Whilst birding the ‘patch’ last night I found a male Blue Rock Thrush. The birds looks like a second calendar year bird and was on the same rocks where the female Blue Rock Thrush was earlier in the month. I had not seen the species in Saudi Arabia until the 11th February this year and now I have seen two. Hopefully the spring will continue in the same vain as now, as it has been very good so far. This male was similar to the female in allowing relatively close approach, but the cloud and the fact I did not see the bird until quite late in the evening made the photography a bit trickier. I still managed to get a few decent shots and came home rather satisfied with my evenings birding. If the bird stays around I may be able to get better shots at the weekend, as I will be able to get out in better light. Blue Rock Thrush is not a rare bird in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia but they normally occur much further inland and are scarce on the coast. There are only a handful of records from Dhahran and the site has been well birded in the past so the two records this year are very unusual.
