Wader Numbers Down - Dammam – Al Khobar Wader Roost South

Yesterday at Dammam – Al Khobar Wader Roost the bird numbers had dropped considerably from the last time I visited the site a couple of months ago. There has been a large increase in the number of gulls present with 300+ Black-headed Gulls, 200+ Slender Billed Gulls, 23 Steppe Gulls, 15 Caspian Gulls and 2 Heuglin’s Gulls present. There were also quite a few unidentified gulls present of various types but the viewing distance was not good as the high winds kept the tide from coming fully in and birds remained at the water’s edge. Wader numbers were much lower with two Terek Sandpiper, three Ruddy Turnstone, Six Greater Sand Plover, eight Whimbrel, nine Common Greenshank, 11 Grey Plover, 18 Bar-tailed Godwit, 19 Common Redshank, 23 Eurasian Curlew, 23 Kentish Plover, 41 Lesser Sand Plover, 200+ Little Stint and 300+ Dunlin. There was no sign of any Crab Plovers this visit. A single Western Opsrey was eating a fish it had caught sitting on a post in the water and 21 Greater Flamingos were feeding well offshore with 79 Lesser Crested Terns and 22 Saunders / Little Terns also present. The waste land behind the wader roost held one Steppe Grey Shrike, one Desert Wheatear and a Pied Wheatear as well as a large mixed flock of small waders including mainly Lesser Sand Plover, Kentish Plover, Dunlin and Little Stint.