Took the early morning flight to Al Baha, where a surprisingly quick car rental procedure saw us on the road for 50 minutes to Al Khaira Forest. In the city we spotted a group of 6 Ortolan Buntings on the rocks beside the traffic lights we were stopped at. It was a bit windy and getting quite warm by the time we arrived at a nice vegetated wadi where we scanned the Juniper clad slopes for an hour.
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| Everyone loves an Eurasian Hoopoe |
Things were a little slow to begin, but we eventually picked up Eurasian Hoopoe, Yemen Thrush, Arabian Serin, Brown Woodland Warbler, Abyssinian White-eye, Little Rock Thrush, Arabian Wheatear, Palestine Sunbird, Ruppell's Weavers and a Cinnamon-breasted Bunting. A nice little selection and we'd see most of these species again during the day. At the next stop, a pair of Arabian Warblers showed very nicely indeed on the slope just below us, but better yet was the pair of Arabian Waxbills giving stunning views.
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| Arabian Waxbill |
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| Masked Shrike |
At 2pm we drove back in to Al Baha to check-in to our apartments, seeing a cracking Masked Shrike en-route, and have a nice coffee before returning to Al Khaira Forest. This time we explored the dam where a pair of Red-knobbed Coots was a surprise. There were better views of Olive-rumped Serin and more gorgeous views of the waxbills, but amazingly an Arabian Scops Owl began calling at 4.30pm and we managed to track it down and even scope it!
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| I phonescoped this Arabian Scops Owl |
It's always nice to get an owl in daylight. We ended the day eating Arabic food, local-style on the floor of a restaurant near our hotel.
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