It hurt waking up so early this morning. My alarm sounded like Big Ben chiming inside my head at 03:30am and I fumbled around the apartment trying to figure out where my gear was. Clothes on, bins, scope, camera, batteries, baseball cap, car keys, sandwiches, flasks of hot water.... I did boil the kettle right? Think, i've got everything then realise i've left the milk in the fridge.....! Eventually everything came together and the 5 of us left at 4am, reaching the port at 4:50am. We weren't totally sure as to the procedure but it all worked out and we boarded eventually, after the car was x-rayed via a large truck carrying an x-ray machine.... Yeah i know! So we got some seats by the windows on the right hand side of the ship, with some of us standing to look out of the one window that was reasonably clean and you could see out of. Couldn't go to the left side of the ferry as that was female only!!! The ferry left a little later than the scheduled 7am and we were off.
Pretty quickly we were seeing numerous terns flying by, with several large flocks. Most of them seemed to be White-cheeked, but the odd Lesser Crested and Greater Crested Terns joined in. And the boobies..... Man, there were stacks of them, We passed numerous buoys with 4,5,6,7 Brown Boobies on them and we must had seen several hundred by the time we reached the port on Farasan Island. Upon arrival our boat contact was waiting for us and took us to the nearby marina, after some more formalities logging in our passports. Anyway, eventually 2 Brits, 1 Dutch and 2 Swedes boarded a nice little boat in the soaring heat and we were off. Had Sooty Falcon arrived yet? They should have, we hoped and with fingers and everything crossed we started cruising around the first couple of islets, stopping to get some really nice close-ups of Brown Booby and a Bridled Tern.
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| Bridled Tern |
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| Brown Booby |
It was fantastic to get so close to these birds, but we had one eye falcon-watching and we carried on around the small, rocky island. Nothing. we just started to leave to head over to another larger group of islands when a rocket-propelled Sooty Falcon shot across our bow and up into the sky. Wow! Just then, another Sooty Falcon appeared and the pair soared around above us in the clear blue sky and circled, swooped, and gave us the full range of their flying skills for what must have been a good 10 minutes. |
| The incredible Sooty Falcon.... |
We had a fantastic time watching this dashing species and what a relief it was. High-fives all round and smiling faces. Result! We then spent the next 3 hours cruising around the islands and mangroves enjoying the experience. And boy there were lots of seabirds and we filled our boots with numerous photos as we sailed up close to them.....
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| Having fun on the water... |
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| A typical Farasan Scene |
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| We also cruised along the mangroves... |
Species such as Bridled and White-cheeked Terns were abundant, Lesser Crested and Greater Crested Terns less so, Brown Booby was everywhere, White-eyed Gulls were on most islets and the odd Common Noddy was also present.
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| Bridled Tern |
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| Brown Booby |
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| Brown Booby & White-eyed Gull |
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| Brown Booby |
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| Lesser Crested Tern |
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| More seabirds.... |
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| White-cheeked Terns |
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| White-eyed & Sooty Gull |
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| White-eyed Gull mobbing a Brown Booby |
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| White-eyed Gulls |
Sailing in to one picturesque bay we found a flock of Crab-Plovers....
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| Crab-Plovers |
And as we neared the marina a Goliath Heron was an unexpected bonus, stood next to a Pink-backed Pelican. |
| Goliath Heron & Pink-backed Pelican |
But boy it was hot - like 48 degrees Celsius hot, so I wasn't sad to get back on the ferry and return to Jizan. An hour and a half later we were back on the mainland and returned to our apart-hotel for dinner and a well deserved rest. What a day!
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