Crested Honey Buzzards at Dhahran golf course – Bird records by Harald Ris

Harald Ris is a young and very keen birder and son of a birder who lives in the camp. He has just been over to Dhahran for a couple of weeks during the school holidays and saw a few good birds during his visit. The best was probably two Crested Honey Buzzards over the golf course on 8 January 2014 where the birds came down and landed in a nearby tree allowing Harald the chance to get a photograph of them perched. These two birds are part of the three (one adult female and two second calendar year birds) birds that have been about since the 30 November at least. The golf course is the best place to see the birds as they appear to use the large trees there to roost in, with all three birds still present until last week at least. I thank Harald very much for sending me his photos from Sweden and allowing me to use them on website. Crested Honey Buzzard has a status in Saudi Arabia as a scarce passage migrant and winter visitor rare in summer and always makes my day when I see one.