White Wagtail - Dhahran Hills

I went birding at the 'patch' yesterday for the first time in a few days today as I have been away. I managed to collect a number of my birding books whilst away so am now armed with a few more identification aids to hopefully aid me in identifying the birds I see. White Wagtails are increasing in numbers in Dhahran with the first birds seen a week ago they are now here in quite large numbers, greater than ten, although they are scattered over the entire area. The ringing recovery from Brendan in Bahrain of one he ringed showed the bird went to Russia which is where many of our birds presumably come from. The percolation pond is looking a bit bare at the moment as almost half the reeds have been cleared and the water level is very low. Hopefully the camp is not planning on draining the pool as this is the best birding spot on the camp. Today on the pond the Western Great Egret was still present along with one Little Egret and two Grey Heron. Waders were few and far between with only one Common Ringed Plover, one Temminck's Stint, one Common Redshank, two Little Stint, two Dunlin, three Black-winged Stilt and 11 Common Snipe. Duck numbers are still high with seven Mallard, 87 Eurasian Teal and 130 Northern Shoveller. The only other good birds were three fly over Indian Silverbill and a Eurasian Sparrowhawk which disturbed half of the duck and landed in a tree to the side of the pond.

 White Wagtail

White Wagtail