Dowkah in early spring

Either side of midday I birded Dowkah farm on Friday. The bad news was that there were no passage passerines in the shaded wooded area.

The other news is more interesting. In particular the larger birds in the field were a mix of strangely off course herons and storks.

An Abdim's stork was a most unexpected bird. The 500 which winter in Salalah left nearly three weeks ago. The further north breeding population I have seen are at Ad Darb, Saudi Arabia. Actually Dowkah farm is close to the direct route there. However I would have expected this bird to have arrived by now. It also looked in less than perfect condition.

Abdim's stork

At least the Abdim's stork may have been facing the right direction. That cannot be said of the five western reef heron. I counted five on my last visit too and they appear to have stayed put. These birds should be on the coast and not nearly 200 kilometres inland.

Abdim's stork with reef herons

Then it got even stranger. The farm had an Indian pond heron. Most are heading back to India around now but this one is the wrong side of Salalah as well as being inland.

Indian pond heron

I can normally tell an Indian pond heron from a squacco heron by its plumage. It tends to be just two toned: white and dark brown with very few buff tones unlike a squacco heron.

Indian pond heron 2

The dark loral stripe found on the bill of a pond heron is good confirmation and its very apparent in the photo above.

These stray birds bode well for the main passage about to begin. If I see anything like as much straying during this then I should get a rarity or two.

Rosy starling 1

Another single bird but not unexpected was a rosy starling. It was in the same pivot field as all the other birds described so far. Other pivot fields had far fewer birds.

Rosy starling 2

tawny pipit

Apart from brown-necked raven, pipits and larks were almost the only other families of birds in these other fields.

Tawny pipit were scattered throughout. 

hoopoe lark

Hoopoe lark were seen at the side of some fields. While black-crowned sparrow lark were both there on in the fields. 

male black crowned sparrow lark

While there has been more rain than usual in the north of the country, there has been none since November and then only in part of the Dhofari desert.

There are no green wadis for the nomadic Dunn's lark to breed in. So I thoroughly check the edge of each desert farm to see if any Dunn's lark have been forced there.

This species is still alluding me. It is not helped by some dubious records which in actuality are probably female black-crowned sparrow lark. The female bears a passing resemblance to Dunn's lark especially in strong light. I followed one up once again but good views confirmed it as a black-crowned sparrow lark.

female black crowned sparrow lark

I will persist but a drop of rain down here would help.

Round up on Raysut

Mid-week birding is a little tricky at the moment as work demands are currently high. Nevertheless I managed to get for a short while last Wednesday afternoon.

This was time for two quick trips to Raysut settling pools and Raysut lagoons.

Abdim's stork

This may have been the last chance to see Abdim's stork this winter as they returned to their breeding areas in the third week of February last year.

barn swallow

The settling pools held the largest number of birds I have ever seen there. The wintering birds have been swollen with large numbers of passage barn swallow, sand martin, yellow wagtail, waders and ducks. Picking out a rarity systematically would have taken a lot longer than I had. I concentrated on hirundines but with no success.

male pintail

Most of the ducks are now in full breeding plumage.

I moved on to Raysut lagoons. This place is excellent in the mornings for eagles which mostly roost near-by and are active close to the lagoon then. In the afternoon many wander away including the Pallas's fish eagle for which most sightings have been in the morning.

Black-tailed godwit with a ruff

The lagoons like the settling pools were crowded with birds but I suspect for a different reason. The weather had been very windy and I believe many sea birds and waders which might normally be on the coast had come inland a few hundred metres for shelter.

Black-tailed godwit would normally be expected in this type of habitat any way.

However while the land-loving birds of prey may have been roaming, there were certainly more osprey over the lagoon than usual and as far as I know it doesn't have any large fish.

osprey

The sea birds that congregated in the lagoon included at least 100 hundred each of sooty gull, slender-billed gull and Heuglin's gull. There were certainly a small number of both black headed gull and steppe gull too. I spent over 20 minutes scanning for rarities with no success. The common gull reported once a couple of week's ago near-by was not seen.

mixed sea birds

Caspian tern and whiskered tern were also present.

close up of some sea birds

This site is now as good as East Khawr, West Khawr and Khawr Rori for Eurasian spoonbill.

two spoonbill

Since it started being filled with large water amounts from the waste treatment plant over the past two years, the vegetation has matured and now supports a wider range of birds than ever before. Since the water is so clean  (ie low in phosphate and nitrates) high and dense reeds don't choke the landscape either making it different from all other major water bodies in the area.

three spoonbill

Just before dusk I saw African silverbill beginning to gather.

African silverbill

However this was not the most intriguing gathering.

three African silverbill

Instead that was a gathering of citrine wagtail in a small cluster of low reed. I counted sixteen citrine wagtail there as I drove by.

part of a citrine wagtail roost at dusk

I must admit I have never seen a citrine wagtail roost before. Indeed I didn't even know they grouped in reeds.

This session was pleasant but not the best. I suppose I have been looking forward to forthcoming spring passage for a change of pace.

Little did I know that that the passage would give me such an early excellent result just two days later. I will blog about that next.

Abdim's stork are back

During mid week a week ago, I managed to snatch some time to visit Raysut settling pools in the late afternoon.

The good news is that about 45 Abdim's stork had arrived. 

An Abdim's stork

It is only in very recent years that they have chosen to winter in Salalah and it looks like that will continue this year.

three Abdim's stork

This is only one tenth of the total possible number. I only hope the rest got across Yemen before cyclone Chapala broke a few days later. If not we may not have so many here this year.

I saw the 45 flying over the settling pools but didn't take any photos there because they were directly into the sun. By the time I had positioned myself they had disappeared. Luckily for me, I passed a few of them on the way out of the industrial area where they had taken up roosting positions just before dusk mostly on telegraph posts.

white stork in the distance

They weren't the only storks around. 30 or so white stork were grazing at the bottom end of a stream created by overflow from the settling pools.  This was in the distance and near to the rubbish dump itself. Near-by several tens of steppe eagle were flying. I also spotted three Eastern Imperial eagle and two greater spotted eagle.

vagrant spur-winged lapwing

Inside the settling pools, the birding was fine but somewhat unchanged from my last visit. The vagrant spur-winged lapwing has been present for over 10 months now. 

At various times, it has been associating with up to eight red-wattled lapwing. All summer, it was with one and at the moment it has three around it.

lapwings

Neither species breeds in Dhofar.

white wagtail

I am beginning to see more and more white wagtail down here and fewer and fewer yellow wagtail though both were present last week.

citrine wagtail

However in winter, the wagtail in the highest numbers at the settling pools is likely to be citrine wagtail. It certainly was last year.

little grebe

The little grebe have bred well. I counted ten last week. It was my largest count there.

mostly garganey 

Duck numbers are still increasing. The garganey are still present but large numbers of northern shoveller and at least one common teal (see right hand duck of the picture above).

garganey and northern shoveller

As I was there so close to dusk. some species were forming large flocks ahead of roosting. Notably this included at least 100 Ruppells weaver as well as a much small number of African silverbill.

African silverbill

On Monday, I went into the desert Saeed Shanfari. We are both very happy with the results. I will use the next two blogs to report on what we saw.

Late winter at Raysut settling pools

Just as I used to find in Riyadh, there is a period of about a month in late winter when bird life is fairly settled with few arrivals and departures in any particular place. The spring passage then starts.

Although I hadn't visited the Raysut settling pools for about 3 weeks, little had changed although I had better views of some birds. These included four steppe eagle which allowed close approach.

first steppe eagle

They were all sitting out inside the settling pool fences.

second steppe eagle takes off

Steppe eagle is by far the most common eagle in the area in winter.

second steppe eagle in the air

The Abdim's stork were still present.

An Abdim's stork

A very large number of them were taking an interest in the dried fertiliser that comes out of the settling pools. It was being moved and both Abdim's stork and cattle egret had arrived to inspect the displaced grubs.

Abdim's stork

Three greater white fronted goose were also still present. Nearly all geese that make it to southern Oman are first winter and most are now showing more adult markings.

two greater white fronted goose

Red-wattled lapwing and a single spur-winged lapwing have also not moved on since my last visit.

two red-wattled lapwing

I always check the hirundines at the settling pools. The big majority are barn swallow. Occasionally there is the odd sand martin but I have yet to find a red-rumped swallow there or elsewhere in Dhofar.

barn swallow

At this time of year there are types of wagtail at the pools: citrine wagtail, yellow wagtail and white wagtail.

yellow wagtail

In the settling pools themselves are plenty of black-headed gull and a few ducks.

flamingo

Two species surprised me by seemingly actively feeding in the (very dirty) pools. Two young flamingo ducked their heads in several times.

little grebe

A little grebe also dived under on several occasions.

Very soon the passage will start and I wonder what birds will pass through these pools then.

Pallas's gull at Raysut

There are five distinct birding areas in Raysut on the west of the city of Salalah. These are the settling pools (often called the sewage works), the treated water lake, the rubbish dump, the lagoons west of industrial area often called Salalah lagoons and the worn rocky coast just east of the port.

When I am passing through I try to visit any two from five. Obviously if Raysut is my main visit then I will try for all.

On Friday I was returning from Mughsail through Raysut and chose to visit the coast and the settling pools.

I was looking out particularly for two birds I hadn't seen in Oman by going to the coast. One was Pallas's gull and the other was Terek sandpiper.

Pallas's gull

The plan worked for Pallas's gull. I found one next to a group of large white headed gulls. This is species 230 on my country list and I know that any future additions will be tough. This was the very last of the "easy"ones.

The group of large white headed gulls was unusual because Heuglin's gull was in a minority for once. There were more Caspian gull and Steppe gull.

oystercatcher

It's also the only place I have found Oystercatcher in the Salalah area.

Caspian tern

Caspian tern, grey plover, whimbrel and curlew have been there on every visit along side the more obvious western reef heron.

The settling pools may be better in early passage when birds often come there as a first resort before finding a more conventional spot. However the birding is still good and very large numbers of Abdim's stork are guaranteed in winter.

Abdim's stork

I patrolled the grounds again still looking for those stone curlew that were reported by a couple of UAE birders a month ago. I have concluded they have moved on.

countless Abdim's stork in the air

I am pretty sure the whole Ymeni and Saudi summer population of Abdim's stork comes to Raysut in winter. I understand it is a recent phenomenon too.

house crow

Indian house crow don't get photographed very often as they are unloved. There are old nests in the tree hedges which suggest they breed on site.

barn swallow and a sand martin

Perhaps because I came close to dusk, I noticed the large numbers of barn swallow more than usual. There were a small number of sand martin too. In the picture, the bird in the top left is one of them.

black-winged stilt

I really don't understand why black-winged stilt find the place so attractive.

black-headed gull (foreground)

Not too many black headed gull make it this far south but the settling pools are a good place to see them.

Four red-wattled lapwing were also present but I didn't see the one spur-winged lapwing that had been associating with them.

I will continue to make visits to Raysut over the winter to check for any changes.