OMAN BIRDING ADVENTURE

Oman must be one of the most exciting destinations we can travel to right now. Combining a whole bunch of Middle East endemics and specialities along with an ecletic mix of Asian and African species too! Beginning in the scenicly splendid Sayq Plateau we will search several different wadis for the recently-described Omani Owl. These northern areas are also good for Sand Partridge, Lappet-faced Vulture,  Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse, Pallid Scops Owl, Red-tailed and Hume's Wheatears, Streaked Scrub Warbler, Plain Leaf Warbler and  Long-billed Pipit. Moving on to the wader extravaganza at Barr Al Hickman and it's thousands upon thousands of shorebirds including the most-wanted Crab Plover, we will eventually head inland deep into the 'Empty Quarter' or Rub al Khali, and reach Qatbit. The deserts could provide Cream-coloured Courser, Bar-tailed and the spectacular Greater Hoopoe Lark. There are several places we could see good numbers of Chestnut-bellied, Spotted and Crowned Sandgrouse as well before reaching the desert oasis of Qatbit, and either here or a few isolated 'green' areas out i the desert could provide some really interesting migrants. Moving on to Muddayy we will be looking for Sand Partridge, African Collared Dove, Hooded Wheatear & Nile Valley Sunbird and its most famous inhabitant during the winter months - the stunning Hypocolius. There are several farms out in the desert where we have seen Sociable Lapwing (twice), Pallid Harrier, plenty of sandgrouse, Oriental Turtle Dove & Rose-coloured Starling amongst some other great migrants. Anything can turn up here from shrikes and flycatchers, to Pied Cuckoo, Bluethroat, Turkestan Shrike, Asian Desert Warbler, Upcher's Warbler,  Eurasian Wryneck and Menetries's Warbler. A dusk or dawn visit to Muntesar Oasis also gives us a chance of Egyptian Nightjar as well.

And then we head to  Salalah for a 5 night stay. What an area we will find ourselves in and there's plenty to find and our first evening here will be spent searching for Arabian Scops Owl and Arabian Eagle Owl. Amongst a long list of target species we also hope to see Arabian Partridge, Desert Owl, Blackstart, Arabian Wheatear, Forbes-Watson’s Swifts, Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak and Yemen Serin. A pelagic from Mirbat could well be the highlight of our time here with Masked Booby, Socotra Cormorant, Jouanin's Petrel, Persian Shearwater and Bridled Tern and Sooty Gull amongst others. There's also an amazing variety of European, African and Oriental species present here to mess with our minds with species such as White & Abdim's Storks,Yellow Bittern, Little, Spotted & Baillon's Crakes, Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Pallid Harrier, Bruce's Green Pigeon, Namaqua Dove, Grey-headed Kingfisher, Singing Bushlark, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Turkestan Shrike, Abyssinian White-eye and so much more.

We have a pretty decent track record of finding rarities during our tours including Dalmatian Pelican (4th for Oman), African Openbill (2nd), Great Snipe, 1st Wandering Tattler, 1st Banded Martin, 4th Hume's Whitethroat, 7th, 8th & 9th Blyth's Reed Warbler, and Black-throated Thrush amongst others. We've also been lucky enough to see the 5th Lesser White-fronted Goose and 2nd Buff-breasted Sandpiper for Oman, as well as finding scarce species such as Pectoral Sandpiper, Sociable Lapwing, Caspian Plover, Small Pratincole, Swinhoe's & Matsudaira's Storm-Petrels, Lesser Noddy, Arabian Tropicbird, Grey-bellied Cuckoo, Malachite Kingfisher, Green Warbler, Paddyfield Warbler and Forest Wagtail. Oman is bound to leave you amazed by its avian riches, great hotels, good roads and superb food. So why not?