Birding the local 'patch' this week has again produced a few good birds. As with previous weeks birds are thin on the ground but each day has produced something of note. Probably the best bird was a Greater Spotted Eagle which flew out of a tree at the edge of the percolation pond and disappeared from view, at the time unidentified. On walking around the pond Phil and I decided to look at the back of the site where there are a couple of large trees which birds of prey sometimes sit in or on the rough ground nearby. Luckily for us the bird was in the tallest tree and it could be identified as a first calendar year Greater Spotted Eagle, the first one I have seen this autumn. Phil saw one at Sabkhat Al Fasl a couple of weekends ago and another bird was found tangled in rope at a mine near Jubail almost a month ago so birds are on there way back to spend the winter in the Eastern Province which is very good news. Other interesting birds included an unidentified acrocephalus warbler that looked like a Basra Reed Warbler but did not have very white underparts and the eye ring was not as clear as I would have expected so has been left unidentified. Good numbers of Barn Swallows are still passing through and a few groups of Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters. A female Eastern Marsh Harrier was over the pond and 30 Western Cattle Egrets are roosting in the reeds of the pond. Waders seen included a Temminck's Stint, five Wood Sandpipers, three Green Sandpipers and a Common Sandpiper on the settling pond and a Common Snipe in the drainage ditch. Yellow Wagtails are roosting in the reeds of the pond with 20+ birds seen each evening and four purple Herons flew over on night. The Great Crested Grebe is still in residence and 50+ Northern Shoveler were also on the pond on morning.
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| Temminck's Stint |
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| Temminck's Stint |