Waiting for the monsoon

Late May and earlier June is the time of year in Dhofar with least number of bird species. It has some special breeding species such as yellow bittern, grey-headed kingfisher, and Dideric cuckoo to compensate. I have seen all three in significant numbers in the past week.

Seeing something new is problematic though. Although the sea holds two or three regular species that I haven't seen, the water is already getting choppy and visibility is now quite poor even before the full monsoon has arrived.

So I have fallen back on visiting the fresh water bodies on the plain with only the faint hope of an African vagrant which can turn up with the monsoonal weather pattern. 

One of the fresh water bodies is Raysut settling pools. The site's long standing vagrant was still there.

spur-winged lapwing (l) and red-wattled lapwing (r)

The vagrant spur-winged lapwing is still inseparable from the one red-wattled lapwing which didn't leave in spring either.

flamingo at the settling pools

There are still 21 flamingo there too.

black-winged stilt

The only other waders were black-winged stilt.

Ruppell's weaver

Other notable birds were Ruppell's weaver and a single very late European roller.

European roller

Apart from the spur-winged lapwing,  the most interesting bird was arguably the tens of Forbes-Watson swift which started to gather overhead as the afternoon got cooler.

I have visited east Khawr three times in the past week. Twice was in the early morning and once was in the late afternoon.

This morning was there very early and counted no fewer than eight (8) yellow bittern. Other common birds are glossy ibis (and one African sacred ibis), squacco heron and, common moorhen.

Otherwise, there has been a steady stream of late and over-summering waders.

These include a small number of greenshank and two grey plover.

Greenshank

Only on one occasion did I see a single redshank. Terek sandpiper has been a little more regular.

Redshank

There are at least 20 squacco heron on site and several are in breeding plumage with there blue bills and some have pink legs too.

Squacco heron

On two occasions at East Khawr (Khawr Dahariz) including this morning there have been a lone and very late blue-cheeked bee-eater. The resident little green-bee-eater are fairly numerous.

Little green bee-eater

At the end of last week, I did one last sea-watch in the Janjari area before the sea became rough and misty.

Sooty gull

I saw plenty of masked booby and three more flesh-footed shearwater but I have yet to see the supposedly common Persian shearwater and Jouanin petrel.

This trip cost me two flat tyres. Coupling this with the sea condition, I am prepared to wait until October when a local contact's new boat will be ready for pelagic trips.

Sanderling

Khawr Taqah has been another place I have visited. Notable birds were three sanderling and a curlew sandpiper, all on the way towards breeding plumage.

Curlew sandpiper

Both at Khawr Taqah and East Khawr, I have seen ringed plover in the last week.

Ringed plover

Yesterday I took a trip to Mughsail. There were the least birds I have seen there. A few moorhen, a little grebe, a reef heron and three grey heron were all I saw in the large freshwater pool.

great crested tern

The grey heron relocated to the beach where sooty gull and great crested tern were positioned in large numbers.

You can see the power of sea in the picture. Those waves are very close to the shore. I am hoping this power will deliver a vagrant or two before I leave for the summer.

Flashback to summer - the herons

A couple of days ago I asked Abdullah Amrou if he would send me some pictures of the birds of the Al Hayer area in June and July this year. I am very pleased to say that he obliged.


I was interested to see if he could shed any new light on breeding birds in the area. 


Tonight I want to share with you some of his pictures on the heron family. 

purple heron

Abdullah has pictures of purple heron, squacco heron and little bittern in breeding plumage.

squacco heron in breeding plumage

Squacco heron, black crowned night heron, and purple heron are reported in a Sandgrouse article by Michael Jennings in 2004 called "The breeding birds of Central Arabia 1978-2003" as sharing a breeding colony in the Al Hayer area.  Little bittern is also a known local breeder. The Helms guide "Birds of the Middle East" reports the same four heron family breeders in the area. 

Incidentally both sources have a question mark over whether cattle egret breed in the area.

little bittern

For me, the most intriguing set of pictures by Abdullah are of little egret at Al Hayer during these months. This is because neither the Helms guide or the Sandgrouse article suggests it breeds there.

little egret in summer at Al Hayer

Tom Tarrant made good records in the early 1990s.  He notes that little egret  are common throughout the year but he stopped short of claiming they breed there.  

Abdullah pictures of little egret at Al Hayer during the summer months add weight to Tom Tarrant's circumstantial evidence that it may breed there.

The numbers of cattle egret in the Al Hayer area have grown from small flocks in Tom's day to large ones today. Abdullah and I believe there may be up to 400 present at this moment in November.  There is still no concrete proof that they breed there. However, the reeds are so dense, wide and long that a cattle egret colony could easily go unnoticed.

Finally Abdullah Amrou hasn't sent me any pictures of grey heron in the summer months supporting the Helms guide and the Sandgrouse article's position on its non breeding status.

Lakes at Shkoder, Albania trip report part 4

On my final day in Albania, I visited Lake Shkoder following a tip from Derek Crane. Derek you may recall from earlier in this trip report is among foremost British experts on Albanian travel. I had a chance encounter at breakfast in my hotel and hence the tip off.

I wanted a wetland which was easy to reach and which was accessible at short notice so Lake Shkoder was recommended. 


If I have any regrets about my tour of Albania it is that I didn't visit Divjake National Park. It contains a wetland and it is half the distance from Tirana than Shkoder. However it is not near a town and would have been tricky to reach. I say why I regret not going there later.


Getting to Shkoder


There are regular buses and minibuses to Shkoder throughout the day from Tirana even though they depart from a different place to those for Durres. Remember Tirana doesn't have bus station. Instead it has five or six locations where buses depart from the side of the road. Each location serves a different region of the country.


The buses for Shkoder actually depart from a location which is barely 5 minutes walk from the place where others depart for Durres but you won't find it without a guide first time. Derek actually walked me there from the hotel!


The bus leaves on the hour and I took the 9am bus. As predicted it arrived in Shkoder after an uneventful journey just under two hours later.


The bus arrives in the town centre. You don't need a taxi to get to the lake. You ask for the "old bridge", get directions  and walk across it. After 10 minutes you are at the lake. 


It's massive and two thirds of it is in Montenegro rather than Albania. I was restricted of course to the part near the town but it served my purpose.

view of the part of the lake I birded

Birding

The opposite side from the walk is the wilder side and must contain hundreds of birds but it is not easily accessible (or at all). The walking side however does have sufficient cover for much bird activity and you can see plenty of the far side using binoculars.

The only hassle for me was a herd of cows which shared the centre of my neighbourhood.

view as the lake widens as it heads north towards Montenegro

One of the most obvious birds you see straight away is pygmy cormorant. They occupied both sides of the water while I was there so afforded good views. they were in full breeding plumage. Some guides say they have a baby face but I think they look quiet sour.

pygmy cormorant at Shkoder

Two other large water birds frequented my side of the water while I was there. One was a squacco heron. It first tried to hide from me but then slowly walked away in the undergrowth.

squacco heron hiding in the long grass

I have a small amount of video footage of the same bird. 

short clip of same squacco heron

There were a few little egret on my side too. Most were in breeding plumage. They even had the narrow purple surround to the eye which they retain for only a short time.

little egret in breeding plumage

In the water all the time I was there were varying numbers of great crested grebe.

great crested grebe

Patrolling up and down the side of the lake endlessly were several whiskered tern. they look so different in summer than the birds I saw wintering in Libya.

one of several whiskered tern

On the far side viewable by the naked eye but better with binoculars was clearly plenty of action. A scope would have been useful here. At one moment a little bittern flew out and returned at another moment a bittern did the same thing. With all my endeavours I couldn't trace where the bittern had re-landed even though I tracked him going back into the edge of the reeds.

coot and pygmy cormorant

There were many coot clustered around the far bank too as well as grey heron. Unfortunately there was no sign of dalmatian pelican which are known to visit here.  I don't have information as to whether they breed here too.

And this is where my regret about not having visited Divjake National Park comes in. There is a large breeding colony there.

local great reed warbler

We shouldn't forget the smaller birds present at Shkoder. This great reed warbler has improvised on its perch. Yellow wagtail are plentiful around the water's edge and several times goldfinch flew over me brighting up my day. 

As I rushed back to catch the 3pm bus I mused that two more days and I would then have started to do justice to Albania's bird life - one extra day at Divjake National Park and one day in the deep south to see more birds of drier country. Perhaps one day I'll be back.

They really shouldn't be here. Juliana wetlands

Black winged stilt - Juliana - July

Last Friday was my first proper visit to the Juliana wetlands. I had visited the south western edge in late May. I don't understand why I hadn't re-visited it earlier. My excuse is that the Jardinah farm (see blogs) has been equally enticing.

The Juliana wetlands are the largest fresh water (OK - semi saline) wetlands in Libya in the summer. They are known to house thousands of water birds in the winter. However they are little birded in the summer.

I found the wetlands to be very special as you will see.

Main Juliana lake - July

It was another hot day ameliorated by a sea breeze but still 31C. I took a taxi to Gar Younis tourist resort but unlike hundreds of others I didn't head for the beach. I headed up the coast and inland 200 metres. Here I found first the Gar Younis sebkhet (salt marsh) and then the much larger Juliana lake.

South west Juliana - sometimes called Sebkhet Gar Younis - July

At Gar Younis, I saw many barn swallow and a few pallid swift. But my attention was drawn to a little egret standing on a recently used nest. He flew off a short distance but never left my view. You have to remember that to the best of my knowledge that little egret are unrecorded in summer in Libya and certainly not known to breed.

recently used little egret nest - Sebkhet Gar Younis - July

He flew towards a small pack of dogs. Wild dogs seem to be my main companions throughout Libya at all the salpans which reatain water in summer.

Little egret - Sebkhet Gar Younis - July

This is the same sebkhet I saw a sedge warbler in late May. However this time I had other things on my mind I wanted to visit the main Juliana wetlands for the first time. I started walking the 300 metres between the two wetlands. I saw some surprises before I even got to the lake. First I saw a purple heron. I have a lousy photograph below which just looks "heron like" but it definitely was purple. I always seem to screw up the first time  I see an unexpected birds. Then I take a better and better photo on later contacts. I think it must be psychological. By the way, please remember, the first record of a summer grey heron was last week! (at Jardinah - see last week's blog).

Purple heron - Juliana - July

There were several cattle egret in the fields. I am now so used to seeing this bird even though its not on most distribution maps for Libya. Nevertheless they have been well documented by Gaskell in sandgrouse magazine.

Cattle egret on field near Juliana - July

To add to the entertainment there were also two pairs of stone curlew. This was my first definite sighting in Cyrenaica. A mobile very large flock of house sparrow also kept my attention. Hoopoe were also present. Laughing dove and pigeon made up the numbers

large flock of house sparrow - Juliana - July

But the second best sighting (after the heron) were two common redshank flying from Sebkhet Gar Younis to Juliana lake. Researchers have suggested they breed at Farwa next to the Tunisan border 1500 kilometres away. I suggest they breed here too.

common redshank - Juliana - July

The fun was only just beginning. I saw several recently used little egret nests and several little egret, tens of cattle egret, plenty of black winged stilt and a few kentish plover. The stilts were not afraid of me. If anything they were quite assertive to wards me as if defending the area. I dont usually get as good a photo as the top one of a black winged stilt unless the bird is co-operating!

mostly cattle egret next to Juliana lake - July

Many of the cattle egret were together in one set of reeds. A few little egret and a couple of squacco heron were with them. This was a great sight. I had seen a squacco heron at sebkhet Gar Younis in late May. I can now confirm they stay all summer at Juliana. Once again I believe this is a new record for Libya.

squacco heron - Juliana lake - July

Every week I have been observing new summer records (as I know them and certainly according to the distribution maps of the top two guides) . I was told Cyrenaica (north east Libya) was even more under-reported than Tripolitania (north west Libya) and this is proving to be the case. I suspect I may have exhausted the potential new summer water bird sightings although I have a couple of reservoirs up my sleeve.

 

more little egret - Juliana lake - July

I nearly forgot to add that there were plenty of little grebe in the water (known fact) and a small number of coot (unknown before).

coot - Juliana lake - July

I have been walking very carefully since the farmers at Jardinah farm told me they have cobra (not on its distribution maps either!). Well I didn't see one at Juliana but I did see this (see below). Its not my area of expertise but I think it would make good heron food!

other life at Juliana - July