After finding four Black-throated Thrushes at Deffi Park, Jubail on 20
January I went back a week later to see if I could get better photos and see if
anything else had turned up. On arrival, at first light, I saw plenty of Song
Thrushes feeding around under the trees and in with them a least three
Black-throated Thrushes. As I stayed and looked around more I counted more and
more birds and finally ended up with twelve. This is an unprecedented number in
recent years and made an amazing sight with the twenty or so Song Thrushes and
two Redwings also present. Photography is difficult as light is poor in the
early morning, they generally stay in the shade and the birds are constantly disturbed
by walkers later on in the day, but occasionally they would come out into more
open areas. There has been a major influx of this species into Arabia with 20+
birds seen in Qatar in late December where there had only been one previous
record and others in the UAE, Bahrain and Oman.
