Whilst
birding Ash Shargiyah Development Company Farm with Phil we speculated early on
that it would be a good place and time of year for finding Cream-coloured
Courser Cursorius cursor a locally
common breeding resident of all scrub desert areas, but a species not often
seen due to its habitat preferences. Later on we came across a small flock of
two adults and three juveniles along the edge of a pivot irrigation field
although they always kept to the sandy edges not the fields themselves. They
were quite flighty and did not allow close approach and as it was getting
towards midday the sunlight was very strong and heat haze intense so
photography was difficult. They occur throughout Saudi Arabia and in the
Eastern Province where I live they breed in the northern plains and on the
Dibdibah north of 27 degrees N, preferring lightly vegetated gravel and stony
desert. During January and February a northerly movement takes place across a
broad front and in July to early September post breeding dispersal occurs with
juveniles accompanying adults in small flocks. Nine were seen together at the
edge of Dammam Airport Pools on 8th July 2011.
