Two vagrants still at Khawr Rori

I visited Khawr Rori on Tuesday afternoon for the first time in two weeks. There are two distinct birding areas and I went to both. 

One is the north west off-shoot of the main Khawr and which contains a large reed bed. It is approached from the main road.

On arrival there I immediately came across the vagrant Malachite kingfisher in the very first (and very small isolated clump) of reeds. I didn't notice it until I had nearly walked into it. I managed one quick photo before it flew off.

However I met it again about 100 metres away and I wasn't even looking for it. Again I was only about 3 metres away but this time it didn't fly off. I felt very lucky and privileged to not only get a second change but a good one too.

Malachite kingfisher 1

Tommy Pedersen and I saw one here in June. The same one or another was seen in October and it is presumed this is the latter bird as it has been seen continually since. Our record was the eighth record and this one is recorded as the ninth as there were no sightings in the summer.

One pair of birders say they recently saw two together and I believe I may have glimpsed that too (but not on Tuesday). 

Malachite kingfisher 2

Although the bird is very attractive it is difficult to get good pictures primarily because it is considerably smaller even than a house sparrow.

Malachite kingfisher 3

Elsewhere in the reeds I observed several bluethroat, citrine wagtail, clamorous reed warbler and a Namaqua dove alongside the more common Ruppells weaver and white spectacled bulbul.

Bluethroat

I also observed two common snipe. 

common snipe

This is a good place to see crakes especially after five in the evening.

spotted crake

I had excellent views of two spotted crake and one Baillon's crake but little crake has still evaded me in Oman.

lesser flamingo

Earlier I had been in the main section of the Khawr. Seven lesser flamingo had been there on December 28th but that had diminished to two on Tuesday. This still meant that along with the Malachite kingfisher there were two vagrant species present.

lesser flamingo with black-tailed godwit

The collection of ducks and waders was similar to the late December visit too although  I didn't see a marsh sandpiper that time.

marsh sandpiper (foreground)

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This time last year, 25 greater white fronted goose were present. This year only one has been seen. Diving ducks are far fewer too. The weather has been warmer to the north and this may well be the main reason.

greater white fronted goose

Larger numbers of great cormorant are no real compensation.

great cormorant

It was however overall a very rewarding afternoon.

In other news, on Sunday I had hosted some a non-birding friend and his family around one or two nature sites. I was not birding and yet I saw an Arabian golden winged grosbeck and masked shrike at Ain Razat in passing. We also visited Al Balid. This time I did get the camera out and found three spotted thick-knee while they visited the frankincense museum.

young spotted thick-knee

One of the birds was a juvenile while the other two were adults.

first adult spotted thick-knee

Along with the Crowne plaza golfing range and surrounding area, this is one of the better bets to see this bird.

second adult spotted thick-knee

Next week I am taking a winter break in Spain. It is not a birding break but I hope to do a little. I will report on this.

Lesser flamingo and more at Khawr Rori

I had dinner with visiting German ornithologists Heidi and Jens Hering on December 28th. The last time we had met was in Benghazi in 2011 days before the revolution started. It was good to see them again.

In passing Jens mentioned he had seen and photographed a lesser flamingo at Khawr Rori the day before.

I knew it was a vagrant. Indeed there have only been five previous records. However one was of a flock of 270! birds back in 1995.

I took my first chance to go to Khawr Rori and I was there at 3.30 pm the next day. I didn't want to miss my chance.

What I saw surprised me in a very pleasant way.

four lesser flamingo

Jens had seen his bird near the dhows exhibit. I scanned the banks close-by and found not one but four. They appeared to be ravenously hungry and would almost certainly have allowed much closer approach than I risked.

two lesser flamingo

They were not venturing into the water but seemed happy to eat at the edge. I watched in awe for 10 minutes or so.

pintail resting

Eventually I pulled myself away and started scanning for any rare ducks. There were large numbers of shoveller in the water and a similar number of pintail resting on a far bank.

wigeon (back) with garganey

Diving ducks are much rarer so far this winter than last. However other than shoveller and pintail, there were several teal and at least one each of garganey and wigeon. Although garganey is the first duck to arrive in Dhofar in the autumn, its numbers drop (but not to zero) in mid-winter.

three more lesser flamingo

While still scanning for ducks, this time on a far bank I realised that among the resting shoveller and pintail were three more lesser flamingo making seven in total.

male and female teal

Most male teal now have their breeding plumage. 

Eurasian coot

In another part of the khawr on the north western spur, several coot were swimming. They were divided into two distinct groups.  Looking closely I noticed that the larger group contained Eurasian coot. However the smaller group were all red-knobbed coot.

Red-knobbed coot

The adult red-knobbed coot are supposed to lose the knobs outside the breeding season, yet I have yet to see a time when they are missing. They also have bluish bills rather than pinkish ones of Eurasian coot. The feathers which intrude on the bill are rounded compared with the sharp intrusion on Eurasian coot. The red-knobbed coot are also less shy at Khawr Rawri.

greenshank and redshank

A hard look at the waders around the khawr did not reveal any rarities. Black-tailed godwit were the most numerous by far followed by Dunlin, curlew sandpiper, greenshank and redshank. 

Since the sun was starting to fade, I decided to leave the main section of the khawr and head towards the north western reeds approached from the main road. I wanted to try to find crakes again.

One interesting bird seemed to be a possible marsh warbler. It's habits, plumage and structure seem closer to that species than reed warbler.

Most marsh warbler stop-over for a couple of months in east Africa before heading further south during December and January. If this is indeed a marsh warbler then it would be expected to move on too. In correspondence with Jens Eriksen he said it could be overlooked here.

potential marsh warbler

Two clamorous reed warbler were also seen and several more heard.

potential marsh warbler 2

Once again I had little difficulty in seeing crakes. There were at least two spotted crake and one Baillon's crake. Little crake is still alluding me.

spotted crake

The session was very productive. I saw 53 species in total in less than two and a half hours. Lesser flamingo also became species 319 on my Oman list.

Lesser flamingo at the Sulaibikhat outfall

Before dusk on Friday afternoon, Kuwait-based birder Mike Pope kindly showed me the Sulaibikhat outfall for a short birding session.

I was lucky enough to see a lesser flamingo out of the over 5,000 flamingo that have been counted to winter in Kuwait.

lesser flamingo (right)

As we saw flocks of flamingo flying around in the half light, Mike warned me to look out for the one known lesser flamingo.

flamingo in flight

It would have been very difficult to pick one out lesser flamingo in the flocks in the air. however we got lucky. A relatively small flock landed around the bay and it was almost immediately obvious that one of them was the lesser flamingo.

sleeping flamingoes

Furthermore, many of the flamingoes went to sleep on landing. We had to watch until the lesser flamingo woke up. 

Mike told me a lesser flamingo has wintered in Kuwait in  2010/11, 2012/13, and now 2014/15. It is probably the same bird.

crab plover

Near-by were a group of crab plover.

western reef heron with a black headed gull

Next to the outfall itself were some western reef heron and hundreds of gulls which were mostly black-headed gull.

common redshank with pigeon

There were relatively few waders. There were four common redshank and a single dunlin. Once again the coastline had plenty of pigeon.

This short session was rewarding. It was prelude to Saturday's full day session which brought me another lifer and several northern wintering birds which are rarely seen in other parts of the Arabian gulf. I will blog about them next.