A Few Migrants

The dust storms of the last three days have subsided a little, although the wind is still a fresh north-westerly and dust is still in the air. These winds have brought a number of unusual birds for July to Dhahran of which I managed to photograph (poorly) the top three in the list below.

Western Cattle Egret - 1 (adult summer)
Blue-cheeked Bee-eater - 2
Red-backed Shrike - 1 (adult female)
Sand Martin - 2
Barn Swallow - 1
Common Greenshank - 1

Also the juvenile European Turtle Dove is still present in the same place as last week and the number of Black-winged Stilts has increased to twenty-two with six juveniles. A couple of Clamorous Reed Warblers were in the Tamarix bushes at the edge of the percolation pond with at least four more singing from the Phragmites.

Phil Roberts the other very keen birdwatcher in Dhahran Camp also saw a Eurasian Reed Warbler of the race fuscus also known as Caspian Reed Warbler. Caspian Reed Warbler is slightly darker and greyer above and paler below than Eurasian Reed Warbler. Phil kindly allowed me to use his photograph of the bird which is directly below this note.

Western Cattle Egret

Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters

Red-backed Shrike