Birds of Saudi Arabia: Breeding waders – Dhahran Expro Wader Roost

A trip to Dhahran Expro Wader Roost last weekend after dropping the children at a birthday party coincided with low tide, the worst time to visit. As it was late in the day the sun was also in a poor position for photography, but this did not matter too much as I saw very few birds. The only waders seen were a few Eurasian Oystercatcher, several Eurasian Curlew, three Curlew Sandpipers, five Lesser Sand Plovers and lots of Black-winged Stilts and Kentish Plovers. The last two species were carefully guarding there young that were running around all over the place. There must have been at least six pairs of Black-winged Stilts and fifteen pairs of Kentish Plover, indicating a good breeding season for them both. It was interesting to see the birds different techniques to distract attention from their young with Black-winged Stilts flying overhead noisy and Kentish Plover pretending they had a broken wing or similar ailment to move you away from their offspring. A single Greater Flamingo and four Gull-billed Terns were the only other birds of note seen on the tip.