Whilst birding the Jubail area recently I found a calling Little Ringed
Plover Charadrius dubius a common
migrant to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Apart from being a passage
migrant some birds are also seen in the winter. The species is an early migrant
with small numbers seen from January through to early May, breeders remaining
through the summer and more migrants in August and September. A few birds stay
until November and exceptionally December and they often occur on pools and
lagoons sometimes well away from the coast. Some birds have been recorded breeding
at freshwater wetlands so I looked around carefully and found two very young
chicks. The young birds were feeding along the edge of a small pool on the
sabkha and were being carefully looked after by the adult. This is the first
time I have seen young birds but have seen adult birds pretending to have
broken wings to distract you away from their nest or young so birds breed here
every year it would appear.
