Mid winter at Khawr Rori

I visit Khawr Rori about once a week. It's little bit far for mid-week trips after work so I tend to go on weekends.

I have been looking for a long-billed dowitcher which was reported about a month ago and then again last week. So far I have failed to find it. Nevertheless Khawr Rori is a very large expanse of fresh water and other new birds could turn up at any time.

pheasant-tailed jacana

It is the place where pheasant-tailed jacana can be most easily seen. I counted eight on my last visit. Only Khawr Taqah comes close.

black-winged stilt with pheasant-tailed jacana

Other Indo-Malay wintering species can be found here too such as cotton teal. You need to look carefully as their are hundreds of other ducks and plenty of geese to distract you.

cotton teal

Among the large birds, the number of greater flamingo and great cormorant has continued to rise.

great cormorant with a grey heron

There are always plenty of herons including intermediate egret and great white egret at this time of year. Though western reef heron is the most common along with grey heron.

western reef heron

I have been paying particular attention to the groups of black-tailed godwit at the Khawr.

black-tailed godwit

This is because the long-billed dowitcher was seen associating with a group in one of its sightings. On Saturday, I followed a group of eleven (11) godwits and checked them one by one. Unfortunately the dowitcher wasn't there.

ruff

Sometimes, I have seen other single birds near the groups. A single ruff was with them on one occasion (whereas at East Khawr you can see more than two hundred some days).

marsh sandpiper

On Saturday, I came across a lone marsh sandpiper while tracking them.

marsh sandpiper probing

This elegant bird is always a pleasure to watch.

marsh sandpiper standing

As well as keeping an eye out for godwits and dowitchers, I have spent time near dusk looking for crakes and waterhen but again I have not been successful at this site (though I have seen Baillon's crake at two other sites).

dusk

There is a second approach to part of Khawr Rori which is accessed directly from the main road. This leads to a small fringe wetland rather than the main lake. I saw my first pied cuckoo in Oman there a couple of months ago.

little stint

It was good to be able to directly compare a Little stint and Temminck's stint there on one visit.

two types of stint

They are quite distinctly different. You can see the Temminck's stint is plainer, has yellower legs and has a fuller breast pattern (though pale).

Temminck's stint and little stint

Once a month, I take a long trip into the desert to see a different set of birds. I did this on Sunday which was a holiday here. It turned out to be very eventful. The next two blogs will cover the trip.

My search for a demoiselle crane

Yesterday, I opened my email to read one of Jens Eriksen's regular compilations of birding records in Oman. On December 31st, a demoiselle crane was reported at Mughsail.

I dropped my plan for the day and almost immediately set out for Mughsail. When I arrived I searched the area from top to bottom but couldn't find the crane.

I decided that the crane might have moved east to either Raysut lagoons (also called Salalah lagoons) or West Khawr. I reasoned that these were the nearest places with more suitable environment for a crane. However, they are both more than 30 kilometres from Mughsail. So what started out as twitch became a test of my understanding of bird behaviour and local knowledge.

Imagine my satisfaction when I found that my intuition was right.

demoiselle crane

The demoiselle crane was almost alone in the southern stretch of water at Raysut lagoons.

second view of demoiselle crane

I sat down and watched it peacefully for about fifteen minutes. I was at the bottom of the cliffs which form the western side of the wadi housing the lagoons. A few common redshank and white wagtail were the only other birds in this part of the water.

Raysut lagoons

In stark contrast the northern stretch of the lagoons which start about 100 metres from where I was sitting was packed with birds.

Over one hundred white stork were resting on the slopes of the same escarpment as my rocky seat.

white stork resting

More white stork gradually joined them.

white stork in flight

In the water near the storks were two pintail and two little grebe. There may have been more water birds but this area was not my primary interest.

These slopes are where many eagles that are seen at the Raysut rubbish dump roost. Indeed about 15 steppe eagle and 3 eastern imperial eagle were on the cliffs or by the water near the storks.

Early I had been to Mughsail where the crane had originally been reported. First, I checked the lagoon on the eastern side before you come into the village. Here were reef heron, a great white egret, several grey heron and a few adult flamingo.

grey heron

I had thought this was the best place to see the crane if it were still there.

adult flamingo

I then moved on to Khawr Mughsail on the far side of the village which is a known birding hotspot.

common kestrel

My mission was not to see ducks and other water birds as usual. However a common kestrel which I had seen before and is extremely confiding captured my attention briefly.

Bonelli's eagle

A young Bonelli's eagle certainly caught the attention of the birds which scattered for cover in panic. A pile of feathers at the edge of the second, inner pool was evidence it had been here before. Luckily the vagrant lesser whistling duck had not been his previous meal. It was still present.

first winter or female bluethroat

Other birds also snatched my attention. A bluethroat had decided to climb a rock face in an unusual act. Its near neighbour was a more expected blue rock thrush.

blue rock thrush

Interesting as these views were they were not comparable with my later sighting of the demoiselle crane.

Raysut settling pools over New Year

I have been regularly going to Raysut settling pools recently. It is best known for the hundreds of Abdim's stork that roost there in winter and are often present in numbers up to 200 during the day.

It has produced some rare or uncommon birds for Oman in the past two months such as stone curlew, black tern, spur winged lapwing and jack snipe. That is the main reason I now visit. The black tern and spur winged lapwing are still present. Stone curlew and jack snipe I have failed to see and I presume they have moved on.

I last went there late in the afternoon on December 30th and January 1st.

spur-winged lapwing

I had thought the spur-winged lapwing had gone having not seen it on December 30th. However it was back on January 1st alone with the full compliment of seven red-wattled lapwing. I suspect it and three of the red-wattled lapwing had temporarily left but had returned.

two types of lapwing

On December 30th I spotted only four red-wattled lapwing. Almost by way of compensation a Pacific golden plover was loosely associating with them in place of the spur-winged lapwing.

red-wattled lapwing

On that day they were crawling all over the pile of dried material from the settling pools along with several white wagtail and yellow wagtail.

Pacific golden plover

Near part of the works, a jack snipe had been seen just before I arrived on December 30th. Despite my efforts on that day and again on January 1st I failed to find it.

common snipe

I picked up on four common snipe though.

greater white fronted goose

Among the other more unusual birds at the works are three greater white fronted goose.

tawny pipit

Tawny pipit finishes my feature on the more unusual birds at the settling pools. Of its relatives, four types of wagtail are more common.

As it happens I ended up in Raysut a day later on January 2nd too albeit a different part of the district. Furthermore I found another rare bird. I will blog about that next.

My search for Arabian golden-winged grosbeck

I have been visiting Ayn Hamran about three times a week and Wadi Hanna about once a week for the past month. I have typically visited Ayn Hamran early in the morning before work.

The reason has been my search for the elusive Arabian golden-winged grosbeck which is reported in those two places more than anywhere else. it was one of my Nemesis birds.

On New Year's Eve morning I finally saw one at Ayn Hamran for a fleeting moment. I returned after work and saw another but again only for a few moments.

So I returned this morning. This time I observed two and one stayed long enough for a few photos. All photographs are from below because the bird chose to stop in the tree I was standing under.

first view of Arabian golden-winged grosbeck

To help other birders, I can tell you I saw one yesterday at about 7.30 am. The two today were seen at about 7.15am and at exactly 7.36am. I know the exact time of the last bird since it is recorded on the photographic file. 

second view of Arabian golden-winged grosbeck

All three sightings were within 30 metres of each other. This area is immediately left if facing up hill (west and west north west) of the top pool with large tree. 

Each bird arrived from the north west from up the mountain and flew south east towards the stream. This area is the same place as two other recent sightings by other birders who I have spoken to. 

The single bird I saw in afternoon was in a different place. Like most birds at this time of day it was in a shaded place. It was with Abyssinian white eye in the canopy of a large tree on the edge of the thick woodland at the northern end (upper) of the Ayn. 

Masked shrike

As I was single-mindedly looking for grosbeck this morning, I didn't bother with observing and photographing other birds. However the masked shrike was seen in an exposed perch just as I was leaving so it was no effort.

Masked shrike rarely winters in southern Oman but this male has been present all winter.

Arabian partridge

The morning before, on New Year's Eve I did bother with other species. Arabian partridge are always around the Ayn, nearly always heard and occasionally seen. 

black-crowned tchagra

Black-crowned tchagra did its best to distract me from the grosbeck search and like the grosbeck it is best seen at Ayn Hamran and Wadi Hanna.

Arabian warbler

Arabian warbler are very noisy at the moment and easily seen in the trees and bushes in the more open areas.

Arabian warbler scrambling

On New Year's Eve two wryneck were also seen. One was observed in the morning and one in the afternoon in two different places.

Eurasian wryneck

There are so easily over-looked due to their camouflaged plumage especially from the back.

Eurasian wryneck from the back

The Ayn seems to have gained more wintering hoopoe over the past two or three weeks.

hoopoe

Two other birds are of note that have been seen at Ayn Hamran recently. One is Shining sunbird. The males are in full breeding plumage at the moment. 

male Shining sunbird

The second bird was a male Turkestan shrike.

Turkestan shrike

I understand these shrike undergo a winter moult. This might explain the lack of a white wing patch.

male Turkestan shrike

Without this patch, this particular bird looks even closer to a brown shrike than most Turkestan shrike males.  Even some brown shrike have this patch but I thought Turkestan shrike always do.

Turkestan shrike turns

I am currently double checking this birds identity with experts.

It has not just been Ayn Hamran I have visited for the grosbeck. Wadi Hanna is further away but is a larger site with just as many sightings.

red-breasted flycatcher

During my times there I have come across a wintering song thrush and a red-breasted flycatcher among the less usual birds.

first winter red-breasted flycatcher

The buff wing bar in the greater coverts apparently is found on first winter birds but not females.

another view of red-breasted flycatcher

Either way, the difference in colour between female type red-breasted flycatcher and the taiga flycatcher (subject to rarity committee decision) I saw at Qatbit is great. The latter bird is all greys, black and white. This bird is all buffs and browns.

male cinnamon-breasted bunting

Wadi Hanna is an excellent place to see wintering birds of prey. However the three most common birds which even the non-birder will notice are cinnamon-breasted bunting, Abyssinian white eye and fan-tailed raven.

Abyssinian white eye

Somewhere among them are Arabian golden-winged grosbeck as well.

Finally at this time of year, I issue an annual list of the cumulative readership of the blog over the years with the change in position from last year. It is below.

I would like to wish my readership a Happy New Year and good birding in it. Thanks are particularly due to my new readers from Poland and China.

Cumulative readership of the blog since it began
1. United States (NC)
2. Saudi Arabia  (NC)
3. United Kingdom  (NC)
4. Libya (NC)
5. Russia (NC)
6. Germany  (NC)
7. United Arab Emirates  (+1)
8. China  (+4)
9. Bulgaria  (-2)
10. Poland  (+25)