OMAN DAY 11: MIRBAT PELAGIC – WADI DARBAT – JABAL SAMHAN – TAWI ATAYR

This was the day of our pelagic out of Mirbat Harbour with Hatem. It’s always exciting and unpredictable, but somehow over these past couple of years our expectations have risen from simply wanting to see Persian Shearwater and Jouanin’s Petrel to hoping for something rarer and there have been some awesome birds seen here the years. We had our breakfast overlooking the ocean with several Western Yellow Wagtails and at least 3 Red-throated Pipits feeding on the grass in front of us. So it was with high expectations that we boarded the boat at a little after 7.30am and yet again we had a deep blue sky, warm weather and hardly any breeze – every day is pretty much the same in Oman! 

We hadn’t sailed out far when a Persian Shearwater appeared somehow behind us and whizzed right past. And for the next half an hour we had a few more shearwaters, whilst further out and just below the horizon we could see larger birds that Hatem was calling as Jouanin’s Petrels and with the odd Flesh-footed Shearwater thrown in for good measure. It was a little frustrating for a time until a Jouanin’s Petrel flew right beside us, followed moments later by another and another. Everyone was getting good photos of the main two targets and all was good. Then what followed can only be described as the stuff of dreams as the amazing Hatem suddenly called “Matsudaira’s Storm-Petrel”!!!! Hasty directions and some expletives followed until everyone was on the bird. How could he call that without looking through binoculars…? We watched it flying in front of us and heading east along the coast, a heavily moulting bird with long wings, quite a heavy laborious flight, much smaller than Jouanin’s and very similar to the Swinhoe’s Storm-Petrels I’d seen here last year. The combination of features just described and a deeply notched tail all looked good for MSP. After posting my poor photos on Facebook later, some birders questioned the identification. Well, a short while later we had the double-whammy as an obvious Swinhoe’s Storm-Petrel flew behind us also heading east and what was obvious to all onboard was how slimer it looked, with slimmer shorter wings and faster flight. Again, this bird was in heavy moult but the differences in jizz were obvious and I know that both storm-petrels were claimed on several dates over the next week….. So what did we see? 

It's only a flipping Matsudaira's Storm-petrel

From my photos there’s not much to go on regarding plumage features as both birds were in heavy moult (as they should be this time of the year). This would be the 2^nd record of MSP, whilst SSP is still rare but becoming far more frequent these days. Interestingly, Hatem commented that he’s seen Matsudaira’s several times whilst he’s been out here fishing but no-one has ever photographed one before and he knows the birds here very well. 

Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel

What I do know is that we saw two different species, and I know our identification is correct regardless of what other birders have said on social media. Regardless of moult, that would not have affected the size difference, longer wings of MSP, slower flight etc. To reinforce this we had the same or another Matsudaira’s Storm-Petrel flying west about half an hour later and again, it looked a little bigger and heavier than SSP. And don’t get me wrong, Swinhoe’s Strom-Petrel is a great sighting here in Oman but Matsudaira’s Storm-Petrel is on another level and also a lifer for yours truly! Anyway, we eventually got tickable views of Flesh-footed Shearwater although none came in very close, yet more Jouanin’s Petrels and Persian Shearwaters with a supporting cast of a single Socotra Cormorant, many Bridled Terns and Red-necked Phalaropes. But no Masked Booby today for us. We also had a large feeding group of Bottle-nosed and Spinner Dolphins to entertain us for a while before we returned to shore a little sunburnt but exceedingly happy with our Mirbat pelagic! 

Bridled Tern

Red-necked Phalarope 

Spinner Dolphin

A celebratory coffee followed before we drove up to Wadi Darbat where we’d have our picnic lunch in the shade, being joined by the odd camel and cow! We’d calmed down by now and whilst Lynzi prepared lunch we checked out the river and surrounding area finding our only Wood Warblers of the tip – well there were three of them. We had all the usual common Dhofar birds and had nice views of them but more excitement followed with a brief appearance above the ridge of a Lappet-faced Vulture! Only a couple of us saw it but with eyes to the skies we picked out Short-toed, Booted,Steppe and Eastern Imperial Eagles! Our next stop was about half an hour away at Jabal Samhan, the regular haunt of Verreaux’s Eagle. 

We spent an hour in company with several other birders from the UK and Holland, with all of us drawing a blank on the eagle. There was a pair of Arabian Wheatears present, Tristram’s Starlings and Fan-tailed Ravens but not a lot else. 

So we retraced our steps across the plateau and called into Tawi Atayr, the regular site for Yemen Serin. Well, we did the serin briefly but not everyone was present at the time but did get several Bruce’s Green-Pigeons, Bonelli’s Eagle, another Arabian Wheatear, African Paradise-Flycatcher, Palestine Sunbird, African Paradise-Flycatcher and some great scope views of a family of Arabian Partridges. 

Bruce's Green-Pigeon

Palestine Sunbird

African Paradise-Flycatcher

And that was our day in epic Oman!