Birds of Saudi Arabia: Winter birding in Jubail

I covered a few of my favourite locations in Jubail over the long weekend here and saw a few interesting birds. There were a number of Daurian Shrikes around as well as a few calling Common Chiffchaffs. A small flock of nine Euraisian Skylarks kept me bust until I got some views of them to ensure they were not Small Skylarks. Good numbers of Western Marsh Harriers and Greater Spotted Eagles were seen with one juvenile Greater Spotted Eagle showing plenty of spots and looking quite like an Eastern Imperial Eagle. Waders were building in numbers with several hundred Pied Avocets, Black-winged Stilts, Dunlin, Ruff, Common Ringed Plovers, Little Stints, Marsh Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Common Greenshank and Common Redshank seen. Thousands of Slender-billed Gulls with tens of Steppe Gull and Heuglin’s Gulls and a single Great Black-headed Gull were out on the wet areas along with White-winged Tern, Caspian Tern, Gull-billed Tern and Little Tern. Red-spotted Bluethroats were numerous as were calling Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers. A single Little Crake was scurrying around and tens of Common Snipe flushed from various wet areas. A single female Pied Kingfisher was at one place and up to ten Common Kingfishers also. Water Pipits, White Wagtails and a couple of Desert Wheatears were feeding on insects. One Purple Heron and up to one hundred Great White Egrets with over a thousand Greater Flamingos made up the majority of birds on flooded sabkha areas.