Stone curlew and much more at Raysut

As well as the settling pools, the industrial area of Raysut has other important bird areas. There is the rubbish tip itself but also the lagoons and the beach. Each can have a unique set of birds.

This year the water levels at the lagoons are much higher than last year and the area around has been landscaped. It shouldn't be missed if you bird in the Salalah area.

I decided it was going to be Friday morning's birding area. I started at the inland end and moved down towards the coast. The inland section includes most of the site's moorhen although it is apparently more sparsely populated by birds than the other end or indeed the middle. 

pheasant-tailed jacana

That didn't stop a pheasant-tailed jacana showing itself prominently at the inland end.

great reed warbler

On the far bank I caught sight of a great reed warbler moving from reeds to a tree.

Eastern Imperial eagle

Most of the eagle activity was at this end. Greater spotted eagle, Eastern Imperial eagle and steppe eagle were all observed.

citrine wagtail

The most common wagtail all the way along the lagoons was citrine wagtail with white wagtail only dominant in the shaded areas under the cliffs.

common redshank

There were plenty of waders in the mid-section of which common redshank was the most numerous.

However the density of birds is obviously much higher at the southern end. 

greater flamingo

The big numbers started to appear after the first large group of (young) flamingo.

The track along the lagoon gets much more difficult at this point and here is where I made an fortuitous decision.

I needed to get round the back of the birds with the sun behind me to have good views. This meant either walking close to the bank for a while or taking a long detour away from the bank. I chose the latter.

By doing this, I came across a stone curlew completely by chance. It flushed from under a tree when I walked by but I hadn't seen it. Instead it was now in the open. 

stone curlew

As I gingerly walked towards it, it started to crouch down and then sit. This made it remarkably difficult to see unless my eyes were trained on it.

stone curlew crouching

This was the first stone curlew I have seen not just in Oman but in the Gulf.

stone curlew sitting

I eventually continued round the lagoon and could see several tens of ducks and waders ahead of me. However I was drawn to the odd one else which was close to me. It was a collared pratincole which is very uncommon in winter in Oman.

collared pratincole

Other birds were more predictable including more flamingo, three Eurasian spoonbill and plenty more ducks and waders. There were also a few yellow wagtail.

black-tailed godwit (l) and pheasant-tailed jacana (r)

In some of the deeper edges were black-tailed godwit. While shallower edges had dunlin and little stint among others.

little stint

One of the birds I wanted to see was ruddy shelduck. It's uncommon in Dhofar. On my last visit to the lagoons there were three. Now there were six though I only managed to get four in any one photograph.

ruddy shelduck

Soon after seeing them I made the short trip to Raysut settling pools and met up with Hanne and Jens Eriksen.

This was not for general birding. After all the excitement with vagrant hirundines in recent days we were all trained on the swallows and martins.

wire-tailed swallow

Both the two wire-tailed swallow and the streak-throated swallow were still there. However attention was on what else might be there among the more prevalent barn swallow and pale crag martin.

unknown martin (above)

One candidate is the unknown martin above. It is either a sand martin or a pale martin.

unknown martin

Certainly it's breast band is weak and its overall colouration appeared pale.

sand martin

A definite sand martin was present but never perched at the same time to allow some sort of comparison.

I had to leave while Hanne and Jens were still surveying. However later I researched beyond the guidebooks to find that colour is often tricky as a determinant because of light conditions and the breast band can be very variable in both martins. Apparently the best characteristic is structural. The tail on a pale martin is hardly forked at all. If I had known that then I would have concentrated on those views rather than waiting for a frontal look. Next time I will be ready.

Species at Raysut lagoons on Friday

Ruddy Shelduck 6
Northern Shoveller 8
Northern Pintail 10
Garganey 12
Eurasian Teal 3
Little Grebe 6
Greater Flamingo 50
Grey Heron 5
Western Reef-Heron 3
Squacco Heron 4
Indian Pond-Heron 1
Eurasian Spoonbill 3
Greater Spotted Eagle 2
Steppe Eagle 2
Eastern Imperial Eagle 1
Eurasian Marsh-Harrier 1
Common Moorhen 8
Stone Curlew 1
Black-winged Stilt 12
Common Ringed Plover 6
Pheasant-tailed Jacana 3
Common Sandpiper 5
Green Sandpiper 4
Common Greenshank 6
Wood Sandpiper 5
Common Redshank 10
Black-tailed Godwit 6
Ruff 8
Curlew Sandpiper 1
Dunlin 3
Little Stint 12
Collared Pratincole  1
Slender-billed Gull  8
White-winged Tern  4
Whiskered Tern  5
Laughing Dove  6
Daurian Shrike  1
Crested Lark  1
Pale Crag Martin  4
Barn Swallow  1
Great Reed-Warbler 1

Blackstart 1

Desert Wheatear  2
Western Yellow Wagtail 2
Citrine Wagtail 10

White Wagtail 7
Ruppell's Weaver 4

Two types of vagrant swallow at Raysut

I was alerted by Jens Eriksen on Tuesday that he had seen a streak-throated swallow at Raysut settling pools the day before. This was too good an opportunity to miss as this species is a vagrant to Oman.

Unfortunately for me, Tuesday afternoon proved to be extremely windy as part of a phenomenon affecting much of the Gulf.

There were hirundines in the air but none would settle to allow close inspection.

Rather than abandon birding altogether I walked round the site looking for any interesting grounded birds.  I was successful in finding a very obliging Jack snipe.

Jack snipe

This was only the second one I have seen in Oman and certainly the better views. The other one had also been at the settling pools about one year before.

Jack snipe starting to lie low

It crouched down and allowed me to walk all the way round it from about three metres away.

frontal view of Jack snipe

I am pleased to say I left it behind in the end without flushing it.

final view of the jack snipe

Another notable bird on a very windy afternoon was a single blue-cheeked bee-eater. There are stragglers of this migratory species right through to mid-December.

blue-cheeked bee-eater

I was so keen to find the streak-throated swallow that I tried again on Wednesday afternoon. It was less windy but still not perfect. The Abdim's stork and White stork were still spending most of their time on the ground as flying conditions were still relatively poor.

grounded Abdim's stork

However I stuck to my task and headed straight to the dead bushes where hirundines seem to love to perch and waited. Unlike the day before the wind was light enough for them to land and many more of them were about as well.

young wire-tailed swallow

Barn swallow were coming and going. However it wasn't long before a wire-tailed swallow landed. This is a vagrant but not new one.

Streak-throated swallow (l) with barn swallow (r)

Ten minutes later, I was rewarded when the streak-throated swallow landed.

closer to the streak-throated swallow

It is so small compared with barn swallow. In fact it is only 11 cm long.

closer still to the streak-throated swallow

There have only been 6 previous records of the species in Oman and the last one was 9 years ago. it became species 310 on my Oman list.

desert wheatear

After this success I moved around the settling pools for some more general birding. All the time the wind was dying down. I walked past a desert wheatear to a muddy area which housed no fewer than four common snipe in close proximity to each other. If you look carefully in the picture below you can see three.

three common snipe and a wood sandpiper

The longer bills and the lack of scallops on the mantle are good clues that no pin-tailed snipe were among them.

common snipe

The long-staying vagrant spur-winged lapwing was nowhere to be seen but it spends much of its time on the other side of the perimeter fence these days as that area has become greener. There are three red-wattled lapwing it associates with but it associates much more closely with one leaving the other often two separated. This was the case on Wednesday when two red-wattled lapwing were seen but not the other two lapwings.

red-wattled lapwing

While walking around I was quickly aware that there were two shades of colour among the very many pale crag martin on site.

Unlike the other hirundines, pale crag martin don't settle on dead bushes. So all observations were of birds in the air.

pale crag martin flying

My first thought was that some European crag martin had appeared.

barn swallow (l) and pale crag martin (r)

However it soon became clear that some of the pale crag martin were very pale indeed and were probably of the lighter sub-species I used to see in the Riyadh area. I am assuming the powerful northerly winds had a part to play.

two pale crag martin

As a final move, I went outside the site to the eastern fringe where I had seen the Jack snipe the day before and where I was also on the look out for my nemesis bird  which is little crake. Neither bird was seen.

However a clamorous reed warbler was.

clamorous reed warbler

The sub-species brunnescens is the most common throughout Oman and eastern Saudi Arabia. This is sometimes called Indian reed warbler. Nevertheless this one had the browner upper parts and rustier flanks of the nominate species.

clamorous reed warbler

It's rustic colours showed up well as the light faded.

I was back out birding again in the Raysut area on Friday. It was eventful once again. I will blog about this next.

Three vagrants on Masirah

Friday was the best day at Hilf. Three different vagrant species were seen and photographed and the total number of species seen on the site was 11 higher than the day before.

Asian koel

The start of the day was similar to the day before in that it was easy to see Asian koel out in the open on exposed branches.

pin-tailed snipe with ruff

At the main pools, there were far more waders than the day before. The relatively short bill and well scalloped pattern to upper back of this snipe means it is likely to be a pin-tailed snipe. The other waders are ruff.

black-tailed godwit (centre left)

Both black-tailed godwit and black-winged stilt weren't present the day before either.

To begin with, I followed the same route as the day before. After searching the main pools, I headed towards the associated woods.

This entails a walk through the main works. It was here on a dead tree overhanging out of the pool area into the main works area was the white-throated kingfisher.

I saw it briefly when I arrived on Wednesday evening but not at all on Thursday. At last I got prolonged views and photographs of the first recorded white-throated kingfisher in Oman.

white throated kingfisher

I passed by the cluster of small over-spill pools. Here chiffchaff were chasing flies. The day before I had only seen them in the forested areas. Views were much easily here. Two bluethroat were around too.

chiffchaff

Further round but still not at the woods,  a male Asian koel was perched on a dead tree. I suspect this was the same male as seen deep in the woods the day before. If not there were four there and not three.

male Asian koel

These woods are quite beautiful and almost certainly only exist as a result of a water course below ground fed by the sewage works. There is no smell or hint of unnaturalness when in them though.

the edge of the woods

I quickly found the red-breasted flycatcher from the day before.

putative blue and white flycatcher 1

However it was another and much rarer flycatcher that stole the show. On the edge of the woods was a large flycatcher which I saw chase away a chiffchaff. I could see from this interaction how large it was.

The bird is a female flycatcher which has been identified as a vagrant blue and white flycatcher by highly qualified people on birdforum and other sources.

There is a potential difficulty as blue and white flycatcher was split in 2014 into blue and white flycatcher and Zappey's flycatcher. The former has a population 50 times that of Zappey's flycatcher and there are no records of the latter bird west of Burma in the 18 months since the split. However, the females are very similar.

 putative blue and white flycatcher 2

I am preparing the case that it can only be a blue and white flycatcher and it is too big a subject to cover on this blog and is also work in progress. However I can say at this stage that one of the two co-authors of the splits paper wrote to me and said:" based on what we know of the range and population size of Zappey’s Flycatcher, it seems reasonable to assume that your bird is Blue and White".

 the flycatcher in different light

If this record is accepted, it will be only the third in Oman and the first since the split.

After all the excitement in the woods, I returned to the main ponds. 

yellow wagtail

There were yet more species now present which were either not the day before or I had missed them. Along side the white wagtail were also yellow wagtail and a single grey wagtail.

Indian pond heron

I made another scan of the herons and once again Indian pond heron outnumbered squacco heron.

male marsh harrier

In the air over the day at one stage there were four marsh harrier. I suppose this is probably the only place for them to visit on the island so the density is not a complete surprise. A single Egyptian vulture was also seen flying over.

great cormorant

Nearly all the great cormorant that roost on site disappear to the sea each day but occasionally one can be seen at the works. Here one was sunning itself.

wire-tailed swallow (l) and barn swallow (r)

The previous afternoon was when I encountered the two vagrant wire-tailed swallow. There were there again hawking for insects over the pools. Indeed there were only three swallows of any time. The other one was a barn swallow.

The wire-tailed swallow were the third vagrant of the day.

bar-tailed godwit(l) and ruff (r)

There were fewer waders than in the morning but one new arrival appears to have been a bar-tailed godwit. This is not common in Dhofar but hundreds winter at Bar Al Hikman on the mainland opposite Masirah.

white-winged tern

Both whiskered tern and white winged tern were present on all my birding sessions at the works. This one is a white-winged tern which has a much whiter rump than a whiskered tern.

two wire-tailed swallow

One of my last efforts before finishing on Friday was to have as close a look as possible at the wire-tailed swallow. They had a preferred perch at the waters edge and give me enjoyable long views from it. It was a fitting end to my time at Hilf.

Hilf, Masriah is such a long way from Salalah that it took almost all Saturday to return even with the first ferry. I took the inland road which is longer but quicker.

My stops weren't really for birding but more to rest. Nevertheless I did manage to see an Asian koel out in the open at Qatbeet.

Asian koel at Qatbeet

My birding since the long weekend has all been local to Salalah. This has not been uneventful. I will blog about it next.

Species seen at Hilf sewage works on December 4th

Vagrants marked as bold

Northern Shoveler 16
Northern Pintail 10
Garganey 7
Eurasian Teal 4
Black-necked Grebe 1
Great Cormorant 60    
Grey Heron 8
Purple Heron 1
Western Reef-Heron 4
Cattle Egret 6
Squacco Heron 2
Indian Pond-Heron 5
Glossy Ibis 3
Egyptian Vulture 1
Eurasian Marsh-Harrier 4
Common Moorhen 6
Eurasian Coot 1
Black-winged Stilt 5
Red-wattled Lapwing 1
Common Sandpiper 4
Green Sandpiper 3
Wood Sandpiper 8
Black-tailed Godwit 2
Bar-tailed Godwit 1
Ruff 10
Common Snipe 2
Pin-tailed Snipe 2
Slender-billed Gull 8
Black-headed Gull 2
Steppe Gull  1
White-winged Tern 4
Whiskered Tern 4
Laughing Dove 28
Asian Koel 3    
Eurasian Hoopoe 1
Common Kingfisher 1
White-throated Kingfisher 1   
Ring-necked Parakeet  1
Daurian Shrike  1

Barn Swallow 1
Wire-tailed Swallow 2
Common Chiffchaff 5
Menetries's Warbler 1
Blue-and-white Flycatcher 1 
Bluethroat 2
Red-breasted Flycatcher 1
Desert Wheatear 4
Isabelline Wheatear 1
Western Yellow Wagtail 4
Grey Wagtail 1

White Wagtail 6