Whilst birding the Jubail area in January
I came across a White-tailed Lapwing. This is a scarce passage migrant that has
sometimes wintered and the late date of this sighting suggests this bird may
have spent the winter in the area. This is also likely as I saw a bird at the
end of September and again in October 2017 quite close to the location of this
sighting. The Jubail area and Dhahran are the two best areas for locating the
species in the Eastern Province. White-tailed Lapwing records scattered
throughout the Kingdom but the Tabuk area having the majority of recent
records. Records from the Eastern Province are very scarce with less than
annual sightings in recent years although this may partly be due to lack of
observers. Birds are normally not easy to get close too and this one was no
exception and was flushed by a Marsh Harrier before I could approach close to
get decent photos.
