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.