Whilst driving to work on 3
June I saw a Great Cormorant flying over the road and around the
spray fields near the cricket pitch. This is an unusual record as the species
is a winter visitor to Saudi Arabia and is the first time I have seen one
inland in the camp. The species has a status as a common and sometimes abundant winter visitor in
coastal waters from September through March. The percolation pond is a good
area to see them, where they roost in trees around the pond in the late evening
with up to 2000 birds seen there. A few immature birds have been noticed in the
Eastern Province remaining through the summer, like this bird, but these have
all been on the coast and not inland like this record. Birding a local ‘patch’
where you go almost everyday makes records like this interesting as although it
would not appear to be anything unusual it clearly is as I have been birding
this area for the last four years without a sighting, including all through the
summer in all years I have been in Saudi Arabia.
