The northern border

On Friday, Hanne and Jens Eriksen took me to the northern border area with UAE.  The closest place to the border is Khatmat Milahah and it proved to be a treasure trove of new birds for my Oman list.

First a pallid scops owl was located which proved to be cooperative.

Pallid scops owl facing

I was surprised that it shunned palm trees in favour of acacia. This was a lifer.

Pallid scops owl turning

When we finally moved on, we scouted around the near-by countryside and very quickly spotted a variable wheatear.

variable wheatear

This was a second lifer. It was an immature male though an adult male was also seen a little later.

A search of the trees uncovered at least three plain leaf warbler. Unfortunately I failed to photograph this bird.

Nevertheless in the space of one hour I added three birds to both my life list and my Oman country list.

For much of the rest of the day we sought out Sykes's warbler and Collared kingfisher which are both resident at Liwa and Shinas mangroves. I thought I glimpsed one at Liwa but didn't have a long enough view to claim it as an addition to my country list. If I had already had the bird, I would have counted the observation.

common kingfisher at Liwa

In contrast to collated kingfisher, common kingfisher were easy to see. Indeed we counted 12 in total over the two sets of mangroves.

Pale underparts are found on juvenile birds but they also have all black bills so I assume the featured bird is an immature female where the bill colour has changed but the underparts haven't yet.

common kingfisher at Liwa 2

The bird below seen at Shinas is an adult male with its all black bill in combination with deeply coloured underparts.

common kingfisher at Shinas

Sadly Indian house crow were all too common at both sets of mangroves and we hope they are not affecting the sustainability of the local collared kingfisher population which has such small numbers the sub-species is considered threatened.

Another bird which was extremely common at the two sites was clamorous reed warbler. Indeed these were excellent places to observe them easily.

On Saturday all morning was spent in the Sohar area where we were birding for larks among other birds. It was successful. I will blog about this next.

Ansab wetlands with an Asian dowitcher

I don't visit the north of Oman very often but work took me there on Wednesday. I managed both a late Wednesday afternoon and an early Thursday morning visit to Al Ansab wetlands in Muscat.

I was with Jens and Hanne Eriksen for the Wednesday visit.

My first priority was the vagrant Asian dowitcher which Jens easily found and pointed out to me.

Asian dowitcher

It looks superficially like a bar-tailed godwit but there are obvious differences when you know what to look for. First of all it is a fresh water bird. It breeds in freshwater and winters in it. Whereas bar-tailed-godwit is a coastal bird.

It is slightly smaller and has a virtually all black bill swollen at the top. The bill is also held at a lower angle.  It has barred flanks too.

Asian dowitcher with ruff

This bird stayed in the middle of the lake and so a scope is needed to see the barred flanks. It was because the bird stayed in the middle and because it is rightly not allowed to go down to the water's edge that my pictures are so distant. 

While I was there the dowitcher associated quite strong with a flock of ruff. I understand before the ruff arrived it was feeding mostly with black-winged stilt.

It was a constant feeder and so its reported sewing machine feeding action wasn't readily apparent.

Asian dowitcher with ruff on Thursday

It has been on site since early November though there is some doubt over whether it has been there continuously. 

The species is near-threatened as there are only estimated to be 23,000 worldwide and more than half winter in the same place on Sumatra. A few winter in southern India. It has never been seen in Arabia before. The one Yemen record has been withdrawn. However this autumn we have had strong easterly winds and more species usually seen in India are being seen in Oman than normal.

white-tailed lapwing

I saw 55 species in total at the wetlands over the two sessions. One lesser highlight were two white-tailed lapwing which are more common in the north than in Dhofar. Of course there were several red-wattled lapwing present.

little green bee-eater

Common birds at the wetland included little green bee-eater and sadly common myna which is at nuisance levels not only here but in Muscat generally.

common myna

In contrast I observed only one Daurian shrike which I believe is first winter.

Daurian shrike

My start point for separating Turkestan shrike from Daurian shrike is often to see if it is a dull bird with few contrasting features (pointing towards Daurian).Then there are individual sets of features that should contrast more depending on the gender and age (for example the supercilia in adult birds).  Also only a few Turkestan shrike winter in Arabia though there are some in Dhofar so caution is needed.

common moorhen

Moorhen are probably very numerous at the site but only a proportion show themselves.

common teal

I saw more species of duck than I have at any site in Dhofar this winter. I am sure this is helped by the fact that the second lake at Ansab has deep water encouraging diving ducks as well as dabbing ones. I saw shoveller, pintail, teal, tufted duck, ferruginous duck, pochard and mallard.

little grebe at sunset

Little grebe are numerous but I was a little surprised not to see a black-eared grebe.

I am grateful to Hanne and Jens Eriksen for guiding me round the site and for arranging a late afternoon viewing. Normally small groups or individuals must go in weekday mornings and by appointment.

At 6.15 am the next morning that's what I did.

graceful prinia

There was plenty of activity at dawn. For example several graceful prinia were out in the open.

common snipe 1

I returned to the area I call the picnic area several times. It has seats and is prettily landscaped. Here I came across a common snipe which had some strange behaviour. It allowed me much closer than usual and indeed carried on feeding. When it did take off it make no sound but I did see a light trailing edge. The strangeness made me investigate a possible vagrant Wilson's snipe as an alternative.

common snipe 2

Unfortunately the best plumage differences are all in the underwing and require either flight pictures or the bird in the hand.

Furthermore the supporting criteria of a darker mantle and distinctly lighter lower breast pattern compared with the upper breast were not in obvious evidence.

purple sunbird

Purple sunbird was remarkably numerous both on bushes and in the reeds.

White spectacled bulbul with mosquitoes

The above picture is not really to represent white spectacled bulbul but to show how many mosquitoes are on site. At dawn and dusk they are more than a nuisance.

white-eared bulbul

White-eared bulbul were also present. I noticed they are almost certainly introduced like in Riyadh. The natural ones in eastern province of Saudi Arabia have a distinct yellow eye ring. 

 mostly little egret with grey heron

On the hillside above the "picnic area" several tens of egrets and heron were seen sitting. Many were little egret but great egret and grey heron were also present. There was at least one intermediate egret too.

greater spotted eagle

I made one last return to the picnic area where a greater spotted eagle was resting.

There were at least 14 at the wetland. In previous years I am told there were only 2 or 3. The reasons for the increase aren't fully understood though the introduction of Tilapia fish to combat the mosquitoes may be relevant. Certainly these fish make up a sizeable part of their diet as I witnessed.

Temminck's stint

Also at the ornamental stream was a Temminck's stint and it was in deeper water than usual.

common sandpiper and citrine wagtail

Near-by I finally photographed a citrine wagtail which had evaded me until the very end.

I stayed in the north over the weekend. I linked up again with Hanne and Jens Eriksen who took me to some very interesting sites in the Sohar area. I will blog about that next.

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.