OMAN DAY 13: AYN TOBRUQ – TAWI ATAYR – JABAL SAMHAN – EAST KHAWR

Our last official full day of the tour began at the Ayn Tobruq Roundabout Crake Pool (that’s a mouthful!) where we had brief views of a Little Crake, along with Clamorous Reed Warbler, Namaqua Dove etc. Then we drove up to the camel trough, along the way we found 4 superb Eastern Imperial Eagles standing in the tall grass not too far from the road. We manoeuvred the cars and tried to get some closer views and also get some pics, which we did especially when a couple of them flew up and circled overhead. 

Eastern Imperial Eagle

Another Eastern Imperial Eagle was seen from the trough but it was generally quiet and the dripping tap area was totally dry, so we drove on up into the wooded Ayn Tobruq for our field breakfast. We didn’t see much apart from Camels, so we headed up to Tawi Atayr and quickly found a single Yemen Serin perched on telegraph wires near the car park, along with numerous Cinnamon-breasted Buntings (of course), Arabian Wheatear and a few more Bruce’s Green-Pigeons. 

Arabian Wheatear (female)

At Jabal Samhan we set in for a lengthy wait and after nearly an hour here I’d jokingly set my alarm for when the Verreax’s Eagle was going to appear (12 o’clock on the dot) and stone the crows two eagles appeared just as my alarm went off! What? 

The magnificent Verreaux's Eagle

Fan-tailed Raven

Also had Arabian Wheatear and numerous Fan-tailed Ravens here. 

The obligatory Camel photo....

Not really sure what is going on here....?

Driving back along towards Wadi Darbat, I jokingly mentioned I’d like an Eurasian Griffon Vulture as I was nearing 300 for my Oman list (and forget about Lappet-faced Vulture!), when we immediately passed a carcass beside the road some 30 seconds later with…… a flipping Eurasian Griffon on it! Wow! Get me a lottery ticket will you???

Eurasian Griffon Vulture

Lunch at Wadi Darbat with camel and cow friends was followed by coffee at the Sharq Café, which was notable for a Grey-bellied Cuckoo seen by a few of my group….!!! Then we drove to East Khawr, seeing a Little Bittern of all things, along with Purple Heron, a big flock of Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, a group of 12 bathing White-winged Terns was quite a sight, a Red-knobbed Coot (at last – found by Malcolm), and some Gull-billed, Lesser Crested & Caspian Terns amongst others. 

White-winged (left) and Whiskered Tern

We stayed until 5.30pm just enjoying the site when the glorious evening light began to lose its glow and returned to the hotel, where we celebrated with a buffet dinner prepared by Lynzi and some cold beers….. non-alcoholic of course. 

Dinner time....

And that was the official end of the tour, although….

OMAN DAY 12: WADI KHEESH – KAWR JANUF – RAYSUT SEWAGE POOLS – KHAWR RAYSUT

Left the hotel at 6:15am and drove around 25 minutes to Wadi Kheesh, which is the first wadi west of Ayn Hamran. The drive is fine until turning off the tarmac road and then you go along a horrible undulating, rocky road but it’s worth the effort as the camel drinking trough entices numerous birds down to drink when it is hot. This site has attracted Arabian Grosbeak in the past but not lately, so the plan is usually just to see if anything is coming down to drink at the trough, with a little explore of the surrounding area. It’s usually a good spot for Black-crowned Tchagra and Arabian Warbler, both of which we saw pretty well here. 

Black-crowned Tchagra

At the drinking trough, there wasn’t anything weird coming in, so we just enjoyed seeing a multitude of Laughing Doves, White-spectacled Bulbuls, Ruppell’s Weavers, and Cinnamon-breasted Buntings. An African Paradise-Flycatcher was loitering in the shade of the trees behind the trough, as was a Common (Ehrenberg’s) Redstart. So we had breakfast here but didn’t dally and waste time as we had quite a few spots to check today (as always). 

 

First up was the Kawr Januf and we checked out the area for any lingering Caspian Plovers but to no avail, so explored the area to the west for a few kilometres where we located the reported Lesser Whistling-Duck. Poor views into the sun for us but it’s a bit of a boring bird, although being reidentified as a Fulvous Whistling-Duck later made it a bit better, as it was a 3^rd for Oman! Steve spotted a Masked Booby out to sea and some of us managed to get on it – our only one of the tour!  With most of us a little more sunburnt than usual we decided to return to the hotel for lunch and a siesta today! Wow!  But it was a short rest as to be honest and we were soon on our way to Raysut Sewage Pools where we were denied entry so had to view from the road outside seeing 60+ Abdim’s Storks, Marsh Sandpiper and plenty of common species. Next up was Raysut Khawr and beach, which was phenomenal as always despite a little confrontation with the army here. Apparently they deem this a military area and don’t like people with cameras, but scopes are ok! Anyway, we encountered 9 species of tern including our first White-cheeked Terns, making it a 10 tern day with our earlier sighting of Whiskered Tern. 

We had a very close Broad-billed Sandpiper and a Baltic Gull was also new here but there was a fantastic selection of other species and great fun to sift through everything in the scope. 

The wonderful late afternoon sunshine made the whole experience simply amazing and it was very interesting watching all the shorebirds, gulls, terns, flamingo’s etc interacting and feeding out on the mudflats.  

Spotted Thick-knee

But we weren't done yet and a short drive away found us at a scrubby field close to the beach where we found 5 Spotted Thick-knees at dusk and followed this with a celebratory meal at a Lebanese Restaurant.

What a fabulous meal tonight...

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!

OMAN DAY 10: AYN HAMRAN – EAST KHAWR – JARZIZ FARM – WEST KHAWR – KHAWR MUGHSAYL

As I’m writing this at 10:20pm I’m utterly and totally shattered after a typically amazing day’s birding in and around Salalah. We began at Ayn Hamran, departing the hotel at 6.15am, finding a superb Grey-headed Kingfisher, followed by good views of Eastern Imperial Eagle, Short-toed Eagle, Steppe Eagle and a European Roller.

European Roller

Down at East Khawr we saw the second recorded sighting of Knob-billed Duck for Oman. Wow! The water level was higher here than I’ve seen previously so there were less birds than I would have expected. 

Knob-billed Duck - 2nd for Oman

However, luck was on our side as we did find a Small Pratincole on the beach side of the khawr and fortunately it was about 20m away from our parked cars. You just never know what you’ll see down here!  

Small Pratincole

A large flock of Glossy Ibis just kept getting bigger and bigger with birds arriving all of the time and further scrutiny revealed a Temminck’s Stint, several Ruff, a cracking Citrine Wagtail and plenty of commoner species. We then drove to Jarziz Farm where Singing Bushlark was our main target, which we eventually found along with another Grey-headed Kingfisher, Isabelline and Great Grey Shrikes.

 

My Spotted Thick-knee site has been trashed, so we quickly moved on to West Khawr where the water level was again high. However, we did have this fantastic Crested Honey Buzzard flying low overhead.

Crested Honey Buzzard

But a huge gathering of gulls congregating around the fishermen at West Khawr was quite a site and everyone enjoyed the spectacle, getting some great photos. I especially liked getting some shots of Sooty Gulls flying towards us as they headed onto the khawr to bathe.  

Sooty Gull

After our picnic lunch we drove to Khawr Mughsayl and got really lucky with some close Persian Shearwaters flying past just offshore, and it was apparent that there were more birds out there….. So we set up scopes and found 7 Brown Noddies milling around, with one or two alighting on the buoys, and we estimated at least 40 Bridled Terns, 200+ Socotra Cormorants loafing ion a large raft, several Lesser Crested Terns and many Great Crested Terns. 

Driving around to the khawr we scoped a Pheasant-tailed Jacana before other birders began to congregate across the road at the newly described Wadi Ashawq Nature Reserve. Inevitably something good was found here and we were told about a White-breasted Waterhen skulking on the far side, which we duly scoped and we saw another jacana. A Yellow Bittern was also found here the following day, so it just goes to show that with more birders around there’s plenty of good birds being found!

 

So tonight we were attempting a stab at Desert Owl, but with 3 cars of Belgian birders, a French crew and a British crew potentially all heading to the end of the wadi and doing the same individual pair of owls that everyone does, well let’s just say I didn’t fancy it. Fortunately after so many visits to Oman, this being my 9^th, I had a trick or two up my sleeve. I’ve discovered another two sites so we headed to one of them and waited. Shortly after the light fully went a bird began calling and in under 5 minutes we were eye-balling a superb Desert Owl. 

Desert Owl

In fact it kept getting closer and closer, literally filling the Swarovski’s field of view and everyone filled their photographic boots. I’m aware how sensitive owls’ eyes are and we didn’t take the mickey, so after a few minutes we turned the spotlight off and left as quietly as possible. What an incredible end to a brilliant day.

OMAN DAY 9: AYN TOBRUQ POOLS – KHAWR JANUF - WADI DARBAT (sort of) – KHAWR RAWRI

A little expedition to check out the recently discovered crake pools at the bottom of Ayn Tobruq Plains gave the briefest views of a Baillon’s Crake, as well as Namaqua Dove, close Little Stint and Citrine Wagtail, a flyby adult Steppe Eagle and a few Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters called as they flew around the stunningly deep blue sky. From here we went in search of the previously reported Caspian Plovers at the beach near Khawr Januf but amazingly there were some tourists walking along the shoreline even though it was only 7am!!! 

Pied Cuckoos near here...

But we did find a Pied Cuckoo’s a few kilometres further along the beach at another little inlet. Or rather there were 5 birds present that was a bit mindblowing to be honest! 

Who doesn't love an Osprey...?

Whenever you’re along the coast there’s loads of gulls and we saw multiples of the usual three species but our one and only Steppe Grey Shrike of the trip was much more exciting. We also had Graceful Prinia, Osprey and a sprinkling of other species during our exploration of an area I’m not totally familiar with but has huge rarity potential. The small khawr where the cuckoos were had held a reported Lesser Whistling-Duck (more on that later) but we couldn’t locate that, but did see a few Garganey, Tufted Duck, at least 2 Gull-billed Terns, Caspian Tern, Whiskered Tern and some shorebirds. It’s a nice little spot that could well hold other things and we will be back!

That's the cave where grosbeaks came to drink...

So after breakfast back at the hotel we set off on what proved to be quite the adventure, with gps leading us to the far side of Wadi Darbat and an area that had been producing the only sightings of Arabian Grosbeak this season. I’m not sure why they haven’t been appearing at their usual stake-outs but nobody have been seeing them. That was until some Dutch birders found a few birds using drips of water from stalactites to drink from in a remote area well off the beaten track and yesterday a British crew got them and today it was our turn. Well, it wasn’t easy and we endured a tortuous drive with many wrong turns until we found a very steep (an understatement), bumpy track down into the wadi, but a route that gave us our first Arabian Wheatear and Tree Pipit of the tour.  It was hell but we made it before walking across some treacherous rocky areas trying to locate the correct cave that took a while. We did stake-out the wrong cave for a while until getting our brains in gear and sorting it out. By now it was 12:30pm and time was ticking away fast as I was afraid the grosbeaks would not hang around long enough for us to find them. But they did! We had at least 3 birds and enjoyed fantastic scope views of one particular male coming in repeatedly to drink. And boy it was hot, hot, hot here! We also enjoyed flyover Bonelli’s Eagles and numerous Tristram’s Starling’s here as well. With our vehicles being low on petrol we had to go to the nearest gas station and thankfully we made it without mishap. As we drove back across the rocky plateau we passed a feeding flock of 250+ White Storks feeding beside the road.

The view from Taqah Cliffs

The impressive Taqah cliffs were next up, a breeding site for Forbes-Watson’s Swift and we eventually had a pair coming in to the cliffs to feed their young. Out to see we saw Brown Booby, Bridled Terns and some Gull-billed Terns. It’s a lovely spot and we also saw a few Green Turtles and a Manta Ray in the clear waters below. Our final destination and just 10 minutes away from here is Khawr Rawri, a delightful spot and one that always turns up some good species. Our visit proved the case with an Eurasian Wryneck perched in a dead bush just as we arrived and an Ortolan Bunting found by Neil. We also scoped a flock of 15+ Arabian Partridges as they scrambled up a rock face, a few Daurian Shrikes were also around, as well as Citrine Wagtail, Ruppell’s Weaver, more Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, some nice Wood Sands etc.   What a day!

OMAN DAY 8: MUDDAY – SALALAH – AYN HAMRAN

Well, the day got off to a great start with 3 Arabian Gazelles beside the road as we drove to Mudday this morning. This small desert town is home to a tiny wintering population of Hypocolius and this year we were treated to our best views ever, as a male gave prolonged views amongst the date palms. 

The one and only.... Hypocolius

It was spotted by Les before I’d killed the engine on arrival at our usual spot, and then we watched it feeding in a low bush, then on the floor and again in some other bushes before flying off. We relocated it again, thanks to Brian, in a different palm grove where the male sat almost motionless at head height in the shade. Wow! 

We also had nice views of  Blackstart, Pale Crag Martin, and then staked out a small drinking pool where a few Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse came in to drink and we saw one bird soaking its belly feathers before flying off. We then drove around the camel pens and got pretty great views of a group of Sand Partridge. Our last target was Nile Valley Sunbird and it took a little while until Neil spotted one which eventually flew into a bush right in front of us. And by now it was after 11am so we drove 50 minutes back to our hotel in Thumrayt, loaded our luggage into the cars and drove another 50 minutes to our final hotel in Salalah, where we stay for the last 6 nights of the trip.

Turkestan Shrike

After beans on toast prepared by Lynzi, we drove just 25 minutes away to Ayn Hamran and this is a great place for an introduction into the regular birds of the Dhofar. region We enjoyed a not-so-common Turkestan Shrike posing on top of an acacia (our first one), followed by several African Paradise-Flycatchers, Arabian Sunbird, African Silverbills, some flyby Ruppell’s Weavers, and an Arabian Warbler. So not a bad day so far, but there was more to come and as dusk settled we went to my spot for Arabian Scops-Owl. It’s not usually a hard bird to see but I’d heard from some other birders that they’ve been proving rather tricky this year, so I was a little apprehensive this evening. Yet I needn’t have worried as within 5 minutes of trying we were all watching one in the spotlight as it glared at us from overhead. 

Arabian Scops-Owl

And what a great way to end the day!