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.
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| Caspian Gull |
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| Caspian Gull |
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| Steppe Gull |
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| Steppe Gull |
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| Heuglin's Gull |