We were really looking forward to today, as there's a bunch of endemics to find and we want better views of yesterday's serins and linnets. So we were off before sunrise heading to the closest wadi on our list and it only took 20 minutes to get there as we followed streets devoid of maniacal drivers and followed twisting, winding lanes into a rural area. Parking up, we could hear Yemen Linnets singing away from the fields behind us but after a few minutes standing around in the crisply cold air we realised there wasn't going to be much activity until the air temperature increased! In short, it was bloody freezing! So to get moving we located some small pools further down into the wadi that sometimes hold roosting Arabian Waxbills - but not today. We had a decent view down through the narrow wadi and up onto the hillside above us so we decided to watch and wait here. Some time later a Philby's Partridge began calling above us and luckily it was perched prominently on a rock, probably in response to my iPhone! I wasn't expecting this bird here, and that's why i'd left the scope in the car! Bugger! Luckily David volunteered to go back and get it! It's a superb bird and looked great through the scope, remaining on its rock for a good half an hour.
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| Philby's Partridge |
By the time the sun had reached our spot we were starving, so we walked back to the car and ate our breakfast that we'd purchased from a supermarket next to the hotel last night. As birders do, we began wandering around. I headed up into some fields when I heard another partridge calling but just at the precisely wrong moment when I thought I was going to get a crippling photo, our first Buff-breasted Wheatear appeared in front of me and distracted me, at which point the partridge flew off! But the wheatear was a stunner and we had great views.
African Stonechat
In the warm sunshine bird activity increased and there were loads of Yemen Linnets around, more Arabian Serins, Yemen Thrush, African Stonechat, and lots of House Sparrows.
Meanwhile, back where we parked the car we could hear Brown Woodland Warbler and a scratchy song that I was sure was Yemen Warbler. A quick burst of tape and one flew in to the isolated small juniper next to us and proceeded to sing back. What a cracker this is and we thoroughly enjoyed such fine, close views.
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| Yemen Warbler |
In fact, another bird flew in and the pair of warblers showed incredibly well. So once they left we drove over to Al Soudah Creek where we saw many of the same birds, as well as our first Afrotropicals in the shape of White-browed Coucal, Little Rock Thrush and some exceptionally close Brown Woodland Warblers.
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| Brown Woodland Warbler |
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| White-browed Coucal |
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| Yemen Linnet |
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| Yemen Thrush |
We had even better views of Arabian Linnet here, a very close Yemen Thrush and our first Arabian Wheatear. It was very pleasant birding in the warm sunshine but I was starting to get a trifle concerned at the lack of woodpeckers! Nevertheless, we had multiple sites to check for them so decided to head an hour away to Habala plateau for Rufous-capped Lark.
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| Arabian Wheatear |
They are not meant to be around at this time of year but we checked anyway and.... yep, not here at this time of year! We had a group of Scrub Warbler of the race buryi and some people call them Levantine Scrub Warblers..... Don't know about that tbh! A couple Long-billed Pipits and a few Crested Larks were here as well but not a lot else. With time slipping away we decided to drive to Wadi Atoud Reservoir for Arabian Waxbill - a bird we knew that could be hard to find. We hadn't got far when I had a message that the larks could be at the small dam so we drove back and found a trickle of water at the dam that's right above a large farm. Well, barking dogs and inquisitive farm workers put aid to any chance of larks and it was 3pm by now! A quick stop at an area of trees gave us African Pipit and a confiding Buff-breasted Wheatear but not a lot else. Leaving here we had a dark morph Steppe Buzzard flying overhead - i've never seen this form before and it really perplexed me for a while!
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| Steppe Buzzard... |
So we decided to just return to the hotel as we were all hungry. This proved to be a good move as we had several options for dinner within walking distance of the hotel and plumped for an Arabian restaurant that dished out some tasty stuff!
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