Today the weather was not good at all with very strong winds and large amounts of dust in the air. We went to Qatif Thursday market and the coast of Tarout Island as I had heard there were a lot of birds for sale in the market. We got to the market quite early and after buying some local bread, which is a speciality of Qatif we went to the area of the market that sold birds. I was pleasantly surprised as there were lots of birds for sale, but not wild caught species as I had feared. Most birds were chickens a few Turkeys and hundreds of pigeons and doves, all of which looked like they were bred in captivity. The only wild caught birds I saw were a case of Common Starlings, about ten White-eared Bulbuls and one White-spectacled Bulbul. There were a few hundred Common Quail for sale but it was likely these had been bred in captivity. I took a couple of photographs of the Common Starlings, with the owners permission.
Common Starlings
Common Starlings
After looking around the bird section of the market we went to the coast at Dareen but these was little to see due to the poor weather with only 12 Steppe Gulls and two unidentified Terns. We did see the largest number of traditional fishing vessels in the Arabian Gulf here and also the remains of Tarout Fort.
Dhow - Traditional Fishing Vessel on Tarout Island
Tarout Fort
.jpg)
