An Indian Roller was found on 19 November 2020 at the Dhahran Waste Water Lake and has returned each winter for the last five years and has been seen again this winter. The bird is very elusive and we have not found the area where it stays for most of the day, which may well be the out of bounds golf course. The bird is often seen flying into the trees or perching on the floodlights of the cricket field and football fields in the late evening before flying off to roost. As a result, I have not obtained any good photos of the bird, but in late November Eric kindly sent me a close-up photo of it, so I asked where he had seen it. He said Alma and he had seen it a few minutes before and the bird was frequenting a small park next to the football fields. As it was the weekend and I live very close to this area, I went down and saw the bird after a while. It was not very obliging and although I saw it on a post close to the road with a car passing very close by the time I got there it had flown. I stayed for a couple of hours trying to locate it again and obtain good photos as it was mid-afternoon and light was good. Eventually I saw it again and managed to get a few photos of it in a palm tree and on a light post and once some good photos of it in flight as it flew close to me from a post where I had crept up to it on foot behind a palm before it saw me a flew. These are easily the best photos I have of the bird so was happy with my afternoon trip. Indian Roller has a status as a rare winter visitor, with the only recent records I know being an adult, Mansouriyah, Riyadh, 21 December 1989; an adult, Thumamah, Riyadh, 8 October 1999 until 17 February 2000 and an adult at Ras Tanura 12 February 2021.
