OMAN BIRDING THE GREATER WESTERN PALEARCTIC TOUR REPORT 2024

Well, Oman is getting popular and now firmly established on the world birding circuit. There’s already a few companies and other birders ahead of us or just finished their tour. In my opinion that is great if you’re after finding some rarities but you’ll miss Hypocolius, although have better luck with Sooty Falcon. And that’s our first target today and I’m hoping there’s still one or two lingering on their breeding islands… Already some of the group had been seeing Greater Spotted Eagle, Western Marsh Harrier, Red-wattled Lapwing, Glossy Ibis, Delicate Prinia, Pale Crag Martin, White-eared Bulbul, Purple Sunbird, Isabelline (Daurian) Shrike, and other common species.

So, with everyone arriving yesterday and being well rested we set out on the half an hour drive to Al Qurum creek to meet our boat. Our first Arabian Green Bee-eater was a welcome surprise before we set off out to Al Fahal Island. Would the falcons still be around? I’d seen on eBird that they had been seen yesterday….. It took around 40 minutes to reach the large island and we sailed around the calmer southern side, seeing absolutely nothing until we reached the opposite side where the water was choppy, and of course this was where the Sooty Falcons were hanging out! In fact there were at least 6 in all with a Peregrine Falcon. It was a little tricky to get good photos but one bird was quite low down and gave great views. Our falcon watching was put on temporary hold with the appearance of an adult and juvenile Red-billed (Arabian) Tropicbird flying around us – and only the second time I’ve seen them in Oman. Brilliant! But back to the falcons, as this was a species most of the group were extremely keen to see and we enjoyed further great views of them flying around the tall cliffs above us and then right over our little boat. Superb! Everyone was elated with this and after a good while watching them we left and headed back to land, with the added bonus of a close Red-necked Phalarope en-route.

From here, we drove half an hour north to the Muscat Rivermouth in the hope of finding Pallas’s Gull, a species which hasn’t been reported yet this season. Of course, we drew a blank on this but still had a fine time sifting through a very nice selection of shorebirds. Highlights were a mix of Greater and Tibetan Sandplovers giving great scope views, along with Kentish Plover, Spotted Redshank, Ruff and many Little Stints, as well as Slender-billed and Sooty Gullsamongst others. We then drove back to the Crowne Plaza to collect our luggage and set off up to Barka where we’d be staying for 2 nights.

After another great picnic lunch prepared by Lynzi we had a good few hours rest before meeting at 7pm to drive to one of our favourite wadis at the base of the massive Al Hajar Mountains where Omani Owl resides. Well, yes they are there but not tonight. We did stay until 2am but didn’t get a sniff of it and had to content ourselves with a Pallid Scops Owlsitting on a rocky ledge and a Little Owl before driving back, bleary-eyed to the hotel for a short night’s sleep.

Bit of an odd day as we left Barka shortly after 7am and drove back towards Muscat where we called in to the Al Ansab Wetlands hopefully to nail the previously reported Ferruginous Duck and Grey-headed Swamphen for our list. Neither showed unfortunately but we did add Purple Heron, Western Cattle Egret, Common Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers, Green Sandpiper and a Western Yellow Wagtail to our list. A Red-necked Phalarope was something of a surprise, and we also saw Western Marsh Harrier, Greater Spotted Eagle, Marsh Sandpiper, close Temminck’s Stint, and a Delicate Prinia. From a list-building point of view it was disappointing to miss the two targets, but on the other hand a bunch of Grey Francolins on the roundabout above the wetlands was a new trip bird for most of the group.

From the wetlands it’s about a 90 minute drive east to Wadi Al Muaydin and the scenery changes dramatically as you leave the coast behind. Stark, tall mountains dominate the landscape for most of the journey and once we reached the wadi, we had our lunch in the shade of a big acacia, whilst scanning the skies for raptors. Well, it turned out there weren’t any raptors but a stiff breeze was quite refreshing!  We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening resting at our plush hotel in nearby Nizwa. After dinner we headed out to a nearby wadi and tried again for Omani Owl but only heard it. We stuck it out until 2am before heading back to Nizwa and the sanctuary of those nice rooms!

We headed to the waderfest that is Barr Al Hickman Area 4 at 5.30am which entailed driving across the potentially wet desert (also known as sabkha) on some semi-visible tracks. This whole area is a Ramsar Site and protects a huge population of shorebirds and other ‘water’ birds that must total well over half a million birds in total, if not more! On the drive from the hotel we had to slow right down due to a thick mist reducing visibility to just a few metres and I was wondering if it would be possible to actually reach my intended site. Well, I needn’t have worried as the mist soon began to dissipate once the sun was up and we got closer to the shore. It’s always an incredible sight to see so many birds at one time and wherever we looked there was a constant movement of shorebirds feeding. The tide was coming in slowly and I mean slowly – in fact with only a 65cms difference between low and high tides I was expecting it to move far quicker than it did. I’m sure some of us were wondering why we’d got here so early as high tide wasn’t until shortly after 11am but in such a fantastic area you just never know what to expect and there’s always the chance of a rarity in the strip of bushes that goes on for many kilometres. And you wouldn’t believe how hot and sultry it was by 11am!!! Yes, we saw a few more Crab-Plovers but they were still quite distant and we did manage to find a lone Great Knot as well, but probably our best experience was with a close group of 7 Broad-billed Sandpipers feeding close in front of us. We watched them for ages as they scuttled first to our left before backtracking right and exploring the numerous puddles spread across the mudflats. It was a fantastic experience to watch them and note their distinctive feeding behaviour and we then scanned across the vast mudflats picking out over a hundred in one scan!

Many thousands of shorebirds, egrets, herons were present including many hundreds of Western Reef Herons, 250+ Eurasian Spoonbills, 1000’s of Dunlins, 200+ Red-necked Phalaropes dotted the shoreline, 2000+ Tibetan Sandplovers, 3,500 Greater Sandplovers,  50+ Terek Sandpipers, 1200+ Greater Flamingo’s etc. You get the picture. In fact it is impossible to give any sort of accurate counts as there’s just so many birds and everything would take flight when a harrier flew over, which they did quite frequently. The fact I found Oman’s 1st Grey-tailed Tattler here a few years ago just shows what could be out there somewhere…. We also had 2 Short-toed Lark types flyby, that could well have been Turkestan Short-toed Larks. But boy it was hot. In the bushes we saw several Asian Desert Warblers, Lesser Whitethroat & Eurasian Cuckoo, with several Western Marsh Harriers also present. It was apparent that the Crab-Plovers weren’t roosting in their usual spot so we headed across to Shannah and checked out the beaches there, incredibly finding a Pin-tailed Snipe hiding in the shade from a plastic barrel on the beach! And with sunburnt faces we headed back to the hotel for lunch and a rest.

After a rest back at the hotel we drove to Mahout Sewage Works on the outskirts of the town. Initially everything seemed a little quiet, with just the usual shorebirds such as Tibetan Sandplovers, Little Stints and a few Dunlins present. But we then picked up 3 Wood Sandpipers, Les saw a Red-throated Pipit, and I was amazed to see a Black-necked Grebe in one of the flooded pools. Brian then shouted ‘pratincole’ and a juvenile flew around the pools before disappearing – probably a Collared Pratincole… There was also Western Yellow Wagtail, Desert Wheatear, Eurasian Curlew, Ruff, Common Coot, Greater Flamingo and others.

Our day began with a 6am departure from Al Ghaftain Resthouse and after a 75 minute drive we reached Muntesar Oasis for a great few hours birding. Almost immediately we came across 2 Pied Wheatears and during our time here we enjoyed repeated views, allowing us some superb photographic opportunities. We walked around the oasis slowly and picked up another Bluethroat, Red-breasted Flycatcher, both Richard’s & Meadow Pipits, and had a single European Bee-eater amongst a flock of Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters. One of the latter species perched on top of a nearby acacia and the views through the scope and photo opportunities were fantastic. A short while later the first of several groups of Chestnut-bellied and Spotted Sandgrouse flew around the oasis calling but the presence of another group of birders stood out in the open probably dissuaded the sandgrouse from coming down to drink. And then we watched a falcon flying out across the desert that certainly looked long-winged and very long-tailed giving the jizz of an Eleonora’s Falcon. The haze at this time of the day meant we couldn’t obtain any definitive photos but we saw it land on the ground with its long tail seemingly resting on the floor and it caused us quite a bit of excitement! Unfortunately we couldn’t get conclusive views and just have to let it go…. Eleonora’s is a very rare bird in Oman with just one confirmed record so far. The other unfortunate incident whilst we were here was the sighting by a Belgian group of a Ruddy-breasted Crake – with only 2 previous records it’s a mega! One of the Belgians did tell one of my group, but unfortunately they neglected to pass the news on until later in the day!!!

So we left here feeling like we’d given the oasis a thorough grilling (ironic really) and drove south to Qatbit Gardens where another Common Quail was found by Simon, along with 2 female Blackcaps, and yet another RB Fly. Driving further south we finally came across a Greater Hoopoe Lark that gave very nice views, much to Malcolm’s delight. I thought Al Beed Farms was disappointing and nothing like it used to be, but we did see Namaqua Dove, a flyover Steppe Eagle, Pallid & Montagu’s Harriers, as well as many Black-crowned Sparrow-Larks. We eventually reached Shisr Fields at 4pm, finding a flock of 27 Cream-coloured Coursers, along with Rosy Starling, Tawny Pipit and a cracking male Pallid Harrier. By the time we reached our hotel in Thumrayt, we were ready for a hot shower and a decent meal.

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!!! 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! 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!

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 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!

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? 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 2nd 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. 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!

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. And that was our day in epic Oman!

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. 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.

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? Also had Arabian Wheatear and numerous Fan-tailed Ravens 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???

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