I had a couple of spare hours between dropping the family off and picking them up again in town so went to the Al Khobar Sea Front. This area allows views over the tidal mud flats and when the tide is in can hold thousands of birds. The tide was completely out when I went which is not an ideal time but I did see a number of waders, mainly plovers, feeding around in small wet pools left by the retreating tide.
A few Black-winged Stilt were seen on wet pools behind the sea front but the rest of the waders were seen on the tidal mud flats. Numbers were quite small but 50+ Dunlin were seen feeding energetically about close to the shoreline. Greater Sand Plover were quite common, with much smaller numbers of Lesser Sand Plover scattered in amongst them. Kentish Plover, which is normally the commonest wader seen were only seen in a few places and two Grey Plovers were also located.
Whilst looking at the waders I also noticed a Western Osprey sitting on a pole out on the mud flats but apart from this little else of note was seen.
Jem Babbington
Jem Babbington is a keen birder and amateur photographer located in Dhahran, Eastern Saudi Arabia where he goes birding every day. Jem was born in England and is a serious local patch and local area birder who has been birding for almost forty years and has birded in more than fifty countries. Jem is learning to ring birds in Bahrain as a perfect way to learn more about the birds of the area. Saudi Arabia is a very much under-watched and under-recorded country.
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