This was the BIG day as we ventured into the famous Raidah Preserve, where according to previous reports all dreams are possible. It's literally meant to be the promised land but I must admit i'm not a fan! Well we got to the entrance well before sunrise and listened for Abyssinian Nightjar.... nothing. Tried the call..... again nothing. So I drove up to the barrier and filled out some paperwork before the guards would let us in and then we were off. And boy this is undoubtedly the steepest road i've ever driven on. I mean it's crazy and shouldn't be attempted in anything other than a four-wheel drive. I didn't have one and struggled coming back up with the engine overheating constantly, but more of that later. So in the dark we tried a few times for nightjars and the only bird we heard was an Arabian Scops Owl bit none of the trees seemed to be close enough to the road to try spotlighting, so we just kept driving lower. As soon as it became light enough to bird we parked up and had a look around. As ever, things are very slow until the sun is a bit higher and it gets warmer, so we waited and could hear a great dawn chorus of weird and wonderful songs! An African Grey Hornbill put in an appearance, we had several views of Arabian Partridges throughout the morning, there were more nice views of Yemen Warbler and Yemen Thrush etc etc. The song of Brown Woodland Warbler rang out from the hillsides, a pair of Little Rock Thrush were exceedingly confiding, and the first of many Arabian Sunbirds put in an appearance.
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| Little Rock Thrush |
Once at the bottom of the valley we wandered around hoping for Arabian Waxbill, but all we could find were many more sunbirds, Long-billed Pipit, Cinnamon-breasted Bunting and some other common species. But no waxbills. So the journey back up the ridiculously steep road gave us all the same species and we nearly had Arabian Woodpecker. We heard one in a couple different locations but they just weren't responsive. So feeling a little naffed off we decided to drive back into town, check out of the hotel at 11.30am and had some lunch.
Regrouping over a nice burger we decided to head north towards Tanomah and look for Saudi's one and only true endemic, Asir Magpie. It was just around a 90 minute drive on good roads before the turn-off towards Billasmer and within 100m of the junction I spotted a magpie on some telegraph wires ahead. A nice big pull-in was just past the bend and we jumped out, eventually finding up to 4 birds in the area. it's a distinctive looking bird and very different to the magpies in Europe.
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| Asir Magpie |
We spent quite some time watching them and trying for a good photo, but that never did happen! We were all ecstatic to get this "quick win" as I put it and we were enjoying the sunshine, surrounded by lots of birds. there was a large group of over 15 Arabian babblers, more linnets, several close brown Woodland Warblers and a group of Abyssinian White-eyes came in to my owlet impersonation. And then... a woodpecker called. A quick burst of tape and it flew right at me and landed in a close tree. The views were out of this world and we lapped up every detail of this cracker.
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| Arabian Woodpecker |
We left here and headed to our next digs in Tanomah, a delightful private 3 bed villa. Except 2 of the bedrooms were children's, kitted out in Hello Kitty bright pink walls etc.
A short distance away is Mahfar Tourist Park and we dived up there for dusk and waited for the resident Arabian Eagle Owl to fly onto the roof of the large building next to the car park..... Which it duly did. What a stunner and we had several views of it flying around and perching in surrounding trees.
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| Arabian Scops Owl |
There was also several Arabian Scops Owls calling and we managed to entice one into a nearby Juniper for some stunning views.
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