Cattle Egrets - Dhahran Hills

On the way to my normal birding spots I stopped at the housing area for single staff and looked at the grass area which sometimes holds good birds. There was a single Isabelline Wheatear and a single Western Cattle Egret. The Cattle Egret allowed close approach and I took a few photographs of the bird some of which are shown here.

 Western Cattle Egret

 Western Cattle Egret

Western Cattle Egret

I then went to the spray fields but spraying was going on so I was unable to enter the area and therefore spent my time at the percolation pond where I checked all the gulls. There were 300+ Common Black-headed Gulls, six Caspian Gulls and 12 Steppe Gulls. Other birds on the pond were five Eurasian Coots, three Common Moorhens, seven Little Grebes, one Grey Heron and 27 Western Cattle Egrets. A walk around the pond checking the trees and other vegetation allowed me to see two Bluethroats, five Common Chiffchaff, one Daurian Shrike and a Common Snipe. I also found a dead Steppe Gull which I checked to see if it had been ringed anywhere but it had not. The Pallid Swift flock had reduced in size to about one hundred birds and in with them were there Red-rumped Swallows and seven Common House Martins.

Daurian Shrike

Daurian Shrike

Red-rumped Swallow