Blue Eyed Birder: Oman - An Arabian Adventure

Another early start saw us head inland once again and back into the foot hills. When the sun rose it illuminated a very different looking landscape that felt less arid with more scrub and ground cover. Fan-tailed Ravens became regular and a brief sunrise photo stop gave us a few Tree Pipits and the inevitable Cinnamon-breasted Buntings (CBBs from now on).

We made our way to the Tawi Atayr Sinkhole and had the site to ourselves as we searched for Yemen Serins around the building and in the scrubby bushes. No joy was had with what I was told would be the most boring LBJ I had ever seen but there was a good House Sparrow flock (I only just realised that the locals here are part of a different, white cheeked clade of HS races from the east) and with them there were Bulbuls, CBBs and a good number of Ruppell’s Weavers. Flocks always attract other birds and foraging halmondendri Lesser Whitethroats and Abyssinian White-eyes moved through them, along with African Silverbills and even a Wryneck.

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

Abyssinian White-eye

Wryneck

Ruppell’s Weaver

Abyssinian White-eye

House Sparrow (P d indicus)

House Sparrow (P d indicus)

White-spectacled Bulbul

Tree Pipits were up on the wires and Blackstarts hopped around our feet while the Palestine and Arabian Sunbirds were feeding on the Sodom Apple flowers. Namaqua Doves poked around an old tennis court and there were some immaculate Rock Doves when we looked down into the vast sinkhole. The harsh early light made it look even more dramatic and you could not see the bottom of the limestone pit and the only sound emanating were the odd dove wing clap and the whistles of the Tristram’s Starlings down below.

Arabian Sunbird

Rock Doves

Tree Pipit

Blackstart

The Sinkhole

A punky Arabian Partridge suddenly appeared on a soil heap in front and lingered long enough for some excellent views before he chaperoned three half grown chicks and six more adults back into the shade.

Arabian Partridge

At this point I heard a clatter from the tree behind me and walked underneath and looked up straight onto a couple of Bruce’s Green Pigeons! There were in fact five in there and we all saw them very well before they decided to go elsewhere.

Bruce’s Green Pigeons

Eastern Imperial Eagles circled above and Fan-tailed Ravens put on a tumbling show too. There were plenty of butterflies here with Lime Swallowtail, Common Grass Yellows, Pioneer Whites, Plain Tigers and both Blue and the new Yellow Pansies. A Semaphore gecko once again seemed to be Guweira’s with the black spot by the foreleg.

Eastern Imperial Eagle

Fan-tailed Raven

Bermuda Thistle Argemone mixicana - another non-native

Senna italica

Sodom Apple Calotropis procera

Winged Treebine - Cissus quadrangularis

Yellow Pansy

Time to move on but we did not get far as a young Steppe Eagle was sat at the roadside on a presumed roadkill small cow and it seemed quite unperturbed by our presence. Another short stop got us very close to a pair of Arabian Wheatears and a good look scan round the vista where numerous Eagles were starting to stir.

Steppe Eagle

Arabian Wheatear - Stylianos Zannetos

Arabian Wheatear - Stylianos Zannetos (Stinky Prime by the way)

Speaking of which we headed now to a viewpoint to try and see Verreaux’s Eagle but as we neared the escarpment we hit cloud billowing up from the coastal plain below. It was cool and windy and no amount of waiting around was going to bring them to within seeing distance so we cut our loses and dropped back inland with the blue skies returned.

But there was a fine female Desert Wheatear

Desert Wheatear

starting the descent into Wadi Darbat

A rough track took us gingerly down into the bottom of the upper reached of the famous Wadi Darbat and after navigating the rocky dry riverbed we parked up by an overhanging cave where some armed locals were air curing strips of meat. Smiles and salam alaikums were exchanged and we set off down river to try and find the cave where all the thirsty local birds congregate to drink from the drips of the stalactites. The cliff sides were heavily eroded by time and water and the fig trees literally clung on to boulders with countless, all encompassing roots. I did ponder how any plant even gets going in such an extreme environment which goes from bone dry to raging torrent ten metres high between seasons.

We found the spot and there were immediately birds coming and going. Most were CBBs, Silverbills and White-eyes but amongst them were a group of non-descript, streaky little grey Yemen Serins which did indeed win the award earlier mentioned and then the real prize appeared – an Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak. We watched it hanging on upside down to collect drips showing off all its features. There were in fact at least two and over the next half hour they visited several times and often perched up on a perfect U-shaped liana. There were both Sunbirds flitting around and a stripy headed Black-crowned Tchagra.

Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak

Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeaks

Paul suddenly noticed a snake in the back of the cave and immediately pronounced ‘Arabian Cobra!’ and we watched this impressively large black and bronze snake working its way along the rocks. It was undoubtedly hunting birds and was being given a wide berth. Up until this point I had not noticed that we were standing on the very lip of the Adgharian waterfall with a sheer drop to the next level of the Darbat way below. Do remember this if you too get to visit!

Arabian Cobra - Stylianos Zannetos

The cool crew

We slow walked back across and over the clints and grykes of this currently dry limestone pavement and I was distracted by the butterflies once again that this time included the spectacular Pearl Charaxes.

Pearl Charaxes

Pearl Charaxes

Back near the car there were more Yemen Serins, Blackstarts, Tristam’s Starlings and a pair of Arabian Wheatear. The local guys had been practicing with their rifles and we had heard the sound of gun fires echoing through the canyon while we were watching the Grosbeaks. What we did not know was that their paper target on a box was actually directly in line with where we had been standing albeit several hundred metres further on! We had a great conversation about the quality of hi-end optics and off road cars and them waved them farewell and made our way up river to try and find a large remaining pool that we had spied on the way down.

Arabian Wheatear

What a lunch spot!

Greenshank and Green Sandpiper spooked as we approached and there were two less timid Common Sandpipers which remained. White and Citrine Wagtails were doing their thing and a Little Egret was up by the towering reedbed that could have held almost anything! We took lunch there and spent our time searching for Dragonflies of which there were many.

Citrine Wagtail

Almost every species we had already seen was present with the three Dropwings, Red-veined Darter, Broad Scarlet, Epaulet Skimmers, Black Percher, Blue Emperor, Blue-eyed Hawkers, Wandering Gliders and both Common Citril and Blue-tailed Damselflies.

Blue Emperor (that's our one at home too)

Violet Dropwing - I will always take a picture of one of theses

But there were new ones too with almost purple eyed Eastern Blacktails, Ferruginous Gliders, a couple of super skinny Sailing Bluets and the most sought after Arabian Bladetail which we were lucky to seen briefly perched too. There was a new Butterfly too with the Brimstone-like African Migrant.

Eastern Blacktails

Ferruginous Glider

Arabian Bladetail

Sailing Bluet

Two Short-toed Eagles and a Sparrowhawk were seen along the gorge cliffs and on the drive back up we saw Hoopoe, Wryneck and a very large Oriental Garden Lizard on a rock.

Oriental Garden Lizard

We descended and re-entered Wadi Darbat above the main waterfall (which must look amazing in the wet) and found ourselves in a strange almost country park type landscape with lots of signs, car parking, random camels, chalets, huts, greenhouses with picnic benches in them, bits of astro turf leading to classic swan pedelos, zip wires to towers across the crystal clear river, coffee and snack shacks, restaurants, gun range (!) and horse riding but there was not a soul in sight and everything was closed up for the season.

The waiter in our restaurant had told us that this time of year things are very quiet but come the wet season in July and August it is full to bursting as all of Arabia heads here for its holidays with the almost guarantee of heavy rain every day. Accommodation goes up hugely but the proper tourist industry comes alive. It is the complete opposite of the UK. This is why we had Wadi Darbat to ourselves which was great!

I could have spent all day here as every patch of Acacias and riparian bushes held birds with Common and Siberian Chiffchaffs, ‘normal’ tacking Lesser Whitethroats, several African Paradise Flycatchers, two Red-breasted and a Semi-collared Flycatcher, Ruppell’s Weavers and White-eyes, two Wrynecks, Tree Pipits, CBBs and two Bluethroats one of which was in full song.

African Paradise Flycatcher

Red-breasted Flycatcher

Bluethroat

Blackstarts were amongst the huts and ridiculously tame and there were Citrine, White, Grey and Western Yellow Wagtails on those bits of edge not pontooned. I could have spent all day just here working the trees and looking for something different.

Blackstart

Grey Wagtail

Tristram's Starling - female

Tristram's Starling - male

CBB

Tilapia sp

Detutra sp

A large desert (no Dessert) cockroach

I think that this very large Hemipepsis Tarantula Hawk

There were waterbirds too that started with a Eurasian Bittern doing the ‘you can’t see me’ thing out in the open. It seems to be a scarce Omani winterer from what we can gather. There were Night Heron, Indian Pond and Little Herons and a Yellow Bittern flushed out and across the river and Great and Little Egrets were wading more openly.

Eurasian Bittern

Common and Green Sandpipers and Greenshanks were seen and Whiskered Terns patrolled but thankfully the female Pied Kingfisher stayed put on some of the zip wires and did not need to be chased up and down the river!

Pied Kingfisher

At the far end there was an open café (it may have been two on top of each other) and we enjoyed milkshakes in the shade while an immature Eastern Imperial Eagle glided over us at incredibly close range. Can you image if a Golden Eagle did that in Scotland?

Eastern Imperial Eagle - that's how low it was

Eastern Imperial Eagle

Arabian Scops Owls are meant to be very common here but we could not find one at roost and I suspect a dusk visit would be worthwhile.

Back on the coast we had a new spot to check that we had seen on the way out – Khawr Taqah. The deep looking pool was in tricky light so we headed down to the beach end first and found 80 Pacific Golden Plovers roosting in the sparse vegetation. It seemed odd to see so many together as I had only seen singles in the UK and Sri Lanka before. The variation in plumage tone and pattern was exactly as you would expect to see in a flock of Euro Goldies.

Pacific Golden Plovers

There were the usual other waders, ibis, gulls and terns to be found but there were also several Purple Herons here with both adults and immatures and three Daurian Shrikes and two Richard’s Pipits were seen on the slow drive around. Marsh Harriers and Ospreys were present as they seem to be at every single waterbody we visited.

Purple Heron

Back up on the road we found a suitable spot to scan the main Khawr and very quickly found two non-breeding plumaged Pheasant-tailed Jacanas strutting around on the surface weed with many Moorhens and few Coot for company. The Jacanas are such an elegant wader. There was another treat amongst the weed with three diminutive Cotton Pygmy Geese with a male with two females in tow. I had previously only seem them in Sri Lanka when the flew across a lake while we were looking at Giant Flying Foxes so I was pleased to see them on the deck this time. Pale and dark Booted Eagles were seen too.

Cotton Pygmy Geese, Indian Pond heron & Stilts

Cotton Pygmy Geese

Pheasant-tailed Jacanas

Pleased with the stop we headed back into town and thought it rude not to visit the Khawr Ad Dahariz. It seems rude to say ‘usual stuff once again’ but that was the delight of coming down here every day. The birds showed so well that it did not matter how many times you watched them. To have a Western Reef Egret chasing fish again a few feet away or Caspian Terns just sat there almost close enough to touch? A Medium Egret was present too and six Citrine Wagtails fed around us.

Western Reef Egret

Caspian Tern

Black-winged Stilts

Glossy Ibis

Sooty Gulls and Black-headed Gull

I reckon Heuglin's Gull and Black-headed Gull

Slender-billed Gulls and Black-headed Gull

Heuglin's Gull

Sooty Gulls and Slender-billed Gull

Sooty Gulls

Heuglin's Gulls

Heuglin's Gull

Slender-billed, Black-headed, Heuglin's Gull & Sooty Gull

I large flock of Kentish Plovers were trying to roost just off the beach and I picked up a striking breeding plumaged male amongst them but it felt wrong. The crown was bright orange and this wash was also on the wing coverts while the face lacked any prominent black in front of the eye although there may have been a hint at the very base of the bill which led to the big black eyes looking isolated in the white face. The legs were also not that dark and had the greeny cast that Greater Sandplover has.

Interesting Kentish-ish Plover

Kentish Plovers

Greenshanks, Redshanks, Marsh Sandpiper, Ruff and Stilts

Sometimes a bird just feels different and this one certainly did that. We put some pictures out with interesting results with several people suggesting White-faced Plover although it actually seems closer to (and more likely) Malaysian Plover but equally some very eminent input (once again, thank you) suggested that a slightly aberrant male Kentish Plover was the more likely option.