We left early doors and drove just over 3 hours south to Abu Simbel, which in my opinion is one of the most exciting destinations in the Western Palearctic. By 10am we were searching a lakeside area not too far from the town in the hope of finding a very recent colonist to the area - Crimson-rumped Waxbill. Boy it was hot but that didn't deter us as this is a key species and one we needed to find. The first spot was quiet apart from a few Indian Silverbills, so we walked on to a spot right on the shores of Lake Nasser which had large and very tall roadbeds all around. Not so surprisingly we found another African Pied Wagtail sitting in the side of a fishing boat, and as we watched this a Crimson-rumped Waxbill appeared briefly in a dense area of scrub and reeds.
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| The mega Crimson-rumped Waxbill |
Unfortunately it didn't linger long enough for everyone to get on it, but we needn't have worried as just around the corner we found a small group of waxbills coming to drink at the base of the reeds. Then at least 5 birds decided to perch in the reeds and began to preen, allowing everyone to see them very clearly and for about 20 minutes. Wow! What a fantastic result and high-fives all round. This proved to be a particularly good area with numerous Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters flying around, a Little Bittern seen in flight, several African Green Bee-eaters, many Clamorous Reed Warblers and Eastern Olivaceous Warblers all providing an interesting distraction.
After checking in to a superb hotel, we had a short siesta before venturing out to explore the shoreline of this vast lake. Our primary targets fell quite quickly, with close views of 10+ Kittlitz's Plovers and 6 stunning Yellow-billed Storks. With both targets nailed we enjoyed a fine selection of other species and what a great area this was, with Egyptian Goose, Senegal Thick-knee, Marsh Sandpiper, Little, Gull-billed & White-winged Terns, Glossy Ibis, many European Bee-eaters, Masked Shrike, Brown-necked Raven, Greater Hoopoe-Lark and 2 African Pied Wagtails.
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| Village Weaver - another mega WP sighting...! |
The following day we headed out on a boat into Lake Nasser. It's hard to comprehend how massive this lake is and it took a couple of hours to reach some small, reed-fringed islands where we saw several stunning Village Weavers. We mostly saw the magnificent males in breeding plumage and only had two sightings of females. Having seen this species numerous times across Africa, these males were like gorgeous bright-yellow lightbulbs absolutely glowing in the sunshine, and nothing like I remembered them to be! Amazing! After lunch at our hotel we headed out to a section of Airport Bay to see what was around. At least 6 Kittlitz's Plovers were found on the drier areas just inland from the water's edge, and we also had a Yellow-billed Stork fly in and appeared to be ready to roost. There was also a decent selection of commoner species with a large group of Little Stints and others. We waited until dusk hoping for Egyptian Nightjar, but that didn't go to plan although the views of several Plain (Brown-throated) Martins as they hawked for insects right above us were really cool.
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| Yellow-billed Stork |
Our last day at Abu Simbel began with a repeat visit to the waxbill site, where despite being early was pretty quiet. So Ismael took us to another spot nearby overlooking some weedy fields where we found a flock of 20+ Crimson-rumped Waxbills feeding with a bunch of Indian Silverbills. We spent quite a while watching them and trying to get some photos and was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
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| Crimson-rumped Waxbill - another WP mega! |
Following this we returned to the same section of Airport Bay, seeing much the same species as yesterday, although a Marsh Sandpiper was new in. So we decided to call it quits and return to the hotel for lunch and to pack before driving back up to Aswan. We'd a very early morning flight to Cairo the following morning so upon arrival at a lovely little guest house not too far away from the airport we decided to just chill and have a look what we could find in the immediate vicinity.
The hotel was in a superb location, being surrounded on three sides by reedbeds and waterways adjacent to the Nile and several small islands. And what a good time we had, seeing Little Bittern, Purple Heron, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler and others from the hotel. A little walk out in the early evening sunshine produced some really close African Green Bee-eaters, Senegal Thick-knee, African Pied Wagtail and even an immature Yellow-billed Stork.
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| Another Yellow-billed Stork - this time at Aswan near our hotel |
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| African Green Bee-eater |
We rounded the day of with some sneaky beers and a delicious dinner before retiring to our beds for a short sleep!!!
