Oman Day 5 - Ras al Hadd
A fine day started at Turtle Beach followed by a fruitless search for Crab Plover. I believe this was the right location for them, but despite a long muddy trudge, they failed to materialise.
I was up early to have a quick look around the scrubby barren areas around the hotel that yielded a couple of male Desert Wheatear, a Red-tailed Wheatear, and a surprise Wryneck.
Firstly driving round the lagoon at Ras al Hadd produced plenty of waders including both species of Sand Plover, my first ever Terek Sandpiper with one group holding 35 birds, a Bar-tailed Godwit, a Gull-billed Tern just offshore, and small groups of Grey Plover and Greenshank.
A Black-headed Wagtail flew past.
Moving onto Khwar Jirama just off the Sur road, I could sense that the beach was muddy so made conservative efforts to keep the rental car away from the sinking mud. This was made evidently clear to me as I watched one poor individual, his car sinking deeper into the the brown gunk while a 4x4 made several attempts to pull the vehicle out. They eventually made it.
This wasn't a walk made for footwear of any kind. I made a 1km walk along the foreshore watching Sooty Gull, my first Pallas's Gull that were generously congregated within the bay, and plenty of wader adding Spotted Redshank, and a single winter plumage Little Stint to the increasing list of species within this family group.
A couple of Caspian Tern were present here.
On the way back to Muscat, I missed a junction for route 17 but decided to continue seeing that the road headed back toward the sea.
It was a dead-end with no one around. Noticing an area of scrub, I parked up and headed in. It was brilliant. Full of birds. Lots of Purple Sunbird, Green Bee-Eater, with a first Arabian Warbler seen here as well as an Eastern Orphean Warbler, Arabian Partridge, two Daurian Shrike, and the surprising sight of a Corn Bunting.
I think this was private land so scarpered pretty quickly.
I was up early to have a quick look around the scrubby barren areas around the hotel that yielded a couple of male Desert Wheatear, a Red-tailed Wheatear, and a surprise Wryneck.
Moving onto Khwar Jirama just off the Sur road, I could sense that the beach was muddy so made conservative efforts to keep the rental car away from the sinking mud. This was made evidently clear to me as I watched one poor individual, his car sinking deeper into the the brown gunk while a 4x4 made several attempts to pull the vehicle out. They eventually made it.
This wasn't a walk made for footwear of any kind. I made a 1km walk along the foreshore watching Sooty Gull, my first Pallas's Gull that were generously congregated within the bay, and plenty of wader adding Spotted Redshank, and a single winter plumage Little Stint to the increasing list of species within this family group.
On the way back to Muscat, I missed a junction for route 17 but decided to continue seeing that the road headed back toward the sea.
It was a dead-end with no one around. Noticing an area of scrub, I parked up and headed in. It was brilliant. Full of birds. Lots of Purple Sunbird, Green Bee-Eater, with a first Arabian Warbler seen here as well as an Eastern Orphean Warbler, Arabian Partridge, two Daurian Shrike, and the surprising sight of a Corn Bunting.
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