I surprise this morning on the Dhahran football fields were eight Western Cattle Egret. This is a common wintering species but normally by now they have all left. I have only seen one single bird in the last two weeks and none in the last week, so these birds may well be migrants passing through rather than our wintering birds remaining. As normal in Dhahran the birds were not frightened at all and allowed quite close approach even on foot. Some birds we starting to get some breeding plumage coloration with most still in winter type plumage.
