Birds of Saudi Arabia: Early Morning at Dammam

16 July 2011

Early Morning at Dammam - Al Khobar Wader Roost

I found the tide tables for the Dammam area and have put a link HERE. This link is also at the bottom of the website under the Tide Tables picture for those who are interested in finding out the tides suitable for this roost. As a result I went to the site in the early morning as the tide was high and had the birds much closer than yesterday. The trouble was that fishermen also come to the area and disturbed some of the birds. Small waders were around in good numbers but the larger waders had been flushed off and only started to come back as the tide fell and the fishermen disbursed. This was also the case with the gulls, terns and herons. I saw many birds that I had not seen yesterday (listed below) showing birds are passing through or different birds use the roost at different heigts of tide.

Common Redshank - 4
Terek Sandpiper - 3
Ruddy Turnstone - 8
Whimbrel - 1
Lesser Sand Plover - 2 (adult summer)