After a good nights sleep in our tents beside Orog Lake we had an earlier breakfast at 06:30 overlooking the lake with its breeding colony of Spoonbill and Grey Heron and to the sound of booming Bittern and singing Asian Short-toed Lark. After loading the car we headed up the valley behind the campsite and […]
Tag: Steppe Eagle
Mongolia – 14th May (Day 7) – Dalanzadgad to Khongor Sand Dunes
We were up 05:45 and birded the habitat around the guest house. There had evidently been a small fall of migrants and we recorded six Eye-browed Thrush, three Pallas’s Bunting, 12 Red-throated Thrush, Dusky Warbler, Reed Warbler and, best of all, two Siberian Rubythroat which showed well in a newly planted line of scrub opposite […]
Mongolia – 11th May (Day 4) – Travel from Ullanbataar to Dalanzadgad
Today was mainly a driving day 570km south from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad passing through the Gobi Desert with a few stops, mainly at lakes, en-route. The landscape was vast, stark and barren, mainly flat with a few rocky outcrops and dominated by gravel plains with sparse grass. The common birds here were Horned Lark, Asian […]
Steppe Eagles – Tanoumah to Abha road
Whilst in the southwest of the Kingdom in April, Phil Roberts and I came across a group of eight mainly second calendar year Steppe Eagles. The birds appeared to be migrating along the escarpment edge. It is diffuclt to know if these birds were wintering birds from the region moving north or birds from Africa […]
Saudi authorities sound warning on illegal hunting in rented farms
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA) has condemned the hunting of migratory and protected birds in private farms. Bird hunting is a popular sport in Saudi Arabia, but lately hunters have been resorting to new techniques where property owners rent their farms to hunters as a source of income. The result: […]
Teetering on the brink
As Saeed Shanfari and I finished at Dowkah farm so fresh on Monday we pressed on to Qatbeet before turning round. Qatbeet was so far from the coast, it was the only place which was not affected by cyclone chapala at all. It was it’s usual very hot self. Winter coolness arrives later in the […]
Abdim’s stork are back
During mid week a week ago, I managed to snatch some time to visit Raysut settling pools in the late afternoon. The good news is that about 45 Abdim’s stork had arrived. It is only in very recent years that they have chosen to winter in Salalah and it looks like that will continue this […]
Much more at Rakhyut
There was much more to Rakhyut than owling (see yesterday’s blog). On the mountain top before we (Saeed Shanfari, Hedi Khecharem and I) descended into Rakhyut the action started. There were four eagles. Three were steppe eagle which soon disappeared. Eastern imperial eagle 1 One eagle stayed behind and give good views. It was […]