Spring water birds at Al Hayer

Once again its mid week and I'm continuing to show some of bird photographer, Abdullah Amrou's snaps of birds earlier in the year. This time I'm presenting some of his photos of water birds at Al Hayer in March and April.

mallard ducklings

At least two species of duck breed at Al Hayer. One is ferruginous duck and the other is mallard. Some mallard chicks are shown above.

moorhen

Moorhen is an abundant breeder all along the Riyadh river. 

purple heron

Purple heron is one of several members of the heron family that breeds there too.

two white throated kingfisher

White throated kingfisher has breed there in recent years though one of the books or scientific papers have caught up with this development. However one or two authors had predicted this.

little ringed plover in spring

The only wader know for sure to breed at Al Hayer is little ringed plover.  other plovers such as spur winged lapwing breed elsewhere in Central Arabia but not Al Hayer.

common sandpiper

The status of common sandpiper is ambiguous as it appears it is present all year round. It is more common in spring and autumn than the rest of the year. The birds present in summer are almost certainly non-breeding.

little stint

Finally the most common wader at Al Hayer except in summer is acknowledged to be little stint. Yet I saw only my second group at Al Hayer last week!

Thanks are again due to Abdullah Amrou for allowing me to blog his pictures.