Uncommon birds at Mughsail

Having had an unsuccessful time birding for the spring passage in likely places, on Friday I chose to change my plan. Instead, I decided to do some general and less focussed birding in a location I hadn't been to for a while. I chose Mughsail.

It turned out to be a very good choice. I started out by visiting the main pool and sitting down in the hide.

On the way all the moorhen and other water birds scattered and a wigeon disappeared into the reeds not to be seen again.

One of the few birds left unperturbed was a great egret.

great egret

The next bird activity was a flock of rock pigeon which flew straight past the hide and landed on rocks a few metres way.

rock pigeon

Slowly the water birds returned as I remained forgotten in the hide. First back were two little grebe.

little grebe

One by one the moorhen returned.

moorhen

Then it suddenly got interesting. The lesser whistling duck swam into view. I last saw this vagrant in the second and smaller pool about 10 weeks ago.

lesser whistling duck

It didn't hide. Clearly it is now more confident in its surroundings.

lesser whistling duck standing upright

It remained in view for over ten minutes.

lesser whistling duck walking

The characteristic chestnut rump was easily seen.

lesser whistling duck walking off

While the lesser whistling duck was still in the open, a common kingfisher darted on to the scene on to some reeds barely 5 metres to the right of the duck.

common kingfisher 1

This was totally unexpected and a reward for speculative birding. Common kingfisher is very uncommon in southern Oman. It is right on the edge of its normal wintering range. I don't expect it to stay long.

common kingfisher 2

This bird is a female as told by the extensive red on its lower mandible.

It became bird number 262 on my Oman country list.

coot

Other returning birds included a solitary coot.

Tristram's starling

After this success I headed towards the second pool passing several Tristram's starling on the way to the car.

kestrel near the second pool

The second pool was quiet except for several moorhen and a greenshank. A common kestrel was also near-by. This pool has given me several successes in the past but it was not to be this time.

On the way out of the khawr, I came across black-crowned sparrow lark drinking. I don't think I have seen them at the site before.

black-crowned sparrow lark

My next stop was a wadi 9 kilometres further west of Mughsail. The birding was very interesting. I will blog about that next.

Mughsail in late December

I have visited the khawrs as often in the last month as before and when I have they haven't produced any new birds. However that is not to say that the birding isn't good and varied.

Yesterday I went west to Khawr Mugsail for the first time in over three weeks.

There were plenty of ducks, moorhen and coot as well as interesting members of the heron family including intermediate egret.


However the most interesting bird to me was a warbler. I spent about an hour patiently watching the second pool inland for any crake or bittern activity. Suddenly out of the reeds flew a single white spectacled bulbul chased by a clamorous reed warbler.

clamorous reed warbler

Both shot up the hillside next to me and flitted between three small bushes. This enabled me to get good views of an often difficult bird.

The underside of clamorous reed warbler 

It was quite different to the last one I photographed at East Khawr which had much browner hues and was probably the nominate sub species.

see the four primary tips

It had only four primary tips showing so any doubts about it being a clamorous reed warbler or close relative was removed. However the upper parts were very cold. The Indian sub species brunnescens is most likely which some people call Indian reed warbler. However it is even greyer than the birds I used to see at Jubail in eastern Saudi Arabia which were also supposed to me Indian reed warbler. 

However, its tail was notably square and there is the vaguest hint of streaking on the upper breast leaving me some doubts about exact relative.

clamorous reed warbler surveying the scene

Meanwhile down below in the pool, most of the water birds were comfortable with my presence, hidden behind a rock, and swimming freely.

lesser whistling duck

Even the vagrant (and normally noctural) lesser whistling duck was out in the open this time. The regional guide has it only a little larger than garganey but it looked substantially so to me.

lesser whistling duck bathing

While the duck did some feeding (with an unusual action by the way often involving just stretching its neck and skimming the water just below the surface), it spent a lot of time bathing.

northern pintail

Northern pintail was the most numerous duck in this and the first (and much larger pool).

Ferruginous duck

Ferruginous duck was still present from last time.

camels destroying the khawr

I didnt spend as long at the main pool which has a properly built hide. I haven't found it as productive.  Nevertheless it did contain two cotton teal.

I was disappointed to see a herd of camels there one again even though the khawr is fenced off presumably to stop them. They are now inflicting considerable environmental damage.

The coastal pools were also surveyed and had several flamingo, western reef heron and single male mallard duck among other birds.

male mallard

I saw no new birds but the views were interesting nevertheless. New species will be hard to find from now on as I have seen so many in Dhofar. However I did add to my Oman list when I stopped off in Raysut on the way back. I will blog about that next.

Lesser whistling duck at Mughsail

I went to Khawr Mughsayl on Saturday and birdied it very intensively seeing a total of 55 species.

The big news is that I saw a lesser whistling duck (subject to approval by Oman's rarities committee) at one of the back pools. 

There are only four approved records for a total of 16 birds in Oman and only one in the rest of the Middle east in Israel.  I have already sent off a rare birds report for the Oman Rarities Committee to consider.

early view of a lesser whistling duck

I had been sitting still and calmly in among the cliffs looking down on this back pool when I saw a blue glint in the reeds. Using my binoculars I could see it was the bill of a bird which was resting on the edge of the reeds. Furthermore I had no idea what it was.

I managed to clamber down the hillside and hide behind a tall clump of reeds on the opposite back to the duck which was 6 metres away.

It hardly moved the half an hour I observed and photographed it.

lesser whistling duck starts to move

Consulting Birdforum, then my guide book and on-line material it is a lesser whistling duck.

It is a nocturnal feeder and often rests all day. This explained its lack of activity. Furthermore the freshwater pool is typical habitat for it.

lesser whistling duck in new position

The only confusion species is fulvous whistling duck which is also a vagrant to Oman. However there are several differences. The upper tail coverts are chestnut red in a lesser whistling duck. They are nearly white in a fulvous whistling duck. The chestnut colour can just be seen in the first photo. The face and overall colouration on a fulvous whistling duck is more fulvous too!

The sighting of this duck was roughly half way through a birding session in the Khawr beginning at 9.30 am and finishing at 3 pm with only a stop to replace a flat tyre.

I started out at the coastal end and worked inland through all the pools and adjacent plain and hillsides.

pheasant tailed jacana

The coastal pools didn't hold anything special this time apart from two pheasant-tailed jacana including one confiding bird. Otherwise the beach lagoons hled mostly various herons, gulls and flamingo.

kestrel

The next stop inland was the largest pool. Here were plenty of ducks including tufted duck and ferruginous duck. There were also moorhen and coot. I was especially on the look out for cotton teal but there were none.

After this I drove a little further inland and left the car. I walked on foot for the rest of the wadi. I walked towards the next pool. This second inland pool is much smaller than the first but it has provided me with many good birds including a yellow bittern on previous trip and now a lesser whistling duck.

As  I walked alongside the hillside, a common kestrel came close.

Then I settled down and sit on the lower hillside looking in at the pool. On first look there were just more moorhen and some cattle egret and a single little egret. It was then I glimpsed the lesser whistling duck after sitting for about ten minutes and scanning.

some Abdim's stork

The duck was not the only spectacle while I was sitting though it was the most important one.A flock of near 100 storks flew over and hesitated in the area for a few seconds before moving on. 
.

one white stork

All the storks were Abdim's stork except one which was a white stork.

the stork flock

The pool also had yet another pheasant-tailed jacana which I got best views of as I left. 

another pheasant tailed jacana

I moved further inland, this time on foot towards the smallest and most inland pool.

bonelli's eagle

While doing this, a juvenile Bonelli's eagle flew into the area briefly

striolated bunting

Striolated bunting and blackstart kept coming down from the hillside onto the wadi floor. Tawny pipit were already there.

blue rock thrush

A blue rock thrush was perched in a small bush.

long billed pipit

Several Long billed pipit were on the lower hillside.

greater spotted eagle

As I arrived at the back pool, I accidentally flushed an Eastern Imperial Eagle and a greater spotted eagle which had both been resting there.

Sitting a under a tree as cover and finally a couple of moorhen came out alongside a garganey. I also viewed my first bluethroat of the day. It was restful but not particularly eventful there.

Following my visit to Mughsayl, I popped into the Eftelqoot area on the way back home. This was a new site for me and I am glad I went there. I will blog about that next.

List of 55 species seen at Mughsayl
Lesser Whistling-Duck  1   
Northern Shoveler  4
Northern Pintail  4
Garganey  6
Ferruginous Duck  3
Tufted Duck  3
Arabian Partridge  9    
Little Grebe  6
Greater Flamingo  8
Abdim's Stork  90    
White Stork  1
Great Cormorant  1
Gray Heron  5
Purple Heron  1
Intermediate Egret  1
Little Egret  1
Western Reef-Heron  4
Cattle Egret  3
Squacco Heron  4
Osprey  1
Steppe Eagle  1
Imperial Eagle  2
Bonelli's Eagle  1
Eurasian Moorhen  14
Eurasian Coot  5
Pheasant-tailed Jacana  4    
Common Sandpiper  5
Green Sandpiper  2
Common Greenshank  2
Common Redshank  4
Common Snipe  2
Slender-billed Gull  12
Sooty Gull  30
Steppe Gull  3
Heuglin's Gull 22
Laughing Dove  12
Green Bee-eater  1
European Roller  1
Eurasian Kestrel  1
Daurian Shrike  1
Pale Crag-Martin 4
Barn Swallow  6
White-spectacled Bulbul  2
Bluethroat  1
Blue Rock-Thrush  1
Blackstart  5
Northern Wheatear  1
Desert Wheatear  6
Isabelline Wheatear  2
Tristram's Starling  9
Citrine Wagtail  4
White Wagtail  2
Long-billed Pipit  5
Tawny Pipit  7
Striolated Bunting  6