Great Cormorant was quite an unusual bird at Sabkhat Al Fasl three or four years ago, but now it is a common winter visitor with hundreds seen on each visit.
Birds can be seen in the very early morning flying into the site from their roosting areas nearby, with some birds staying all day in the wetland areas.
The species was always a common winter visitor to the Eastern Province where thousands roost in the trees on my local patch each winter, and where they are sometimes abundant in coastal waters from September through March including the Jubail area near Sabkhat Al Fasl but for some reason the reserve at Sabkhat Al Fasl was not favoured by them.
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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