Tuesday 8 March 2016

A different part of Mudhai

I made the long trip to Mazyunah on the Yemen border again on Friday. This time I was accompanied by dutch birder Jolynn Van Duffelen. Many of the photographs on the trip are hers and I am grateful for permission to reproduce them. 

We started out before dawn and arrived at Mudhai just after dawn.

I had never visited the camel pens on the eastern edge of the village before but this time it was our main area of birding. 

The area was busy with birds eating and drinking. Striolated bunting came down from the near-by hillside to drink.

striolated bunting by Jolynn Van Duffelen

The star birds though were probably a flock of sand partridge feeding so intently they failed to notice us for some while. Camel pens in desert areas are the best places I know to view these birds close up. 

sand partridge by Jolynn Van Duffelen 

True rock dove, laughing dove and Eurasian collared dove were also scattered around.

rock dove by Jolynn van Duffelen

A lone aucheri shrike, Arabian grey shrike was seen on a post.

Arabian grey shrike by Joynn Van Duffelen

Desert wheatear are still everywhere in desert and semi-desert areas including these pens. However in the next month they will head north.

Desert wheatear by Jolynn Van Duffelen

Probably the most numerous bird around the site though was desert lark.

desert lark by Jolynn Van Duffelen

Blackstart is another regular in these types of habitat.

Blackstart by Jolynn Van Duffelen

The sunlight was much improved by the time we entered the village. We easily picked up two of the species birders specially visit Mudhai to see.

African collared dove by Jolynn Van Duffelen

African collared dove was on wires as we entered the village. While Nile valley sunbird were on bushes near the water hole.

However no passage birds were observed. We were probably a week too soon to guarantee that.

Nile valley sunbird

Our next stop was Tudho which proved interesting as ever. I will blog about that next.

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