Jebel Akhdar

A week ago I spent the weekend in the Nizwa area visiting a friend. He kindly drove me up Jebel Akhdar on both days.

I was in search of the elusive wood pigeon and of migrants. The Roos area is apparently good for wood pigeon and the Wadi Bani Habib area can be good for migrants.

I was not as successful as I had hoped. Despite spending many hours near Roos there was no sign or sound  of wood pigeon. Birding didn't need to stop before noon either. It was very pleasantly in the low to mid 20's centigrade up there.

Hume's wheatear

There were some highlights though. The Roos area is one of the easiest in the country to find Hume's wheatear.

Hume's wheatear facing

The cliffs next to the Alila hotel were where I also found a pair of adult Egyptian vulture.

Egyptian vulture

Lappet-faced vulture are not as common on the mountain but I observed one briefly near Roos.

Lappet-faced vulture

Wood pigeon is only found in the juniper zone. They can be very well hidden I understand so I carefully inspected many tens of juniper. 

white spectacled bulbul

Unfortunately for the most part I saw only white spectacled bulbul, house sparrow and laughing dove.

house sparrow

However at one point an Indian roller unexpectedly flew over.

local Persian rock geckos

The day before I spent most of my time birding a different part of jebel Akhdar at Wadi Bani Habib.

This is below the juniper line but is well watered and contains orchards and trees.

a wadi on the way to Wadi Bani Habib

Birds were not too varied here either. Egyptian vulture and lappet faced vulture were also seen as at Roos.

Arabian toad

Arabian toad was making good use of the water. Toads were everywhere close to water and tadpoles were within it.

laughing dove

I don't understand why so many birds were so shy. I found no evidence of hunting. Even the laughing dove kept their distance.

purple sunbird

One feature of Wadi Bani Habib is the abundance of purple sunbird. However passage birds which were the main target of this area were virtually unseen.

As a last idea before leaving the area, I walked down the wadi past the walk way up into a new zone. Here I finally had evidence of passage. I heard a very loud nightingale. Indeed there were two constantly singing about 50 metres apart.

However I couldn't see them. Then I had an idea. I recorded the song and immediately played it back.

The reaction was immediate too. Out of the large tree I had been looking up at, an Eastern nightingale flew straight at me.

Nightingale are a little unusual in singing on passage as they try to create make-shift territories.

I have up-loaded the song to xeno-canto.

http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Luscinia-megarhynchos?query=golzii

This small incident improved my day considerably but I have to ask why the spring passage through Oman has been thinner this year? This includes the hugh numbers of rufous bush robin of course.

Finally I would like to thank my friend Gio for driving me around the area that weekend.

Mazyunah in early March

Unlike previous desert trips towards Yemen, Mazyunah was not the main event. This time it was Tudho en route. So Jolynn Van Duffelen and I spent time there than I have previously done.

On quick inspection, the bird cast at the old sewage ponds had changed little since my previous visit.

There were four types of duck swimming on this out-of-place water mass in the middle of the desert.

There were pintail, garganey and teal (see picture below) and two male mallard (not pictured).

three types of duck by Jolynn Van Duffelen

Just as on my last visit, there was an eastern imperial eagle wading in the water. Actually last time there were two. You have to be careful and deliberate when you first arrive not to displace it. Once gone, it does not return easily.

Eastern imperial eagle by Jolynn Van Duffelen

Jolynn captured it on video.

wood sandpiper by Jolynn Van Duffelen

Once again there were plenty of waders. These included ruff, wood sandpiper, black winged stilt and little stint. The most numerous bird however is still common moorhen.

little stint by Jolynn Van Duffelen

Two common snipe were also seen.

common snipe by Jolynn Van Duffelen

Passerines in the reeds were citrine wagtail and bluethroat. There were no collared dove of either type this time. They aggregate around the pool in late afternoon and we left before that.

I still believe this site ought to be a migrant trap but we were there a week or two early to test my theory.

Just we were travelling out of the town on its eastern edge, a bird of prey flew close to the road. We turned the car round and tried to follow the bird.

We discovered it had landed at the side of a new large pool. We had to approach it on foot as my car couldn't cope with the very sandy surrounding ground.

The pool is fed with cleaned water from the factory by pipe. It is obviously very new but now makes a third water-based site around the town worth exploring.

lappet-faced vulture over the pool by Jolynn Van Duffelen

As we got close, it became apparent that there were twelve lappet-faced vulture there. There was no carcass so drink was almost certainly the reason.

four lappet faced vulture by Jolynn Van Duffelen

Unfortunately having no cover we eventually disturbed them. Heat haze also had photography difficult for the grounded birds though it was better in flight.

lappet faced vulture returning by Jolynn Van Duffelen

As we headed back to the car we noticed one lappet-faced vulture had returned. It is obviously a strong magnet for them.

spiny-tailed lizard by Jolynn Van Duffelen

Sometimes we come across other wildlife that simply cannot be ignored. This spiny tailed lizard at Qafa outside Mazyunah was a full grown adult.

I am grateful to Jolynn Van Duffelen for permission to reproduce her photos and video.

Tawi Atair and Wadi Hanna

On Thursday afternoon, Andrew Bailey and I went up into the mountains near Tawi Atair.

One port of call for any visiting birder had to be the sinkhole at Tawi Atair. It is famous for the only known resident population east of Yemen of Yemen serin.

Yemen serin

A single bird obliged. It was on the roof of one of the outbuildings near the hole.

second view of Yemen serin

Near-by was an Arabian wheatear.

Arabian wheatear

It was here we saw a Brahminy starling which is a vagrant ot Oman. Although we got excellent views for identification, it moved on before we could take a photograph.

Tristram's starling

We made a long search to re-find it included looking around the local Tristram's starling to see if it was associating with them.

short-toed snake eagle

There was a nice view of short-toed snake eagle when we left the sinkhole.

Eastern Imperial Eagle

On the plateau near Tawi Atair town was a continual show of birds of prey. Eastern Imperial eagle were nearly as common as kestrel. We also saw three griffon vulture and one young lappet-faced vulture.

young lappet-faced vulture

We also visited the wooded area known as Wadi Hanna. This is west of Tawi Atair town. This area gave me two additions in quick succession. I saw my first lesser whitethroat and then black redstart in Oman.

eastern black redstart

The black redstart was an eastern black redstart. It's one of those species that can only usually been found as far south as Dhofar in the second half of the winter.

black redstart through the branches

Despite some small cast changes such as these two birds, the bird life is still greatly influenced by cinnamon-breasted bunting, Abyssinian white-eye and fan-tailed raven.

Abyssinian white-eye

To end the birding day, we move on to Wadi Darbat just before dusk and stayed there until 45 minutes after. We were there to seek out Arabian scops owl. We heard three but unfortunately couldn't see any by torchlight.

Rather than finish the blog at this point, I have some past pictures taken from Wadi Darbat and points to make about it from mid-December onwards.  

black stork at wadi Darbat

A single black stork has been there most of winter though it does wander. This picture comes from December 18th.

tree pipit

Tree pipit are fairly common in the woodland nearest the water. The population here and in Sahnout farm, Salalah confirms that some of this species winter in southern Oman. 

bluethroat at Wadi Darbat

After a slow start bluethroat numbers are still increasing near water in many places in Dhofar.

Summing up, although the search for Arabian scops owl didn't lead to a sighting, I added three birds to my Oman list on Thursday.

Friday was even more successful with some rarities and vagrants among more new birds. I will write about this in the next two blogs.