Phil and I went to Sabkhat Al
Fasl on 28 August and as we were looking at the waders along the edge of the
flooded sabkha we found two Caspian Plovers Charadrius asiaticus. They were very obvious because of the very
rufous tones to the plumage and quite large size superficially resembling bright
Greater Sand Plovers. This was a new Saudi Arabian species for me and was my
second new plover species for the site in eight days after the Pacific Golden
Plover of 21 August. Caspian Plover is an uncommon but regular passage migrant
in the Eastern Province in small numbers during March and April and again from
late July until early September. The peak passage of adults is during March and
again from August when juveniles are also frequently seen. A flock of 500 was
seen in late March 1982 on the northern steppes with other good numbers from
the same area including 45 on the Dibdibah 14 April 1983, 30 there 4 November
1983 and 100 in the same area 28 March 1985. Most sightings occur away from the
coast but they are often near inland waters. Phil has seen the species at
Sabkhat Al Fasl before when he saw a breeding plumage adult 28 April 2008 and
has also seen them at Dhahran Expro Wader Roost when he saw two adults 28 July
2013.
