A trip to
Dhahran golf course to see if I could see the Long-tailed Shrike and the three
species of Kingfisher that had been present produced neither Long-tailed
Shrike, Pied Kingfisher or White-throated Kingfisher but did turn up a few
interesting water-birds on the small pond. The female Common Kingfisher was
still present hunting from the reed bed and alongside it at one stage was a
nice male Little Bittern. There is a good chance the Little Bitterns are
nesting at this site as we caught a female Little Bittern at Sabkhat Al Fasl
two weeks ago that had a brood patch and probably had eggs as well. Other
interesting birds were a few Great Cormorants including one drying it’s wings
whilst standing on a concrete fountain built in the pond. Also sitting on this
structure as well as fishing in the pond was a white phase juvenile Indian Reef
Heron. There were very few other birds of note although a small number of
Pallid Swifts were flying overhead. The trip was short as this is a restricted
area so the good birds mentioned above may still be present somewhere.
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| Little Bittern - male |
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| Great Cormorant |
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| Great Cormorant |
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| Indian Reef Heron |
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| Pallid Swift |