The winter has been exceptional for Greater Spotted Eagles in and around Dhahran with a maximum count of five birds together. Having said this it is almost a month since I saw my last one, a juvenile. Whilst walking through the spray fields I saw three large birds of prey over the percolation pond, two were Western Marsh Harriers but a larger bird turned out to be an adult type Greater Spotted Eagle. It flew around a little following the Western Marsh Harriers and then settled on a bank before flying off and landing in the trees surrounding the pond. Adult birds are much less common than first year birds so this was a good sighting. The spray fields held little except two Siberian Stonechats and two Daurian Shrikes. Pipits were present with at least two Meadow Pipits and 30+ Water Pipits and Crested Lark was the only lark species seen despite a good look for Eurasian Skylark. The settling pond had Common Greenshank, two Common Redshanks and one Common Snipe and the percolation pond still had two Northern Shovellers, three Garganeys, two Eurasian Teals, thirteen Eurasian Wigeons and seven Gadwalls.
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| Common Greenshank |
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| Crested Lark |