Gogob and Qairoon Harirti

I visited Qairoon Hariti on Friday. Its in an interesting position at the top of the southern slope of the Salalah to Thumrait road. up in the mountains.

This means its on the green, ocean-facing side. There is a complex of public buildings there with extensive but haphazard gardens. It was here that I birded although a large section of the gardens are out of bounds.

A good area was where the rubbish trucks for the area are parked and at the back of the workers houses.

Rubbish attracts flies and flies attract birds. Two passage common redstart were seen there.

bluethroat

A smart male bluethroat was the most attractive bird there. However at the whole site there was considerable diversity.

young long-billed pipit

There was a good mix of garden birds, natural-habitat birds and those which are both. 

Long-billed pipit and fan-tailed raven were typical non-garden birds.

graceful prinia

Graceful prinia, Abyssinian white-eye, white spectacled bulbul were present in the gardens and near-by spaces.

white wagtail

White wagtail is still present in Dhofar and that includes at Qairoon Hariti.

Arabian wheatear

Arabian wheatear can be seen easily along with desert wheatear and Isabelline wheatear at the moment.

tree pipit

There are very large number of tree pipit passing through the region at the moment well above the numbers which winter. Qairoon Hariti was no exception.

My overall verdict on Qairoon Hariti is that is worth stopping off on the way on my desert trips but not necessarily a destination in itself.

On Friday I made another stop on the way to and that was at Gogob which is below Qairoon Hariiti on the southern side. It is just off the Salalah-Thumrait road.

two Eastern Imperial Eagle

Not many wintering and passage eagles now remain. Steppe eagle numbers went down first. However a few Eastern Imperial Eagle were lingering and two were seen at Gogob. The one on the left of the picture is a young bird while the one on the right is a sub-adult.

Pallid harrier

While out walking there I accidentally flushed a resting pallid harrier from a large tree. Almost immediately two fan-tailed raven started to mob it. About two minutes later there were six of them.

Fan-tailed raven in flight

resting fan-tailed raven

This area has a high number of this species.

desert wheatear

One of the reasons I visited both Qairoon Hariiti and Gogob was to search for pied wheatear. I still haven't seen it in Oman and few appear to pass through Dhofar in spring or autumn. Once again I saw only desert wheatear and the odd Isabelline wheatear.

Tristram's starling

Of course, Tristram's starling, cinnamon-breasted bunting, white spectacled bulbul and Abyssinian white eye were plentiful as usual in the greener parts of the Dhofar mountains.

Cinnamon-breasted bunting

On Saturday, I changed habitat for my birding. I went to two very different arable farming areas. By the end of the day I had added a new bird to my Oman list. The next two blogs will cover this story.

Juvenile yellow bittern at Mughsail

My last call on Friday was Khawr Mughsail. A quick inspection of the beach section showed nothing surprising so I headed inland to the two pools there. It was the smaller one and the one most inland that held most of the best birds.

Instead of staying in the car facing into the sun as last time, this time I got out on foot. I sat very still with the cliffs behind me overlooking the pool. This meant the sun was behind me too. 

I was very patient. After about thirty minutes a juvenile yellow bittern appeared at the far west end.

first sighting of the yellow bittern

It never left the cover of reeds walking stealthily all the time.

juvenile yellow bittern

It has a longer bill than a little bittern and a juvenile yellow bittern has only rusty streaks on the corn rather than full black one. The overall colouring and patterning is more pastel too.

stealthy yellow bittern

Thanks are due to Bart the birder from Belgium who told me two weeks ago that he had seen yellow bittern there. On my last visit using the car as a hide I failed to see any. I also doubt I wouldn't have stayed so patient without knowing a reward was possible.

male ferruginous duck

The pool also yielded my first ferruginous duck in Oman.

bluethroat on the far bank

There was a bluethroat on the far bank too. This was yet another addition to my list making species 192.

rear view of a distant bluethroat

The pool wasn't finished with there. There was an intermediate egret in the shallow end.

intermediate egret

There were more "normal" birds there as well. Common moorhen were numerous but shy and a grey heron was there throughout.

grey heron

There is a purpose built hide at the larger pool which I use on every visit now. There were many more birds in the larger pool but not of the quality of the back one. Of course this could change on any particular day.

Tufted duck

Three tufted duck were seen near the common moorhen.

Eurasian coot

Eurasian coot numbers are building in Dhofar now. At this pool there were nearly as many coot as common moorhen.

Steppe or greater spotted eagle

Overhead I have seen visiting eagles every time I have been there. This time two eagles appeared together but one is proving difficult to identify but eastern Imperial eagle has been ruled out while the other is a near-adult greater spotted eagle.

greater spotted eagle

I counted four European roller among the land birds this time though the reeds and bushes near the larger lake were a disappointment this time.

European roller

Finally once again I saw Tristram's starling picking out bugs from the backs of camels. 

Tristram's starling on a camel

In the next blog, I will report on a long walk around the east Khawr area but not concentrating on the Khawr. I was pleased with what I saw.

North of Hayer part two

During Saturday afternoon's birding north of Al Hayer, I was  privileged to see several Eurasian reed warbler out in the open.   They only do this for any length of time when their hormones get the better of them. For a two week period in the early breeding season they seem to forget their fear. Last weekend must have been part of that period. 

Eurasian reed warbler

All I had to do was head towards the noise, stand in one place and watch.

another picture of Eurasian reed warbler

This was one of the highlights of the afternoon which had begun with me surrounded by moorhen at the furthest north on my day's journey before turning back.

common moorhen

Also in the same area as the moorhen was a red eared slider.  I have seen this invasive terrapin in the diplomatic quarter in Riyadh but this was my first sighting outside the city.

red eared slider

A mallard flew past at great speed and was gone as soon as it appeared.

mallard

As I headed back south down the wadi, I had one last chance to see the grey heron which I had been seeing since late morning perched on the valley's slopes.

grey heron

Heading further back, I travelled through the part of the river where all the reeds have been removed. Only a few birds were to be seen. A single common sandpiper was close to the river. A large flock of pigeon were the main inhabitants. The only new species for the day near here was blackstart perched on one of the few remaining isolated trees.

blackstart

Immediately south of the dam the vegetation is still thick and undisturbed. I spotted the marsh harrier from the morning once again and a green sandpiper at the river's edge.

common myna

It was at the edge of thick reeds here that the Eurasian reed warbler mentioned at the start of the blog gave their display.

On the escarpment next to them I looked up and saw two common myna in a slightly strange environment for them.  Then I heard an odd noise from a little further along at the top of the same escarpment.  

baboons

I looked up and was absolutely amazed to see a troop of baboons. Baboons are native to the south west of Saudi Arabia but not Riyadh.

I knew a small number had been released many years ago in the Heet area near Kharj apparently by a departing expat and that they had survived. However this is 30 kilometres away across desert. If this is some of them, they have cleverly and bravely found a more hospitable habitat.

I didn't linger long as they shown an interest in coming down to drink.

After this I moved further south downstream. Indeed I moved past where I had entered the wadi in the first place. Here were a couple of clearings in the reeds. At one I saw a still wintering grey wagtail.

grey wagtail

A kestrel flew overhead while I was there.

kestrel

The other, larger clearing was my last stop of the day.  On arrival a green sandpiper and common snipe bolted and sadly didn't return.

profile of a bluethroat

However by way of compensation, a still wintering male bluethroat gave good views. The orange spot bluethroat breeds in Scandinavia and northern Russia in summer. Within the next week or so most of the remaining ones will have gone back north.

bluethroat

Almost the final bird I saw was a group of three Indian silverbill. I had been seeing the mall day but these three finally stayed still long enough for a photograph.

Indian silverbill

This turned out to be a good day's birding and I will return to this stretch of the river more often.

A still flooded Al Hayer

Bernard Bracken and I visited Al Hayer late Friday morning after leaving the lake near Riyadh cricket club.

Some of Al Hayer's pivot fields were still flooded following the rains from three weeks before.

One of my wintering favourite birds at Al Hayer is bluethroat and they were not shy on Friday. 

Bluethroat

Two of them gave fearless displays out in the open.

Same bluethroat from a different angle

I find they come out of their cover on cooler days.

A second  bluethroat

Time was quite short so Bernard and I paid particular attention to the parts of the fields that had been flooded as this is unusual habitat in this part of the world.

The fields were still flooded in place

This was the area where the white wagtail had gravitated to.

white wagtail

And not surprisingly three common snipe were also seen.

common snipe

Four members of the heron family were seen. These were purple heron, squacco heron, grey heron and a single little egret.

purple heron

Squacco heron are invariably present all year round and are the most common sight in summer.

squacco heron

Of course it is impossible to know if the squacco heron we saw were resident or wintering.

little egret

The resident white-throated kingfisher are joined by wintering common kingfisher for about 5 months every year.

white throated kingfisher

I still haven't seen a pied kingfisher in Saudi Arabia but they aren't unheard of at Al Hayer. One day...

common kingfisher

One strange feature of this time of year is the disappearance of most of the sparrows and finches from the fields. Only very small numbers of Spanish sparrow and house sparrow were seen and no streaked weaver at all. I very much doubt any of these species  migrate but must keep well sheltered. The only family member easily seen on Friday were Indian silverbill. 

Indian silverbill

One of the most interesting sightings of the day was a lesser kestrel perched on a pivot bar in one of the flooded fields.  They are most common in the passage seasons and absent in summer.

Lesser kestrel

In the early afternoon as air temperatures reached their highest four eagles arrived. They were both greater spotted eagle and steppe eagle. 

steppe eagle

The one above is a steppe eagle which I only identified by blowing up the picture and seeing the distinctive barring in the under-wing. The gape size which is another identifier was ambiguous.

Daurian shrike

This shrike identification was also tricky. Indeed most red-tailed shrike identifications are tricky. This bird is has a light mantle and wings. It also has a creamy under-side. So the contrast between the undersides and uppersides is small. The supercilium is weak and no hint of white. This all strongly suggests a Daurian shrike. However there is the vaguest hint of brown in the crown which is a counter indication. The tail colour is obscured too.

Hoopoe

The inclement weather didn't put off hoopoe from staying in the area. 

Isabelline wheatear

Finally I can report a relative dearth of wintering wheatears in the farming areas  in stark contrast with wadi Dawasar last weekend.  

On Saturday I had to go to the Taibeh district of Madinah for work but managed a small amount of birding near the hotel. I'll write about this in my next blog.