Sander Willems visited Sabkhat Al-Fasl on Friday 25 May 2012. It was a windy day, with poor visibility but a comfortable 30 degrees Celsius. He found a good bird for the Eastern Province in the shape of a White Stork. White Stork is much commoner than Black Stork in the Eastern Province but is still a scarce migrant and one I have yet to see in Saudi Arabia. The bird was seen briefly in flight and later feeding on the sabkha area by the new Power Generation buildings. Another highlight was the tern diversity, with six different species being seen at the site including 20 Common Terns which are also an uncommon but over-looked species in the Eastern Province. Sander had four new species (lifers) so had a great day.
Other birds seen include:
Little Grebe 10
Greater Flamingo 600
Squacco Heron 2
Cattle Egret 1
Little Egret 15
Western Reef Heron 25
Great Cormorant 1
Western Osprey 1
Black-winged Stilt ++
Pied Avocet 10
Kentish Plover ++
Lesser Sand Plover 8+
Little Stint ++
Curlew Sandpiper 2
Terek Sandpiper 6+
Common Greenshank 3
Slender-billed Gull 100+
Caspian (?) Gull 1
Caspian Tern 50
Little Tern 20
Saunders's Tern 2
Common Tern 20
White-cheeked Tern 10
White-winged Tern 2 (adult summer plumage)
Crested Lark 20
Sand Martin 40
Barn Swallow 8
Laughing Dove
Yellow Wagtail (flava?) 1
House Sparrow