Waders passing through - Dhahran Hills

The last few days have seen a marked passage of waders in the area and the camp has been good for them as well. The three areas of permanent water that are on my local ‘patch’, the wet ditch, settling pools and percolation pond have all had good birds on them in the last few days. The ditch had a couple of Little Stints, Wood Sandpiper & Little Ringed Plover, all of which allowed good photographs to be taken. The settling pond had a good gathering of waders with the majority on Saturday 23 August including the second record of Sanderling for me on the ‘patch’ as well as Marsh Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Common Ringed Plover, Common Redshank, Wood Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, two Ruff, two Little Ringed Plovers, 20 Black-winged Stilts, seven Kentish Plovers and 14 Little Stints. Waders seen on the percolation pond included my second record for the ‘patch’ of Pacific Golden Plover and only the third record for me in the Eastern Province which was an early record for the species in the area as well. There were also plenty of Wood Sandpipers, Little Stints, Black-winged Stilts and Kentish Plovers on the muddy edges of the pond, but there was no sign of the White-tailed Lapwing.

Wood Sandpiper

Little Ringed Plover

Little Stint

Little Stint

Little Stint

Black-winged Stilt

Ruff

Pacific Golden Plover

Other migrants seen included a juvenile Lesser Grey Shrike, one Yellow Wagtail, one Sand Martin and several Barn Swallows. The first autumn record for me of Spotted Flycatcher was also seen along the fence line of the pond. Two Garganey were on the percolation pond with hundreds of Little Grebes.