Terns on the beaches

Having now seen 246 species in Oman with all but 4 in the Dhofar area, I have not been expecting many new additions before the spring migration.

Indeed this has been the first full week with no additions and there will probably be plenty more.

I have decided to take a more relaxed approach to local birding for a month or so though some reported twitches might tempt me.

In the last week, I have spent a significant proportion of my birding time on beaches.

Caspian tern with one lesser crested tern

This blog looks at some of the terns I have seen on the beaches among the literally thousands of gulls.

On the beach at Khawr Soly were several Caspian tern (also seen at Taqah and East Khawr during the week).

lesser crested tern with one sandwich tern

Very close by was a group of lesser crested tern. Within that group was one sandwich tern. These two birds are very closely related and sandwich tern often associate with lesser crested tern if their own type are not around.

whiskered tern

There was a single small tern next to them but not associating with any of the other terns.

sideways look at whiskered tern

I couldn't identify this small tern immediately. The bill was too short and strong for a Saunders's tern or a little tern.

preening whiskered tern

I am not used to seeing whiskered tern or any other marsh tern on a beach but that is what it is.

Actually the beach at Khawr Soly is straight in front of the sand bar separating the freshwater lagoons and so the bird wasn't out of place.

sleeping whiskered tern

Caspian tern were also seen at East Khawr (Khawr Dahariz) as were gull-billed tern.

gull-billed tern

What surprised me was that one of the gull-billed tern was in breeding plumage already.

gull-billed tern in breeding plumage

Although this blog is primarily about terns, I got distracted for a short time by a bathing grey plover at East Khawr. 

bathing grey plover

I accidentally caught the moment when it raised its wings and showed its underwing black patch.

underwing of a grey plover

This is very useful to differentiate between juvenile golden plovers and grey plover in autumn when some of the former birds have very little golden sheen.

Saunders's tern

On Friday morning I visited Taqah beach and saw more terns. However my main motive to be there was to twitch the skimmers that have been seen twice along the front. Sadly, although I scanned over 2000 water birds, no skimmer was among them. I did see 12 Pallas's gull and other scarcer birds among about 1100 Hueglin's gull and 600 sooty gull.

During this scan I added Saunders's tern to the list of terns seen over the past few days.

The bill is thinner and longer than in a whiskered tern. The winter head pattern usually includes a small amount of black in front of eye too. The legs are often lighter as well.

three Saunders's tern

My regional guide says Saunders's tern can doubtfully be separated from little tern in winter. I am not sure that is true. In summer the white on the crown of a little tern reaches the back of the eye. If it doesn't manage that in winter when there is less black and even more white its not going to do it in summer. So I believe many winter Saunders's tern can be identified by the white not reaching the back of the eye. The problem is identifying little tern. Some winter Saunders's tern have white reaching the back of eye and all little tern.

If I have gauged this correctly all my birds are Saunders's tern with the possible exception of the one towards the bottom right in the first picture.

white winged lapwing

Once again I got distracted from my main tasks while birding. I found a single white-winged lapwing at Taqah. I suspect it may be the same bird I saw for a month or so at near-by Khawr Soly but whose chosen area has since dried up during the winter.

Baleed Park, Salalah

On late Thursday afternoon, I made my first visit to Baleed Archaeological Park. It consists of a crescent shaped Khawr with undisturbed flat land near-by. Although part of the site is landscaped, the other part is arguably better for birds than my normal local patch at East Khawr simply because it is more private and unapproachable by cars.

Quite remarkably I saw six birds which I hadn't previously seen in my three weeks in Oman despite the superficial similarity in habitat with East Khawr.

Indian pond heron with grey heron

One of these was an Indian pond heron. I actually found it quite different to a squacco heron. It almost looked just two tone. Either the colour was white or dark brown.There didn't seem to be many intermediate shades. I understand this distinction is not so simple in winter.

closer look at Indian pond heron

The dark loral stripe, present on the pond heron but not on a squacco heron, was obvious too. In short it was easy to identify.

grey heron

The birds seem very relaxed at this site. I particularly liked the attitude of the grey heron.

Purple heron

The two juvenile purple heron which were present weren't shy either.

sooty gull bathing

I don't think that you will find as many sooty gull on fresh water in many other places lie at Baleed.

close up of sooty gull

The sand bar and near-by marsh areas that separate khawrs from the sea are often among the most interesting areas on these types of sites.

Heuglin's gull with sooty gull and greater crested tern

Some of the Heuglin's gull seen flying WSW of East Khawr a couple of days before didn't make it too far before landing. There were six seen at Baleed.

gull billed tern with Pacific golden plover and collared dove

At the end of the khawr near the sand bar were many birds including a single gull billed tern, my first in Oman.

First winter Saunders's tern

There were Saunders's tern there and also all along the Khawr. Strangely there were no adults only first winter birds. This was another first for me in Oman.

Pacific golden plover

I solved the mystery about where the big flock of Pacific golden plover went which were seen at East Khawr. It looks like they moved just 3 kilometres down the coast to Baleed.

Greater sand plover

Baleed was also the first place I saw a greater sand plover in the country. 

Moorhen

Moorhen didn't have the water to themselves. Five little grebe were seen, yet another first. 

little grebe

One bird wasn't a country first but it was still a notable bird. There was a spotted thick-knee sitting calmly under a palm tree as I walked past.

Spotted thick-knee

Elsewhere on the land was a red-backed shrike. This was final country first of the visit.

red backed shrike

This male caught itself a big fat spider.

Turkestan shrike

The only red-tailed shrike was yet another Turkestan shrike. They are clearly much more common here at least at this time of year than Daurian shrike.

Male shining sunbird

There is a rudimentary botanical garden in the park. It was here that I observed a pair of shining sunbird.

female shining sunbird

After leaving the park, I walked part way back to my home through plantations. I suspect if I were to spend some time in the banana and coconut areas I might see some different but from the side of the road it was more African silverbill, Ruepells weaver, rose ringed parakeet and house crow.

Ruepells weaver

Some (but my no means all) of the weavers look like they are starting to loose their breeding plumage as the khareef season ends.

house crow

I birded both Friday and Saturday. I'll blog about that next.