eurasian Collared Dove

Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Purple Heron

Western Cattle Egret

Western Great Egret

Western Marsh Harrier

22 June 2024

Summer at the Lake – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

The summer in Saudi Arabia is very hot with few birds about. The Waste Water Lake in Dhahran has many fewer birds than the other seasons but birds can still be seen if you stick at it. A few Pallid Swift are flying around, often dropping down to to the water to drink or wet their breast feathers. Graceful Prinia, European Reed Warbler and Clamorous Reed Warbler are the only warblers seen recently all of which are calling loudly from the reeds. Herons are still present about in ones or twos with Great Egret, Squacco Heron, Grey Heron, Little Egret and Purple Heron all seen along with the more common (now) Little Bittern. Common species seen regularly in the scrub and around the lake include White-eared Bulbul and House Crow.

Graceful Prinia

Great Egret

House Crow

Pallid Swift

Purple Heron

Squacco Heron

White-eared Bulbul

06 June 2024

Very little – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

My Saturday early morning trip to the Dhahran Waste Water Lake turned up very few birds. As it’s getting very hot, I arrived at 05:30 and spent an hour and a half looking around. I had very few birds for my efforts with only two Grey Herons and two Great Egrets plus a few Great Cormorant on the waters edge. A couple of Little Bittern (male and female) were about the best birds seen. Lots of Clamorous Reed Warblers and Graceful Prinia were seen and heard. Pallid Swift and Little Tern were seen flying around but not much else. Hopefully next weekend will be better.

25 May 2024

A few waterbirds – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

Birding the lake has been a bit hard work recently with few birds to be seen and to good ones, not allowing photographs. The best birds in May were a single Corn Crake flushed from the edge of a small wet area and a flyover male Ruppell’s Weaver. Some of the local waterbirds were more photogenic with a number of them in moult as can be seen from some of the photos below. Numbers are dropping but there are still plenty of herons and egrets to see.

Black-crowned Night Heron - adult

Black-crowned Night Heron - juvenile

Great Cormorant

Great Egret

Little Egret

23 March 2024

Heron numbers building – Dhahran Waste Water Lake

Whilst birding the Dhahran Waste Water Lake in March it was very apparent that the number of herons were increasing. Six Great Egrets and more than ten Grey Herons were present with double figures of Squacco Heron also seen. A single dark phase Western Reef Heron was an unusual sighting. Great Cormorant numbers were also increasing woth around fifty birds present perched in the waterside trees and fishing on the lake itself. Three Ferruginous Duck were still around as were a single Gull-billed Tern and Common Black-headed Gull