Around Bogue

On Saturday 11th August in the early morning, Mohamed Vall and I headed south from Aleg towards Bogue. We were looking particularly for rainy season birds. We visited Lake Jintu and woodland east of the city of Bouge towards Kaedi.

• Two good birds of prey were seen still roosting on the electric pylons between Aleg and Bogue. These were a lanner falcon and barbary falcon
• Lake Jintu looked like it had emptied out during the spring just like Lake Aleg had. This is unusual and caused by extremely poor rains in 2017.
• Lake Jintu had murky water suggesting it had only recently started filling again. So it was too early to get most benefit from the lake this season
• The only rainy season birds were yellow-billed kite and northern red bishop
• Unlike Aleg, blue-cheeked bee-eater is probably partially resident this far south and not counted as a rainy season bird.
• Early palearctic migrants were common sandpiper and woodchat shrike
• In Bogue, very large numbers of African silverbill attracted to grain laid out to dry.

Aleg to Bogue road

lanner falcon 1

lanner falcon 2

barbary falcon 1

barbary falcon 2

barbary falcon 3

Lake Jintu and near-by in Bogue

northern red bishop 1

northern red bishop 2

white-faced whistling duck

northern grey headed sparrow

village indigobird

black-bush robin

black-headed weaver

mostly African silverbill

Aleg-Bogue Road, Brakna, MR

11-Aug-2018 07:30

Lanner Falcon  1

Peregrine Falcon (Barbary)  1

Lake Jintu, Brakna, MR

11-Aug-2018 08:30 - 10:00

White-faced Whistling-Duck  

Mourning Collared Dove  

Laughing Dove  

Namaqua Dove  

African Palm-Swift  

Spur-winged Lapwing  

Common Sandpiper  

Cattle Egret  

Blue-naped Mousebird  

Green Bee-eater  

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater  

Woodchat Shrike  

Barn Swallow  

Common Bulbul  

Chestnut-bellied Starling  

Greater Blue-eared Starling  

Beautiful Sunbird  

Northern Grey-headed Sparrow  

Sudan Golden Sparrow  

Black-headed Weaver  

Northern Red Bishop  

African Silverbill  

Village Indigobird  

Lanner falcons among the birds in the Mudhai area

While I am intending to go into the desert each weekend this spring, I have three main options as to which way to go. The first is taking the Muscat road and stops off it such as Beed, Dowkah and Qatbeet. The second is to head to Mazyunah on the border with Yemen via Mudhai and Tudho.
The third is to head to Shisr which roughly dissects the other two routes.

The previous two weeks I had taken the first option but last weekend I headed north west towards Mazyunah.

My first stop was the oasis village of Mudhai. I started with an inspection of the camel pens at the Thumrait end of the settlement.

hooded wheatear

One of the first birds seen was a very confiding female hooded wheatear.

hooded wheatear 2

Female hooded wheatear and female hooded wheatear are actually easily confusable though it's not highlighted in any guidebooks I have read. 

The hooded wheatear has a longer bill and a flatter head. The whole bird also has a slightly more slender and longer appearance. However, the plumage features are very similar.

hooded wheatear 3

Two desert wheatear were predictably present.

sand partridge

Camel pens are one of the best places to see sand partridge. Indeed I have observed them every time I visited these ones at Mudhai.

European turtle dove

Doves are various types are also attracted to them. A European turtle dove was present for the first time this year. I am now seeing them throughout the desert stops.

striolated bunting

This is also a good place to observe striolated bunting close up. They will even jump into the camel's feed troughs to eat the camel's food.

Arabian red fox

As I left the camel pens, I noticed a fox looking down on me from the hillside.

I will not disclose where I went next because I saw two falcons in the sky. They remained around for over 5 minutes.

first lanner falcon

Both falcons were lanner falcon. The only confusion species is barbary falcon but as one expert consulted put it "dots rather than bars on underparts including upper breast, unmarked undertail coverts, bicoloured wing coverts with lesser white, barred tail and very pointed long moustache leads to this being an adult lanner falcon."

if you have a small screen I recommend double clicking on the above picture to see it in a larger size where the characteristics can be more easily viewed.

second lanner falcon

I obtained another good photo of the first bird but only a hazy one of the second bird which was flying with it. The very pointed moustache and a very large white cheek patch can still be discerned point to this being a lanner falcon too.

Two lanner falcon have only been observed in Oman on one previous occasion. That was at Tudho just over three years ago. Tudho is less than 40 kilometres from Mudhai. 

In the village itself I had little success in the bushy areas near the houses. These can be good in passage but not this time.

Near the oasis pool, Nile valley sunbird were readily observed.

female Nile Valley sunbird

This site is where most tour groups come to look for this species as it is the closest "guaranteed" site to Salalah. They are actually widespread in all bushy wadis further north and west.

male Nile Valley sunbird

After Mudhai I moved on to Tudho and Mazyunah I will blog about these places next.

A twitch at Al Beed farm

I drove a 325 Km round trip on Tuesday to Al Beed desert farm. I didn't go for larks though I saw black crowned sparrow lark, greater crested lark and hoopoe lark.

Instead I went to twitch a juvenile lanner falcon that had been reported there twice in the last month.

black-crowned sparrow lark

As luck would have it I saw it almost on arrival over the first field but from great distance.

I headed in the general direction of where I thought it had gone and found it up a tree in the the cluster of about 8 trees on the driveway to the main entrance.

This small cluster of trees has generated some wonderful birds over time.

first winter lanner falcon

Although I got good views of the bird in flight, it was so close and fast I failed to get good photos. When it landed trees three times, each time it was totally obscured.

The plumage fooled me at first because I was looking for the reported juvenile bird yet this bird had adult body markings but juvenile upper parts. In the Middle East and North Africa that means cinnamon brown upper parts. Furthermore its yellow leg and cere colour are the adult colours. Juveniles start out with bluish-grey legs and cere.

All is explained in "Field identification in large falcons in the Western Palearctic" by Hadoram Shirihai, Dick Forsman and David. A Christie for British Birds 1998.

 "Juveniles (meaning  of the large falcons) undergo a partial body moult during their first winter and a complete moult in the first spring/summer, although a few juvenile feathers, especially wing-coverts, are sometimes still retained".

As for the legs and eyes: "Juveniles are, in general, longer-tailed and narrower winged than adults, and in most cases have bluish to greyish (not clear yellow)

feet, cere and orbital ring; on some species, this colour may be retained through

to their first winter".

So a combination of adult body, leg and eye features but juvenile wing features is expected at this time of year.

Others before me have identified this particular bird as a lanner falcon and I totally concur.

The very long and narrow wings with blunt ends favours lanner falcon over saker which is the only alternative with the cinnamon-brown upper-parts.

blunt wing edge with juvenile markings

The head pattern (not easily seen on the top photo) and the cross-barring on parts of the body (just visible on the photo) are also consistent with the lanner falcon identification.

a pile of collared dove feathers

Lanner falcon favour eating birds while saker favours rodents. Three of the tall trees had plenty of piles of collared dove feathers under them.

collared dove at the farm

I can see why it has chosen this spot to winter with at least 40 collared dove and a small number of laughing dove sharing the small small space.

The same trees are housing three or more common chiffchaff at the moment too.

common kestrel

There are many locusts in the fodder fields which had the attention of at least three common kestrel. 

desert wheatear

Back by the cluster of trees a desert wheatear and an Asian desert warbler had paired up. Wherever the wheatear went the warbler followed.

Asian desert warbler

This pairing is known to take place with both African desert warbler and Asian desert warbler with desert wheatear.

Asian desert warbler takes off

Elsewhere there was a Asian grey shrike (aucheri) on top of a tractor.

Asian grey shrike (aucheri)

House sparrow are on the farm. Most of them were seen near the cow sheds but one was on one of the tall trees that the lanner falcon likes.

house sparrow

There is another cluster of trees and bushes in another part of the farm. I headed towards it before leaving. Unfortunately it was being tended by a gardener and was too disturbed at that moment for good birding. Nevertheless I passed a large field on the way there and as I did so the two white stork and one grey heron I had seen at the farm on previous visits flew over me.

white stork

Very close to the car, I passed a small group of tawny pipit. The first bird had a crown feathers raised which I have never seen in a pipit before. It gives it an almost lark-like feel.

tawny pipit with raised crown feathers

A more normal looking tawny pipit in the same group is shown below.

tawny pipit

In summary this was a twitch that paid off. It was a long way to go if there had been no dividend.

I am satisfied with the result. I had good views of the bird but it is a shame I couldn't get more pictures. In birding you can rarely have it all.