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22 February 2013

Gull numbers increasing – Abqaiq Landfill


On the way back from Shedgum Escarpment we called into the Abqaiq Landfill site in the hope of seeing an unusual gull or two. The number of birds had built up since my last visit and now number approximately 5000 birds. As we arrived at about 10:30 hrs the majority of birds were sitting in their favoured resting area, which unfortunately you cannot get close enough to, to photograph them at. The area is viewable with a telescope and although there were thousands of birds we could not find anything out of the usual. We did locate an extremely dark bird which was back on and looked like it maybe a Baltic Gull but when it turned around slightly it was a dark Heuglin’s Gull. Despite all the searching of gulls in the local area I have still not found a Baltic Gull yet. The majority of the Large White-headed Gulls were Steppe Gull (70%) with Caspian Gull (15%) and Heuglin’s Gull (15%). Hundreds of Common Black-headed Gulls were also present. The only other bird of note was a fly over Black-crowned Sparrow Lark.
Caspian Gull
Caspian Gull
Steppe Gull
Steppe Gull
Heuglin's Gull