Vinu Mathew found the fifth Striated Heron for the
Eastern Province along the seafront of Dammam cornice on 13 January 2017.
Striated Heron is a common breeding resident on the coasts of the Red Sea but
is a vagrant to the northern part of the Arabian Gulf including the Eastern
Province. Eastern Province records include one remarkable inland record of a
bird at Sabkha 40 on 30 May 2010 in the huge desert of the Empty Quarter. This
is a species usually associated with the coast of Arabia and had never been recorded
this far inland before and was the first record for eastern Saudi Arabia. It
would have had to be a migrant, but its position at Shaybah raises the
interesting possibility that it had travelled across eastern Arabia from the
Arabian Sea en-route to the Arabian Gulf. The only other Eastern Province
records I know of were one in Al Fanateer marina, Jubail on 15 February 2014
and one on 7 June 2015 at Sabkhat Al Fasl, Jubail and one Dammam cornice on 12
February 2016. The increase in records in recent years means that birds are
spreading northwards. i thank Vinu for sending me the details of the bird as well as for allowing me to use his photos on my website.
