Lou was in the
Eastern Province for the weekend and after spending some time at Sabkhat Al
Fasl ventured into Jubail towards Deffi Park. Here he found a small wetland
area with a few birds on it including a juvenile Greater White-fronted Goose. Lou
managed to take some nice photos of the bird as it was fairly tame but the fact
it was a juvenile and the time of year points more towards a wild origin than a
captive one. Lou has kindly given me permission to reproduce the photos on my
website, two of which are shown below. This bird appears to be of the sub-species Anser
albifrons albifrons, sometimes known as Russian White-fronted Goose. The
confirmed records from the Eastern Province were two immature birds seen on a
small treated sewage effluent pond at Dhahran Camp 14th November 1985, four
birds at Sabkhat Al Fasl 16th November 2007 two of which were shot by a hunter,
nine birds at Dhahran Hills percolation pond 13th to 22nd February 2008, a
second calendar year Anser albifrons albifrons was at Sabkhat Al Fasl 17-18
February 2012 and nine shot by a hunter in early winter 2013 at Al Asfar Lake,
Al Hassa.
Records from elsewhere
in Saudi Arabia include the following:-
One near Jeddah
prior to 1981
Immature, Jeddah,
24 December 1982 to 4 March 1983
Singles, Yanbu,
1 January 1983, with another photographed at Yanbu in January 1983 plausibly
ascribed to A. a. erythrops, 17 December 1984 to 2 February 1985, and 25
December 1985
First-winter,
Mansouriyah near Riyadh, 21 December 1984 to 25th January 1985
Up to 11
first-winters, Riyadh area, 8th November 1985 to late February 1986
One, Mecca
bypass, winter 1987/88
Four, lower
reaches of Riyadh watercourse, November 1990, had increased to 11 by 1st
February 1991
One Jeddah 19 January 2011
