Birds of Saudi Arabia: Plenty of duck on the lake

Whilst birding the Dhahran Hills Lake in late October, after work, I came across a good number of duck. This lake is a good place for duck to settle as it is within Saudi Aramco camp and completely safe from hunting. The first duck I found was a single Ferruginous Duck in the open water but I then also saw another seven Ferruginous Duck in the reed bed area. On scanning further 42 Northern Shoveler were also located which stayed around for quite some time before being disturbed by some walkers and flying off. Other birds noted on the lake were good numbers of herons with 27 Grey Heron, 22 Little Egret, 19 Western Cattle Egret, 11 Squacco Heron, eight Western Great Egrets and a Western Reef Heron. There were also 27 Little Grebes on the water and a couple of Black-winged Stilts. At least three Gull-billed Terns were flying over the lake fishing and several small flocks of Rose-ringed Parakeets were also seen flying over. As it was getting dark a single first calendar year Steep Gull came in to bath briefly before flying off to roost. As a was walking back to the car, as it was becoming dark, I came across a small flock of Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters trying to find somewhere safe to roost.