OMAN RECCE TRIP - DAY 6 - DECEMBER 13TH

EAST KHAWR – AYN RAZAT – KHAWR RAWRI – AYN HAMRAN – WADI DARBAT

Whilst it is freezing in the UK we are suffering 31C most days, but we still manage, it’s tough but some-one has to do it.

 Our day started at 6am as we left our accommodation in the suburbs of Salalah and drove straight to the beach at East Khawr. A huge lagoon was separated from the sea by beautiful white sand dunes and at the beach end of the lagoon there were shallow pools and grassy islands. The whole area was covered in birds it was amazing. Countless Little Stints ran on the beach with hundreds of Kentish, Ringed and Lesser Sand Plovers, a large flock of Ruff joined Common Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Redshank, Greenshank, Dunlin, Curlew, Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwits. We found numerous Squacco, Grey and Purple Herons also Reef, Little, Intermediate and Great Egrets, Eurasian Spoonbill and our one and only Sacred Ibis.

East Khawr - looking from the beach

A roost of Marsh Harriers held about 12 birds, we also saw Osprey, Great Spotted Eagle and a Honey Buzzards. A little sea watching produced Caspian, Lesser Crested, Swift and Gull-billed Terns and two new birds for the trip; Socotra Cormorant and Persian Shearwater. Add to that a number duck species, Pintail, Shoveler, Garganey, Teal, Gadwall and a number Citrine Wagtails. Not to mention hundreds of gulls of 6 species, it was quite a start to the day. Just before we left a couple of Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse dropped onto the adjacent heath.
 

Sacred Ibis - my first 'real'  one

 

Eurasian Curlew

Intermediate Egret

Next we drove inland to visit a wooded area around a wadi near Ayn Razat. We had a great time there listing several new birds for the trip and getting a few lifers as well. A huge well-maintained park-garden was furnished with many flowering shrubs and it was on these that we found both Palestine and Shining Sunbirds, such lovely colours, but a bugger to photograph. We then found Tristram’s Starlings, African Rock Bunting, Abyssinian White-eye, Blackstart and our next new species, Bruce’s Green Pigeon, superb. We also had a brief view of Golden-winged Grosbeak before it flew off. Just before we set off for a walk up the valley alongside the river we found a couple of pipits feeding on a rocky hillside, after careful study we identified them as Long-billed Pipits

Ayn Razat Wadi

upper wadi

Long-billed Pipit

the male Tristram's Starling

.Up the valley the river disappeared underground and the vegetation thinned out but we still found Arabian Warbler, Arabian Partridge and in the sky above the mountains we saw Lapper-faced Vulture, Short-toed Eagle, Verraux’s Eagle, Steppe Eagle and Imperial Eagle.

Bruce's Green Pigeon

The Bruce's Green Pigeon is obviously a Villa fan with claret and blue in his eyes!

EonBack on the road we visited another beach side lagoon at Khawr Raqri, it was a long walk in the heat of the day but it was worth it. There were about 20 species on show, all were seen earlier on the trip except for Glossy Ibis.

 Ayn Hamran is another wooded valley with a wadi and lots of birds, we arrived late afternoon when light was good and heat had eased off a little. Again the area was dripping with birds, the African Paradise Flycatcher was the star of the show with Masked Shrike coming close second. Another Arabian Warbler showed well as did more Blackstarts, Sunbirds, Bubuls and another Eurasian Hoopoe.

Masked Shrike is one of the most beautiful of all the shrike family 

 Well that concluded another great day out, we drove into Taqah to eat and then moved onto Wadi Darbat to set up camp, an African Scops Owl called as we put up our tents. We tried to call it out but it did not show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OMAN RECCE TRIP - DAY 5 - DECEMBER 12TH 2014

AYN SAHNAWT – RAYSUT – WEST KHAWR – JARZIZ FARM – KHAWR TAQAH

 

Another early start saw us in the car and heading out of town at 5:30am it was still dark and the roads were empty. Our arrival at Ayn Sahnawt coincided with sunrise but there was a chilly wind coming up from the coast. At first the birding was slow but as soon as the sun cleared the horizon we were inundated with sightings. Blackstart, Spectacled Bubul, African Rock Bunting, Citrine Wagtail and all the waders that were seen yesterday were still present today.

 

8

Temminck's Stint

 Our walk took us across rocky terrain, we climbed a track to get good views into a ravine and soon new species were being found. Arabian (formerly Mourning) Wheatear was first on the ‘new’ list quickly followed by Abyssinian White-eye, this delightful little gem showed really well, we saw about 12 of them. Next came Palestine Sunbird, what a beauty that one is, at least 2 birds were feeding on one particular flowering shrub. As we dropped down into the ravine we could hear the loud call of the Tristram’s Starling, 2 of them were feeding near a waterfall, distant but nice views.

 

view of the pool looking into the valley of Ayn Sahnawt

Arabian Partridge was our next exciting find, we found one in a typical pose perched high on top of a huge rock, we also located 6 chicks down below her. Our walk up from the ravine was as eventful as our descent with lots of good sightings, we found a popular drinking spot where many birds we going to drink, we added Ruppell’s Weaver there, at least 4 birds came down, we had previously located two colonies where their hanging ‘nest-baskets’ could be seen.

Blackstart

 

As the air warmed we started seeing eagles up above the mountains, Steppe, Great Spotted and Short-toed Eagles were seen. Finally we walked up a very picturesque walk-way where a beautiful stream ran from the mountains. It was there that we added ‘bird-of-the-day’ when we found an African Paradise Flycatcher, what a stunner and boy did it show well.

Citrine Wagtail

 

So we set off back towards town to visit a tidal river adjacent to Salalah Port at Raysut, we arrived at high tide so most of the waders were resting up on the stony banks or shingle bars, We amassed quite a ‘wader-list’ with sightings of: Dunlin, Redshank, Greenshank, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Pacific Golden Plover, Terek Sandpiper, Lesser Sand Plover, Whimbrel, Common and Green Sandpipers, Western Reef Egret, Osprey, Imperial Eagle and a few common species, such as doves and bulbuls.

 

African Paradise Flycatcher

 

 
 
 

 

From there we made a brief visit to Raysut cliffs, where there is a popular sea-watching  lookout point. We stayed for 15 minutes only seeing Sooty Gulls and a couple of unnamed terns, but we did see a number of Rays down in the clear blue water, these elegant creatures ‘glided’ through the water with a graceful ease, what a superb sighting.

one of the picturesque pools at Ayn Sahnawt 

 

Next we travelled west back towards Salalah where we visited another wetland area close to the beach. At West Khawr there is a large shallow lagoon situated immediately behind the beach, many species were seen there. The highlights were sightings of Greater Flamingo, Eurasian Spoonbill, Northern Shoveler, Temminck’s Stint, Little Tern, Little Grebe, Marsh Harrier, lots of other waders and gulls, terns and egrets. The shoreline was teaming with bird life too, Sooty and Slender-billed Gulls, Sanderlings and many more waders.



Arabian Partrdige

 

A brief respite from wader-watching was had when we visited a huge farm complex on the edge of town, Jarziz Farm has good reviews in the bird books but unfortunately it has degraded since those books were written. We drove around the site and only saw a handful of species, one good sighting was of Pallid Harrier and the rest were of species that we see most days.

 



African Rock Bunting

Our last site on the day’s itinerary was another beach side wetland area out eastward from town, called Khawr Taqah. It was excellent, there is a huge man-made system of pools next to a huge white sand beach area where several natural pools occur. The whole area was full of birds, we had some lovely sightings. The Pheasant-tailed Jacanca was the highlight, three of these oddities were seen well, but before we could get pictures of them a Marsh Harrier flushed the lot. We made two visits to these pools and listed over 20 species including 16 Garganey, 3 Purple Herons, 4 Squacco Herons, 2 Caspian Terns, 2 Whiskered Terns, Clamorous Warbler and lots of gulls.

African Tiger Butterfly

The beach pools were stuffed full of waders, gulls, terns, wagtails, herons and egrets. Despite many people walking around the birds did not flush, we had a great time in the late afternoon sunlight. Wow, what a day, we listed just under 100 species but must have seen 10,000 or more birds.



OMAN RECCE TRIP - DAY 4 - DECEMBER 11TH 2014

 

MUNTASAR OASIS – QATBIT MOTEL GROUNDS – WADI RABKUT – THUMRAYT LAND-FILL PROJECT – AYN SAHNAWT

 We had a mixed bag of fortune today, a few dips and some excellent sightings throughout the day. It was another superb day weather-wise, but it did reach a high of 31C.

 Our day began in the dark at 5am as we fell out of bed and into the car, we had a 40 minute drive to the oasis and we wanted to be there by first light. Our arrival coincided with sunrise and as we sat in the car waiting for the light to improve we noticed a ‘rail’ type bird walking in the short grass next to the nearest pool, we soon established that we had found a great bird for the list, White-breasted Waterhen, fabulous! Unfortunately I had seen this species a few days earlier in Australia. We were out of the car pretty sharpish and soon listing more birds, Common Snipe, Wood Sandpiper, Bluethroat, Water Pipit, Asian Desert Warbler, Great Grey Shrike, Desert Wheatear, a single Pintail and hundreds of Laughing and Collared Doves. A Citrine Wagtail joined the White Wagtails but we still had no sighting of the Hypocolius. We also logged a Ruppell’s Fox, a small fox with big ears.

 

a few pics of Desert Wheatear in the morning light

 Before we left the area we waited for Sandgrouse to arrive for their morning drink and after waiting for a short period a flock of about 40 Spotted Sandgrouse came down about 100 meters from us. They refused to come over to the water and flew off again.

 We ate an omelette with Arabic bread for breakfast back at the motel and then spent an hour or so walking the grounds. We found Nile Valley Sunbirds, Common Chiffchaff, Plain Leaf Warbler, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Brown-necked Raven and a Song Thrush, but the star bird was a Ménétriés’s Warbler seen by my companion, Dancho.

Citrine Wagtail

 We had 270 km further south to travel today so we set off around 10:30am with our planned first stopped some 200km down the road. The roads are empty in this part of Oman, they are wide and straight and fast, we arrived at Wadi Rabkut at 12 noon. It was baking hot but a nice breeze kept us cool. The wadi was wide and long, we walked for 5 minutes before we found Asian Desert Warbler and Desert Wheatear. We then found Hoopoe Lark, Desert Lark and Bar-tailed Desert Lark all in the same little area.

view of the very dry wadi Rabkut

 A nice find was a Mountain Gazelle and just after that Dancho put up four Sand Partridges, another target species in the bag.

I think this is a Mountain Gazelle

Moving on we drove another 30km south and stopped just outside of the town of Thumrayt where a large Land-Fill project which had been reported to have been attracting a good number of migrant eagles. It looked deserted when we got there except for several Pale Crag Martins, but when we stepped out of the car and scanned the surrounding hills we found many eagles. Some circled above us, others sat on the hills but all we could find was 11 Steppe Eagles, a great bird, but we expected a couple more species.

Our final stop was just outside of the town of Salalah, it was a lovely little valley with a stream running through it, very picturesque and full of birds. It was late afternoon now, the light was superb and we enjoyed a lovely hour or so sitting by the stream and watching the birds come to drink or feed in the water.

 

two views of Ayn Sahnawt

 

 

 

Waders on show included, Temminck’s Stint (3), Greenshank, Green Sandpiper and Common Snipe, we also saw Grey and Purple Herons, Black-crowned Night Heron, Citrine, White and Grey Wagtails.

Citrine Wagtail

 A few goodies included our first African Silverbill, Cinnamon-breasted Bunting, Tristram’s Starling and a Blackstart! Other sightings included Eurasian Hoopoe, Black Redstart and we heard Arabian Partridge calling from the hillside.

 The light began to fade and as we prepared to drive into town to find accommodation we bumped into a local guy who just happened to rent out apts. We followed him into the suburbs where he showed us a nice two bed apt which he let us have very cheaply for a few nights, where’s the catch – watch this space.

OMAN RECCE TRIP - DAY 3 - DECEMBER 10TH 2014

SAMAIL - QATBIT - MONTASAR OASIS

We had travelled some 100km south of Muscat in the direction of Salalah last night, we pitched our tents in the mountains near Samail in the light of a full moon on very stony ground.

Another beautiful morning greeted us as we emerged from our tents at 6am, we were surrounded by a barren mountainous landscape with a picturesque village below us. We soon packed up our camping gear and jumped into the car and set off southward towards Salalah.

many, seemingly wild, camels roamed the desert

 

Salalah, which is a further 1000 km south, is to be our final destination on the south coast and we hope to travel most of the way today. As a consequence we didn’t do much birding, we passed through miles of desert where there was no sign of life, not a single tree nor blade of grass, just stony desert and a very flat landscape. After four hours we pulled into a ‘rest; area where a motel had planted many trees and bushes, a short walk produced little, Desert Wheatear, Desert Whitethroat, lots of House Sparrows, Laughing Doves and Collared Doves.

 

here they are again trying to hide behind some grass

Birds seen along the roadside included Brown-necked Raven, Desert Wheatear and Hoopoe Lark. At 1pm we reached our target destination for the day, Qatbit, some 700km south of Muscat. There we booked into a roadside motel and had lunch in a nearby restaurant. A few birds were seen in the grounds of the  motel, all were seen earlier except for Common Chiffchaff.

 

Asian Desert Warbler

 

Great Grey Shrike - subspecies - aucheri

For our afternoon excursion we drove into the desert to visit an oasis where our most wanted bird, the Grey Hypocolius is sometimes found. This was an oasis-recce trip because intended to re-visit the area tomorrow. After about 45 minutes driving along desert tracks we arrived at the oasis which consisted of a small wetlands with open pools and reedy areas. Quite a few trees stretched for miles around they were thinly spread and were mainly acacias.

 

We soon found a number of birds but not as many as I had expected: an Asian Desert Warbler showed well and a ‘pipit’ species disappeared before we ID’d it. A single of each of the following were also found: Green Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Common Snipe, Northern Pintail, Southern Grey Shrike – aucheri  as well as hundreds of doves and a few Brown-necked Ravens.

a couple of views of the oasis, camels included

 

Before we left a couple of large flocks of Crowned Sandgrouse circled above us they wanted to land to drink but a local ‘farmer’ had brought over a large herd of Camels to water them this deterred the Sandgrouse from alighting.

 We left the area as the sun went down arriving at our motel just as it got dark at 6pm.

 

 

OMAN RECCE TRIP - DAY 2 - DECEMBER 9TH 2014

Khatmat Milahah - Shinas Al Qurm Reserve - Liwa - Sun Farms

We were up with the lark or should I say the local Imam who called us to prayer at 5:20am. How nice! It was a beautiful morning clear sky and about 15C. We packed away our tents ate some breakfast and drove to the scrubland just outside the village of Khatmat Milahah.

 

The place was full of birds, many Laughing Doves, House Crows and Common Mynahs. Soon we found a small group of Arabian Babblers, some beautiful White-cheeked Bubuls and Yellow-vented Bubuls. Next came one of our main target species the Plain Leaf Warbler, this Goldcrest sized little 'plain-bird' showed very well, in fact we saw another 3 or 4 of them during the next hour. Several parties of Rose-ringed Parakeets flew over as we continued our walk, we then found a couple of Eastern Black Redstarts, ‘semirufus’  subspecies also Desert Whitethroat Sylvia minula,  Little Green Bee-eater, Indian Roller and several other species.

view at Khatmat Milahah

 

 We then drove back to the beach area a little further south at Shinas, we were heading for another nature reserve called Al Qurm. Along the way we stopped at large open heathland which is a known place for Sandgrouse and sure we saw many. At least 50 Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse came down to drink at a couple of shallow puddles, they were a great sighting. In and around the area we also found Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark, Crested Lark, Graceful Prinia, Desert Wheatear, Isabelline Wheatear and Tawny Pipit.

record shots of Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse

 The reserve near the beach consists of a semi-circular stretch of mangroves, with pools of tidal water and a large expanse of sandy scrub, dunes and beach.  it was quite quiet at the mangroves, but we did find Common Kingfisher, Common Sandpiper, White-cheeked Bubul, another Plain Leaf Warbler and a Striated Heron. The beach area held the usual array of gulls, terns, herons, egrets and waders. We were hoping for a sighting of Great Stone Curlew but we never found one. A drive through the heath produced our first sighting of Asian Desert Warbler but not the Stone Curlew.



Desert Wheatear

 Next was a visit to Liwa a very similar reserve but with a much smaller Mangrove swamp, we were hoping for a Collared Kingfisher but only got the Common Kingfisher again. Other species seen included Daurian Shrike, Oriental Skylark, India Silverbill and more Common Sandpipers. The beach area was more productive, we added Kentish, Grey and Ringed Plovers, Lesser Sand Plover, Sanderling, Whimbrel and quite a few Gulls were present, Heuglin’s, Sooty, Slender-billed, Caspian and the star find a Great Black-headed Gull (formerly Pallas’s Gull).

Heuglin's Gull

 For the afternoon we drove back southward towards Muscat and stopped at well-known birding area called Sun Farms. You have to be signed in and out of the area but it is well worth the hassle. This huge semi-cultivated area has extensive areas of dry scrub and open grassland and the place was hootching with birds. We spent two hours there and hardly scratched the surface, raptor sighting were excellent, we found Pallid Harrier (my first ever adult male), Hen Harrier, Marsh Harrier, Common Kestrel, also 3 individual Imperial Eagles and 2 Bonelli’s Eagles. All of these sightings were excellent, good close views of all of them.



Indian Silverbills



 

Larks and pipits were all over we added the Bimaculated Lark to our list and I have never seen so many doves there must have been over 500 Laughing Doves and at least twice that amount of Collared Doves, a few Namaqua Doves were with them. We also found Striolated Bunting, Eurasian Hoopoe, Indian Roller, more Oriental Skylarks, lots of Indian Silverbills, Grey Francolins, Arabian Babblers and many more species. It was wonderful there, but we were losing the light and it was time to go.

another shot of the Little Green Bee-eater

That concluded our birding for the day as we needed to be on the road heading to the southern tip of the country, a distance of some 1200 km. We intended to drive about 250 before we pitched tents around at around 8pm.

 

OMAN RECCE TRIP - DAY 1 - DECEMBER 8TH 2014

ARRIVAL AT MUSCAT – VISITS TO:  AL QURM NATURAL PARK AND BEACH AREA – AL ANSAB LAGOONS – RAS AS SAWADI – KHATMAT MILAHAH.

 After spending a very long day and night travelling from London to Muscat via Istanbul and Bahrain I finally arrived at 3:30am. I managed to get a bit of sleep  before Iordan, my good friend, from Bulgaria turned up to meet me. We got into our rental car and set off birding for the day.

the tidal lagoon at Al Qurm

 We started at the Al Qurm Natural Park where some lovely manicured gardens lead to some open scrubland, reed-beds and a tidal lagoon. Our list began in earnest as many birds were flitting about. We had clear weather with a nice temperature of about 15C at 7am.

 

Red-wattled Lapwing

White-eared Bubul

 

 Many Common Mynahs dashed about and were as common at the House Crow which we saw everywhere. White-cheeked and Spectacled Bubuls were fairly common too and the Indian Roller captured our attention for quite a while. Little Green Bee-eaters were a lovely sight in the morning light. As we moved away from the gardens where a troupe of gardeners were creating a lot of noise we found ourselves on the scrubland where small, shallow pools of water prevailed. We added Little Green Bee-eater, White and Citrine Wagtail, Little Stint, Ringed Plover and the superb Red-wattled Lapwing to our list. Noisy Grey Francolins were found near a larger pool where we also listed Common Moorhen, Little Crake, Bluethroat, Graceful Prinia, Daurian Shrike and Purple Sunbirds were very common.

 

view of Ras As Sawadi

Laughing Dove

 

 On the main lagoon we found several species of duck, some dodgey Geese and Great & Little Egrets, Grey Heron (one of which devoured a large Brown Rat) and Indian Pond Heron. We had a couple of sightings of Common Kingfisher, Common Sandpiper, Black-winged Stilts and Common Coot. Good views of Clamorous Warbler was a highlight at the lagoon.

Little Green Bee-eater

 A Great Spotted Eagle showed well just before we left for the beach area nearby. The tide was high but a nice selection of waders sat on a sand-bar the best of which was a Lesser Sand Plover. Hundreds of Slender-billed Gulls joined Great Cormorants, Lesser Crested and Swift Terns over the sea.

Lesser-crested Tern (left) and Swift Tern

 After visiting several hotels in the beach area for future tours, we drove to the Al Ansab lagoons where access was denied to us by a large fence. However we did see Indian Roller, Greater Spotted Eagle and a Western Marsh Harrier.

 Our visit to the beach area at Ras As Sawadi included a mini pelagic trip around the numerous islands just offshore. We didn’t see many new species but had fun trying to sort out the gulls, Sooty Gull, Caspian Gull and Heuglin’s Gull were seen, along with lots of terns including a Sandwich Tern. Two or three Ospreys were fishing offshore and a Booted Eagle circled over the main island. Hundreds of waders fed along the shore, we added Marsh Sandpiper, Eurasian Oystercatcher and a few Greenshanks to the list.

Osprey

 

 Well time was pressing we planned a short visit to some local heath-land where we found Eurasian Hoopoe, Tawny Pipit, Crested Lark and Isabelline Wheatear.

 It was dark at 5:30pm and pitch black by 6pm, we drove into darkness as we headed northward towards UAE, we stopped at our next planned birding sight, Khatmat Milahah, but that would have to wait until tomorrow. We pitched our tents near the beach and bedded down for night.

 

67 species were in the bag, with lots more coming tomorrow, see you then.