Great Cormorant Roost - Dhahran Hills

The Great Cormorant roost in the trees surrounding the percolation pond still holds well over one thousand birds. These birds fly into the pond in the evening with some settling on the pond to wash and rest and others flying straight into the trees to roost.

 Great Cormorant

Great Cormorants flying in to roost

Other birds seen on my evening visit to the spray fields and percolation pond included one Isabelline Wheatear and two Tawny Pipits at the edge of the spray fields, three Song Thrushes, two Lesser Whitethroats and six Common Chiffchaffs in the trees on the embankment at the edge of the spray fields and a Green Sandpiper on the small settling pond. The percolation pond held one Green Sandpiper, six Eurasian Coots, three Little Grebes, one Grey Heron, four Western Cattle Egrets, 33 Steppe Gulls, six Caspian Gulls, one Baltic Gull and 200+ Common Black-headed Gulls. A huge congregation of Pallid Swift numbering at least 300 birds was catching insect over the pond and amongst them were two Red-rumped Swallows, six House Martins, one Sand Martin and three Barn Swallows.