Phil Roberts
and I found two winter plumaged Red-necked Phalaropes on some flooded Sabkha in
Jubail on 7 October. These two birds were behaving in typical Phalarope manner
by spinning around at the same spot feeding. They kept far out on the water making
taking photographs very difficult. One bird kept close to a feeding Pied Avocet
and the other on its own. Red-necked Phalarope is an uncommon bird in the
Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, with Sabkhat Al Fasl is the best place in the
Province to see them. Bundy’s ‘Birds of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia’
published in October 1989 states that they are regular in varying numbers on
marshy pools in spring but very scarce and irregular in autumn. Records are
regular in Kuwait to the north but from the Eastern Province are limited with
one record from March, scare in April and regular in May with the peak inland
count being 150 birds at Abqaiq in May 1976. As shown they were regular in
years gone by but have become increasingly scarce, although in the last four
years birds have been seen each year. Recent sightings have been in February, May,
June, August, September and October.
