Once I opened my eyes I started hearing birds like Graceful Prinia, White Eared Bulbul … and decided to walk in the area of Al Amrat. A little walk produced my first Hume’s wheatear and Red-rumped Wheatear. The latter winters in the area. Other birds i saw in the area were Desert (Lesser) Whitethroat, Eastern Black Redstart, Desert Wheatear and Common Myna.
Desert Wheatear (Oenanthe deserti)
Indian Silverbill (Lonchura malabarica)
In an hour or so I went to check out the local waste disposal site which was my main reason to be in the area. There were supposed to be hundreds of eagles…well I saw none… big disappointment. Saw a few more Hume’s Wheatears which seem to be common in the area and a few Indian Silverbills so it wasn’t in vain.
After thinking over my next destination I headed towards Qurayyat. A small town on the sea shore about 90km to the south of Muscat. The road was superb. Newly built motorway across Al Hajar Mountain took me across some barred places. What a dramatic landscape. Cliffs, desert, not a single plant. Groups of 5-10 Egyptian Vultures were soaring here and there.
It took me about 1.5 hours to get from Muscat to Qurayyat. Stopped directly on the beach and started checking the gulls. Some seawatching produced my first Brown Booby. A very pleasant surprise was to see a group of Egyptian Vultures sitting on the beach together with an Osprey.
Had lunch in a local café eating King fish with Arabian Salad and a coke for about 4 Eur. The afternoon was pretty exciting too. About 100 Pallas’s Gulls, and quite a few Slender-billed Gulls, Swift Terns, and Lesser crested Terns. An Osprey was sitting on the beach and let me approach it to about 50m, and an Indian Roller let me approach it to about 15m so I managed to take some shots.
Unknown crab (so far)
Pallas’s Gull (Ichthyaetus ichthyaetus)
Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola)
Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis)
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
Later on that afternoon I checked a few more sites down by the beach but nothing different. Managed to find a lovely location on the bank of a pool where about 15 greater flamingos were sitting just about 50 m away from. This time I didn’t doubt about putting a tent. There was no one in the area so I decided it would be no problem.
Lovely sunset ended a decent day.
Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus)
Evening reading
Moonrise
After sunset I took a few night shots and went into my sleeping bag.