Arabian Adventure 26 - Last Knockings

Rob suggested a surprise visit down to Al Qudra as a bonus Saturday morning visit. I wasn't arguing. With it being weekend...it was busy...with Cyclists, as it has a popular track. We plotted our escape whilst having a Latte and started to tour the Expo Lakes. As soon as we left the crowds we saw our first interesting Bird...

They are released Birds but definitely still worth looking at...

Cute!

Plenty of Great White Egrets about...

This is an area where "anything" can pass over...well...a decent selection of Raptors and Vultures! After my earlier purple Patch at the beginning of my visit, I was hoping for a late addition. Lappet-faced Vulture was my "most-wanted" as it would be a Lifer. We'd driven round for about an hour when I saw a VERY large Bird above us...

Griffon

...not the LFV I was hoping for BUT still a rare Bird for the UAE and a Country Tick to boot!

An excellent late addition for the Trip.

Update: No secrets here! I entered my sightings and photos onto eBird. It seems I've made an error. No problem, I'm used to it!! eBird uses the Merlin App and it flagged the above pic as a LAPPET-FACED!!! More than happy to take it. I'd hoped to see this Species during my 3 visits. To see it (albeit retrospectively) as the Last Bird of my Trip was special indeed. Even better to share it with Rob. Wait till I tell him!

I'll do one last post on the Trip to share my overall thoughts and add some totals...once I've studied a few remaining pics. Merlin might come in handy again!

This Week

Edited Post

Monday started well when I as fortunate enough to see 2 White-fronted Geese in the Village at the start of Snakey Lane..

I was hoping some might stop off during the National influx.

A steady session at NDC accumulating 36 Species. Unfortunately the River had breached again...

White-fronted and Bean Geese still around. Had a nice chat with a Lady from Huddersfield, she was impressed on her first visit. A Marsh Harrier came unusually close to the Hide...

The undoubted highlight of the visit was the c150 Black-tailed Godwits that wheeled over the Reserve for a good 10 minutes...

Had a drive down to Spurn on Tuesday to get the Lists belatedly rolling...

I started at Walker Butts with the Geese. I couldn't find any Bean but I had 11 White-fronted...

I also picked out a pair of Gadwall which was unexpected...

Long Bank Marsh looked well and was teaming with Birds. Plenty of Brent Geese, Black-tailed Godwits, Curlew and more. Whilst checking the Grey Geese again 10 Barnacles appeared over the Bank...

Checking the Swans out on Easington Straight I was pleased to see 17 Whoopers with the Mutes...

The Irony!

I checked out Skeffling and Weeton before finishing up on Snakey with no more significant sightings.

Wednesday I headed back to NDC blown by the bitter Easterly. Once in the shelter of the GSH I set my stall out. It was immediately obvious (even to me) that there were fewer Birds on view...not necessarily present?

It was predictably choppy in the moderate ESE wind and water was still pouring onto the Reserve from the Derwent. It was encouraging to see 3 Little Grebes around the Scrape, even though you couldn't see it! 

Then, a young visitor called Sam from South Yorkshire. We got on fine and spent a very pleasant couple of hours chatting on different topics. These included Teaching, Cyprus, Old Cars and...Birds of course!

He taught Geography (my second Subject); he was going to Cyprus in April (I'll be there); his Car is older than mine (we have similar views)!!

I tried to find the/a Scaup for him but failed unfortunately. We did enjoy great views of c70 White-fronted Geese in flight, as they arrived off the adjacent fields. Sam eventually left to try for Waders at Bubwith Bridge. Hopefully we'll meet again, maybe you'll see this?

More Geese eventually arrived and included 2 Tundra Bean. 

This is indeed a VERY special Winter on the Carrs which I like to think I'm FULLY appreciating.

So much so that I returned again on Friday! The water level is dropping...at last. Still too high for a comprehensive selection but starting to get there. I added a surprise Goldcrest to the Year List...

Arabian Adventure 26 - Finale

After another fruitless drive around the Resthouse we set off North. It's now Thursday 22nd. It was windy, VERY windy! It was whipping the sand up, making driving difficult in poor visibility. It was a Norther and Rob was driving straight into it. It was unrelenting and lasted a good couple of hours until we started to reach civilization again. We didn't see any Birds! A quiet evening at our Air B&B followed by a leisurely start Friday morning as we headed for the Border. Again it didn't go smoothly but we eventually made it through to Fujairah, Khor Kalba to be precise.

It took me back to December 2018 when I came here with Louise for a few days. We had a great time visiting various Sites along the East Coast. We had lunch by the Bridge and afterwards made our way towards it. Things had changed. There was now a booth were you could buy tickets to go over the bridge to the new Visitors Centre. We had to wait until 2pm so we had a look along the inlet...

Nothing was seen so we bought our tickets and started towards the Bridge. There were trams to take you across to the Centre but I suggested to Rob that it might be worth having a look from the middle of the Bridge as this was were I saw the Bird we were hoping for 8 years ago...

Can you guess, bearing in mind Robert's favorite Bird? We started to scan and I soon picked up a distant bird on a post...

"our Kingfisher"

Trams came and went regularly so no rush to get on one although there was no shade on the Bridge (we had our hats on). I concentrated on the West bank where I'd scored previously. I was conscious of time, as we had still to drive an hour back to Dubai and I wanted to have a look around the rest of the Reserve and the new Visitor Centre. As reported the last couple of days had been travel so I was hoping for some decent stuff here. Then...BINGO...

Chuffed to find it for him, in exactly the same area I'd seen it previously! Would it come closer?

Yes...

The (Arabian) Collared Kingfisher is an endangered Sub-species with an extremely restricted range. Namely UAE and  Oman around Filim. The Mangroves in this area are perfect for this Bird and are thankfully protected...

Having had our fill, we took the Tram to the Visitors Centre. Very impressive...

We had an hour looking around the area but saw little in the heat of the afternoon...

...before having a Coffee..in a Cafe with a view...

Birds were still available though. In fact we saw more form the Cafe than the Tram!

Indian Roller...

Red-tailed Shrike (Turkestan)...

Little Green Bee-eater...

On the way out we saw Pacific Golden Plover...

...plus Turnstone, Red-wattled Lapwing and Oystercatcher.

Last day tomorrow...

Arabian Adventure 26 - Heading North

Our last morning in the South before our long drive North back to Muscat via the Al Ghaftan Resthouse.. I decided to try Khawr Sawli, East of Salalah. Again, we had access issues but found a decent spot to view from eventually. 

A strange initial sighting was this Purple Heron out in the open on the beach...

A BIG Tern...

Caspain

Other Birds present were...Gull-billed Tern, Temminck's Stint, Little Stint and Pacific Golden Plover.

Pheasant-tailed Jacana and Small Pratincole had been seen here but alas not by us. Late afternoon would probably have been better...like most Sites! If only you could be everywhere at that time of day!!

It was time to leave. We did make one stop before Dusk at the Maqshin Oasis...

HOT! Unsurprisingly very little activity. Hypocolius was again the target...we kept trying and kept Dipping!

We had a look around the Resthouse at dusk before having Dinner with the locals and retiring for the night before our second long drive to Muscat...

Arabian Adventure 26 - Salalah Day 5

Tuesday 20th January

More Wadis today. Ayn Tabraq first but we stopped at the nearby Camel trough first. Plenty of Camels...

...but no Birds...initially. We gave it 30 minutes and eventually something turned up...our first Purple Sunbird...

A Long-legged Buzzard soared high overhead at the Site, our first sighting in the Country...but it was very quiet otherwise in the midday heat...

After lunch at Taqah...

...we returned to Ayn Razat as we intended to stay till dusk to try for the Owls. At our first stop I picked up this Blue Rock Thrush...

Another sighting of Indian Pond Heron...

We waited till Dusk but no joy with the Owls. Nice Sunset though...

Arabian Adventure 26 - Where Eagles Dare

Monday morning was spent trying to navigate Wadi Darbat. We had fun? We followed the eBird PIN and ended up at a well developed tourist area that didn't feel "right". We did get some more great views of Camels...

I tried Plan B which meant a trip up and over the North Ridge...

Google Maps was still with us and indicated we could drop down into the Wadi. We discussed this option and went for it. It was hairy but once again the Jeep coped admirably. Unfortunately by this time it was late morning and once again rather warm! The Key Species here is Arabian Grosbeak which comes to some Stalactites to drink. We couldn't find the exact spot and were almost certainly too late in the day anyway. I had some screenshots in my File but it wasn't clear to me. We did at least find some water but nothing was seen. Never mind.

We wondered if there was another way out as the descent was steep. I noticed a couple of chaps on the Southside so we drove over. Again, fortunately they spoke English and one of them kindly drove his Landcruiser to the start of the road out. We were glad to get out to be honest!!

I'd arranged to meet Hatem around Noon as we hadn't paid him for Saturday, as he only took cash. On the way down to Mirbat we came across some Raptors circling above us. It was bright, very bright (there's a shock) so viewing the Birds was challenging...

Happy we were looking at IMPERIAL EAGLES, 2 Immatures...

...and an Adult...on a Lamp Post...

After straightening up with him we had lunch and headed back up to Jabal Samhan to try again for the Verreaux's  Eagle. It was clearer today which raised our hopes but it wasn't to be despite another 3 hour vigil. Have to say...VERY disappointed. This was my last chance.

Here's what we could have won...

They were seen the day before AND the day after our visit!?

We did have great views of another Arabian Wheatear...