Khawr Rori in May

The monsoon season in Dhofar begins in the third week of June. However May is not particularly hotter than April because it is much cloudier overall.

On Friday morning I visited Khawr Rori and it very cloudy and dull. It actually made birding easier.

I started out in the north west wing of the Khawr that can be approached from the main road. 

slender-billed gull

I was watching a large group of over-summering slender-billed gull from the far bank.

yellow bittern

To my surprise, three adult yellow bittern flew directly across the water in front of them.

common moorhen

On my side of the water, a common moorhen suddenly decided to break cover.

young moorhen

To my left, an adult moorhen called for its young to break into the open water to cross to another bank.

As I walked back to the car, I came across a small number of little green-bee-eater though I could hear but not see blue-cheeked bee-eater.

little green bee-eater

I drove the car round to the front gate where one has to pay two Omani riyals to enter the main site which has archaeological ruins as well as being excellent for birds.

Mostly Caspian tern and sandwich tern

It started to brighten up which also meant higher temperatures. In the area near the permanent exhibit of two dhows were several terns. I also counted 17 grey heron in small groups scattered around.

Unfortunately part of the site which leads to the sandbar and seaward (southern) end of the khawr has been closed for work for two months. This meant my next move was pretty much forced. I walked northward from the dhows up the khawr.

blue-cheeked bee-eater

I finally found a blue-cheeked bee-eater which may have contributed to the sounds I had heard earlier.

There then followed a sequence of observations of exotic birds.

Over the water to the west of the bee-eater was a lone red-knobbed coot swimming.

red-knobbed coot

On the east bank was a very flighty flock of western reef heron.

African sacred ibis

However one was the flock was a different species. It was an African sacred ibis. it was not as flighty as the reef herons and seemed to be reluctant to move on every time they bolted. The long-staying African sacred ibis which was at East Khawr for 9 months until recently was very passive towards the end. Of course it may well be the same bird.

African sacred ibis in flight

At one stage the whole flock flew all the way towards the flamingo on west bank but at the southern end. This area is completely inaccessible at the moment with the works blocking off all access.

It was while looking towards the flamingo and their new associates (western reef heron and an African sacred ibis), I could just make out two pheasant-tailed jacana.

distant pheasant-tailed jacana

The huge permanent body of water at Khawr Rori is very unusual in Arabia and so it has such an unusual summer mix of birds. It is worth watching what happens as the summer progresses.

Spotted eagle at East Khawr

I went to East Khawr on Wednesday afternoon for a quick visit after work. There had been quite a lot of change in the bird cast since even the day before. 

One of the changes was a big increase in the number of birds of prey. The star one was a spotted eagle.

Unfortunately it didn't stay put.

first shot of the spotted eagle

I had not seen any spotted eagle since arriving in Oman. All the 100 or so eagles at Raysut rubbish dump have been steppe eagle though I have seen booted eagle, short toed eagle and eastern imperial eagle elsewhere.

spotted eagle heading towards me

I posted these pictures of the spotted eagle seen at East Khawr on BirdForum and asked for help in identification. In response, there have been a variety of opinions from pure lesser spotted eagle to hybrid to greater spotted eagle.

another shot of the spotted eagle

The default position is greater spotted eagle and I am putting it into e-bird as that but without total conviction. This is because I have been going with the balance of opinion when it comes to identifying birds of prey however unpalatable it is to my view which favoured lesser spotted eagle. On BirdForum more experts backed greater spotted eagle over lesser spotted eagle or a hybrid.

As and when I get more confident in bird of prey identification my policy will change! I don't take a democratic approach to identification in most other areas. Gulls are the other main exception.

underside picture of spotted eagle

The bird felt different in the field from many tens of the greater spotted eagle I saw in Saudi Arabia. The picture above is not perfect yet the underneath flight feathers look darker than in a typical greater spotted eagle which could be put down to denser and more even barring that lesser spotted eagle has. The double comma is more of a lesser spotted eagle characteristic too. 

Another argument in favour of lesser spotted eagle on BirdForum is that the white flashes on primary bases are too extensive for GSE.

However the counter arguments are based on the overall structure, size and shape more than plumage. More expert people on Birdforum have supported greater spotted eagle than lesser spotted eagle and I acknowledge that. 

As I said before writing in depth about the spotted eagle, East Khawr had more birds of prey. The others were five marsh harrier.  This is a high density of marsh harriers for such a small area. I assume it is because the numbers of waders and other birds was also very high.

marsh harrier

The picture above was taken out of my car window when the window was closed hence the slightly odd colours. 

sleeping red-necked phalarope

The numbers of waders around was very large. There were at least 100 ruff, tens of Kentish plover, ringed plover and lesser numbers of lesser sand plover and greater sand plover. There were fifteen or so Pacific golden plover. There were curlew sandpiper, curlew, greenshank and redshank but nothing truly exotic this time.

Despite the threat from the marsh harrier, a small number of birds were asleep. Presumably they were tired following a long migration.

A red-necked phalarope was one of these.

sleeping juvenile ruff

A young ruff was another.

glossy ibis

The glossy ibis population was the largest I have seen there.

African sacred ibis

The one lone African sacred ibis has finally been left alone by all the European spoonbill which have moved on. Only now does it mix with the glossy ibis.

gadwell

The duck population has stabilised but the composition keeps changing. The last wave includes more gadwell.

European collared dove

The picture of European collared dove was taken to remind me to look more at the adjacent land birds on future visits especially as we approach peak migration time.

East Khawr revisited

On Saturday, I returned to East Khawr, Salalah. I really didn't know whether many of the birds would have changed compared with my previous visit five days before. I resolved beforehand that would at least try to get better pictures of those that were there.

I kept to that resolution but in the end there were 13 additional species seen either there or walking to and from home to the khawr. One was a lifer too.

African sacred ibis with Eurasian spoonbill

The single African sacred ibis was one of those of which I achieved better photos and it was still associating with the Eurasian spoonbill.

This view came about half way through my visit. However starting at the beginning, I elected to bird the west bank at the inland end, head towards the sea and then bird the east side up into the wadi back inland.

The khawr looking towards the sea

The first sign of anything different from the previous visit came with a view of four greenshank well inland and at the reeds edge.

greenshank

I then continued walking towards the seaward end. I managed to accidentally flush a little bittern which flew right across the water into reeds at the far side. These two were new birds for me in Oman and I had hardly started.

glossy ibis

Suddenly in the distance a flock of 25 glossy ibis took to the air and headed right next to the sand bar at the far end of the lagoon. I am pretty sure I wasn't the cause of their movement.

displaying moorhen

As I moved on towards the sea I passed  a common moorhen which I assume was displaying.

garganey

I could see a duck swimming with moorhen in the distance and right at the far seaward end of the Khawr. It was a garganey.

garganey with moorhen

Much of the change in the cast of birds was actually seen when I reached the seaward end of the Khawr especially among the waders. All the ruff from a few days previous were gone.

lesser sand plover

New replacements included several lesser sandplover.They were behaving aggressively chasing some common sandpiper and little stint off.

ringed plover

The Kentish plover and common ringed plover seemed to be more accepted.

little stint

Little stint were not seen on my last visit.

Black-tailed godwit

There were three singleton birds representative of their species. One was black tailed godwit still in most of its breeding plumage.

Greater crested tern

Another was a greater crested tern (a.k.a. swift tern).

Common tern

A juvenile medium sized tern looks much more like a common tern than white cheeked tern of which a few were which still present. 

Eurasian spoonbill

The number of Eurasian spoonbill had increased from 4 to 6 over the week.

Squacco heron

Several squacco heron were still present but no sign yet of any of the very similar Indian pond heron which apparently visit in the winter months.

common snipe

Another difficult pair to separate for identification purposes in this part of the gulf are common snipe and pin-tailed snipe. My first snipe since I arrived in the country was a common snipe.

curlew

The walk back inland on the eastern bank started out quite uneventful with the flock of glossy ibis being the main attraction though I did see my first green sandpiper in the Salalah area in a small cluster of waders.

However two fly-overs on the land directly east of the khawr as I walked passed enlivened things. First, a young curlew flashed past. It's very pale underside marked it out as the eastern sub species orientalis. It's very short bill and paucity of  under-body streaking marked it out as a young bird.

a flock of garganey

On the way back home I decided to walk up the wadi directly north of the khawr. This is Wadi Dahariz.

Even here I managed to add to my Oman list. The best moment was when I almost walked into a spotted thick-knee.   It had positioned itself directly in front of me as I followed a worn makeshift path. It allowed me within 3 metres before it slowly walked away.

Spotted thick-knee

The second addition was a pair of Namaqua dove which were surprisingly skittish.

Turkestan shrike

The final new bird of the day, also seen in the wadi,  was a male Turkestan shrike.  I am very familiar with this bird from my Riyadh days.

All in all I was very satisfied with this birding session.

List of birds seen at East Khawr, Salalah and in Wadi Dahariz just north of the khawr.    O=new to my Oman list.   L= a lifer

Garganey   O

African sacred ibis

Eurasian spoonbill

Glossy ibis

Little bittern   O

Squacco heron

Grey heron

Purple heron

Great egret

Little egret

Common moorhen

Spotted thick-knee  O, L

Common ringed plover

Kentish plover

Lesser sand plover  O

Common snipe   O

Black tailed godwit   O

Curlew  O

Redshank

Greenshank   O

Green sandpiper

Common sandpiper

Little stint   O

Dunlin   O

Ruddy turnstone

Sooty gull

White-cheeked tern

White-winged black tern

Great crested tern

Common tern O

Feral pigeon

Eurasian collared dove

Laughing dove

Namaqua dove   O

Rose-ringed parakeet

Foebes-Watson's swift

Turkestan shrike   O

House crow

White-spectacled bulbul

Crested lark

Pale crag martin

Graceful prinia

Common myna

Tristram's starling

African silverbill

Ruepell's weaver

Cinnamon breasted bunting

East khawr in Salalah

On 1st September, I visited East Khawr, Salalah for first time. There are a string of khawrs east of the city with an excellent reputation for birding. I can now see why even though I have only visited one for a couple of hours late in afternoon.

East khawr was packed with members of the heron family including two great white egret.

great white egret

There were at least 12 squacco heron spending most of their time near the sand bank that separates the lagoon from the sea.

squacco heron

There were also two grey heron, one purple heron and a few little egret seen.

grey heron

However there were some more far interesting members of the heron family present too.

purple heron

Firstly, the most common family member was actually glossy ibis. I counted over 25.

glossy ibis

Four Eurasian spoonbill added more interest but the star sighting was another bird which was associating with them.

Eurasian spoonbill

It was an African sacred ibis which is a rare bird in Oman.

African sacred ibis

The most common bird of all at the site was white winged black tern.

white cheeked tern and white winged black tern

Some of these were still in part or all of their summer plumage.

white winged black tern in part summer plumage

In among the terns were a group of ruddy turnstone including a juvenile.

ruddy turnstone

Many of the birds were very tame especially the resident birds. This is a sign of minimal disturbance and I have yet to see a gun pellet or hear a gun. However I find that redshank are inherently skittish. I struggled to reach them and photograph them once again.

redshank (front)

There were plenty of Kentish plover about. This was one of the few birds which ventured on to the sand bar separating the khawr from the sea. some were also seen in the khawr too including here with some sanderling.

Sanderling with a kentish plover

The most common wader on the day was actually ruff. Some of the taller grass at the seaward end of the khawr was just their height.

ruff

As we returned towards the car we noticed that common sand piper had joined the other waders.

common sandpiper

Some other observations included seeing common moorhen brazening swimming in the water without a concern for us. This was another sign of the birds feeling of safety.

common moorhen

On the sand bar near the car two or three sooty gull joined the Kentish plover.

sooty gull with Kentish plover

Virtually all my attention on this visit had been on the water birds. Noticeable exceptions were the ubiquitous Ruepell's weaver and the ever present sound of graceful prinia. These could hardly be missed.

Ruepells weaver

Since this visit, I have further explored the environs of Salalah and have a large backlog of observations to report. These include a walk round my district, a trip to Wadi Darbat and a return to East Khawr. On these trips, I added another 28 species to my new Omani list and four lifers. I'll blog about these events in the next few days.