Here We Go Again...

 Well, I can't believe it's been so long since my last post from Morocco...! Since then i've done 2 back-to-back tours in Türkiye, followed by West Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, back to Türkiye for Brown Fish Owl and another successful Egypt tour. And now i'm heading off to Oman for a 6 week visit..! My whole summer was spent in Plymouth with my terminally sick brother who sadly passed away very recently, so life has been on hold since July. It's weird how things like this makes one re-evaluate priorities and i've done a lot of thinking (and overthinking) about everything. But without my long-suffering wife who has been my rock and my obsession with birding, I could have very well ended up in a really bad place. Birding brings me calm, birding brings me focus, and birding keeps my feet firmly on the ground. As you know, I run a birding holiday business and I am into my 17th year of Zoothera Birding, which I run with Lynzi who takes care of all the 'boring' stuff (or most important stuff...) such as running the office, invoices, etc etc. So I am extremely lucky to be able to spend the majority of my life focussing on birding. But it's not without certain worries, such as 'will people book?' Or troubles arranging new tours, such as my continued frustrations trying to get a Colombia tour organised with a local guide. There's also the long hours in the office, and quite often i'm working long into the night preparing for a tour or checking logistics. Is it worth it though? Absolutely, and I wouldn't want to do anything else. 

So these days i'm primarily doing Western Palearctic tours and heavily involved in the Oman birding scene. It's a whole new ball game from the long haul and 'tough' tours i'd become used to. My personal Life List is stagnating somewhere between 7,500 and 7,700 and it's not really a priority any more. I'm loving the WP stuff and getting a bunch of new clients who are super keen, super knowledgeable, great fun and utterly nuts tbh! It's great. I'm loving birding more than ever and think I really appreciate even more the privileged position I have. 

So back to the birds. Rather than just do the normal diary thing I always do, I think I might just post a few photos of some of the highlights from the spring. I want to do a daily update from Oman, as much as that is possible so this is the best way to catch up. 

Let's begin with Türkiye 1....

We saw all the usual great birds but this trip being a little earlier than previous ones we've done scored a few more migrants, but also we visited a new place near the Gocsu Delta and enjoyed several magnificent Olive-tree Warblers. 

Olive -tree Warbler

Over these past few years Red-wattled Lapwings and Yellow-throated Sparrows have become easier to see and don't take too much finding now, compared to even just a few years ago. Both are very much big Western Palearctic ticks for a lot of people...

Red-wattled Lapwing

Yellow-throated Sparrow

And, of course, Iraq Babbler is now a regular sighting around Birecik. They are quite easy to see in the reedbeds bordering the Euphrates River, and are really inquisitive to any sort of squeaking!

Iraq Babbler

Of course you always think about the ones that got away, and on this first trip I just couldn't find Bimaculated Lark anywhere.... And so on to the next story........