Oman Trip Report
17 to 31 March 2001

General Remarks

Flight: KLM Berlin-Muscat via Amsterdam.
Pre-rented car from Holiday Autos (Toyota Corolla A/C).
Of course you can visit more places in a 4WD, but  roads are in excellent shape, and many graded tracks are OK for  “saloon cars”.
The weather conditions were excellent: fair skies, sometimes overcast, temperatures ranging between 19 and 36 C degrees.
In Dhofar it was  humid, but not too bad.
Hotel rooms  were very clean and reasonably priced (if compared to German standards). It is no problem to find accommodation.
 

Books

Porter/Christensen/Schiermacker-Hansen: Field Guide to the Birds of the Middle East, ISBN 0-85661-076-3Kabasci/Franzisky: Oman, ISBN 3-89662-100-9 (Excellent general Travel Guide in German language)

Oman Bird List, compiled by Jens Eriksen and Dave E. Sargeant, Oman Bird Record Committee, P.O.Box 246, Muscat 113, Sultanate of Oman

Itinerary

We arrived on the 17th at mid-night. A cab took us to Naseem Hotel which we would impossibly hauve found on our own. From the hotel we had a beautiful view on the Mutrah harbor, and in the weak light of a lamp Larus hemprichii entered as the first new species.

Mutrah 18.03.01
Next day we walked around in Mutrah, met for the first time Kilian Weixler and his sister, who many times during this trip crossed our way,  always pleasant company for birding. Early afternoon we picked up our car that first took us to Al Ansab Lagoon. The most common bird there was the familiar Cormorant.  We also saw two Egytian vultures and a Marsh harrier,  no eagles, but Isabelline Shrike, Red-wattled Plover, a Red-rumped swallow (rare migrant), and heard a Little Crake.

Batinah 19.03.01
We went to Ras as Sawadi (very pleasant) and Al Suwayq (disappointing). Indian Roller was a constant company along the roads. The contrasts between the farm lands and desert like landscapes was impressive. We saw  Lesser and Greater Sand Plover side by side,  Lesser Crested Tern, European and Little Green Bee-eater, Grey Francolin. On our return we paid a second visit to  Al Ansab which this time produced a beautifully spotted Spotted Eagle. In the evening we met Dave Sargeant and Panadda of the Oman Bird Group at their home, who provided us with sandwiches and a lot of extremely helpful informations. Thank  you!  
 
Trip to Nizwa 20.03.01
In the morning we payed a visit to the Sunup dump, where 30-40 eagles and about the same number of vultures waited for us. The eagles were Spotted and Steppe, but there also was a Lesser Spotted. Among the vultures there were two huge  Lapped-faced. In Nizwa, in the late afternoon , we visited the fort  and were almost forgotten and locked in.

Trip to Salalah 21.03.01
We set out early, stopped at all the rest houses along the road to look for  migrants, and arrived at Salalah before dawn. Along the road we met several small groups of sandgrouse but only twice were quick enough to determine the species. At the rest houses  Isabelline Wheatear, Northern Wheatear, Orphean Warbler and Red-breasted Flycathcher were migrant, and we enjoyed Hoopoe Lark, Black-crowned Finch Lark and Desert Lark. In the mountains before Salalah we had a Hobby, a South Arabian Wheatear, Fan-tailed Raven, and, entering Salalah, a male Marsh Harrier and a first Tristram Grackle crossing the street right before us.

Salalah 21.03.01 – 28.03.01
We visited the Salalah Khor as long as the police would let us, the Dahariz Khor, and the Sun Farm, where a close view of a Saker was the highlight. We made several excursions to the Khors at  Suli, Rouri and Mughsayl, as well as into the mountains, where we had several beautiful Imperial Eagles. We visited the springs, e.g. El Hamran which, as Dave had promissed, really offered all the Dhofar specialties: Arabian Partridge,  Blackstart,  White-breasted White-eye, Black-crowned Tchagra, African Paradise Flycatcher,  Shining and Palestine Sunbird, Arabian Warbler, African Rock Bunting. In the mountains the sinkhole (giant collapsed cave) at Tawi Attair had a fascinating atmosphere. We watched a pair of Bonelli’s Eagle for a long time and from very short distances, while the Yemen Serrins could be discovered only if you knew in advance its presence in the walls of the hole. Birds we missed in the South were the Pheasant-tailed Jacana and Verraux’s Eagle.

Way back to Nizwa 28.03.01
On the way we payed a visit to the Thumrait dump, where four Steppe Eagles and an Egyptian Vulture were found. The rest houses added  Lesser White-throat, Short-toed Lark, a beuatiful Masked Shrike, Rufous Bush Robin and Red-throated Pipits to the list of migrants.  

Mutrah 29.03.01 – 31.03.01
From Mutrah we went for a day trip to Quriat, where  more that 50 Great Black-headed Gulls waited on the shore. We did not manage to get into the Qurm Park, because it opened in the later afternoon  only. But from the fence toward the main road we encountered Grey Francolin, White-cheeked Bulbul, a Pallid Harrier, Ring-necked Parakeet, Scaly-breasted Munia and  a  Common Waxbill.

Bird List

• C = Capital Area, B = Batinah, S = Salalah, K = Dhofar Khors, R = Rest Houses Desert  on the Route Nizwa-Salalah, Q = Quriat

Dirk and Regina Ferus
ferus@math.tu-berlin.de