I had a couple of
spare hours between dropping the family off and picking them up again in town
so went to the Al Khobar Sea Front. This area allows views over the tidal mud
flats and when the tide is in can hold thousands of birds. The tide was
completely out when I went which is not an ideal time but I did see a number of
waders, mainly plovers, feeding around in small wet pools left by the
retreating tide. A few Black-winged Stilt
were seen on wet pools behind the sea front but the rest of the waders were
seen on the tidal mud flats. Numbers were quite small but 50+ Dunlin were seen
feeding energetically about close to the shoreline. Greater Sand Plover were
quite common, with much smaller numbers of Lesser Sand Plover scattered in
amongst them. Kentish Plover, which is normally the commonest wader seen were
only seen in a few places and two Grey Plovers were also located. Whilst
looking at the waders I also noticed a Western Osprey sitting on a pole out on
the mud flats but apart from this little else of note was seen.
 |
| Black-winged Stilt |
 |
| Dunlin |
 |
| Greater Sand Plover |
 |
| Greater Sand Plover |
 |
| Greater Sand Plover |
 |
| Grey Plover |
 |
| Kentish Plover |