Birds of Saudi Arabia: Wader numbers increasing

An early morning trip to the Dhahran Expro Wader Roost produced a good number of birds. The number of waders built up significantly in the last two weeks with hundreds if not thousands of birds present. The majority of birds here are small waders but they are now reclaiming the inlet leading to the roost and have completely blocked this off from the sea, so now the large waders and Greater Flamingos are using this area to roost on. Large waders included 100+ Bar-tailed Godwits and 50+ Eurasian Curlews with 17 adults and one juvenile Greater Flamingos. Small waders were mainly Dunlins and Little Stints with 500+ of each. Small groups of both Greater Sand Plovers and Lesser Sand Plovers were seen including a few Greater Sand Plovers in adult breeding plumage. 50+Common Redshanks and 30+ Marsh Sandpipers were present with the later being the highest count of this species I have seen in one place in Saudi Arabia so far. Kentish Plovers, Ruddy Turnstones and Grey Plovers made up the remaining waders seen.