Oman Landscapes and People

 A few landscape shots (from north to south) and some people pics. The route of our tour is traced HERE and the itinerary summary is on the Wise Birding Site HERE. 

The Al-Hajar Mountains in the North (above and below), desert mountains and the home of Omani Owl

Wadi Bani Habib (above) on the Sauq plateaux (below) in the Al-Hajar- the habitat of northern specialities such as Plain Leaf Warbler, Scrub Warbler and Arabian Babbler

The immense wetlands on Masirah Island and the Barr al Hikmen peninsula provide habitat for the largest concentrations of waders in Arabia

Going South we crossed seemingly endless barren gravel desert with a couple of resthouses ( Al Ghaftain above) and oasis ( Muntasar below) where migrants were concentrating

Fairly typical scenes on the long drive south through the gravel deserts

As we drove further south we crossed the edge of the Rub al Khali aka the 'Empty Quarter', the largest sand dune complex in Arabia which stretches into Saudi (photo by Paul Alfrey)

Our last dry desert lansdscapes (the northern foothills of the Dhofar Mountains)near the Yemen Border at Mudday before we crossed over the Dhofar mountains into the comparatively lush Salalah plain and south facing Dhofar slopes and wadis (below)

Wadi Darbat

The sink hole at the Yemen Serin site 

Desert Owl habitat (above and below) 

Verreaux's Eagle habitat

Oman scenes (above and below) 

Group pic

Dave and Chris (above and below)

Stalking Great Knots

Gordon

Anand in a wadi

The food was mainly Indian (also had Lebanese one night, above) but we tried a few Omani dishes including my favourite Mutton Mandi (photos by Stephen Culley) 

Oman Other Wildlife

As usual while birding we were side hustling the leps and herps. There were a few nice butterflies around and we managed to get the lepiled up a few nights including in desert wadis while we were owling. So far got 61 species roughly identified on I-Nat HERE including some really nice looking species. All observations HERE. 

Lime Swallowtail

White Pearl Emperor

Yellow Pansy

Blue Pansy

Plain Tiger 

Pioneer Whites

Hippotion rebeli

Gregson's Dart

Maltese Bloom

Hyperthyra lutea

Ozarba tamsina

Anderson's Rock Agama

Arabian Chameleon

Jayakar Lizard

Oriental Garden Lizard

Rock Gecko sp- lots of these around. The I-Nat AI has this as Guweira Semaphore Gecko but not validated yet. 

Eastern Sand Gecko - I think

Scorpions were common in the desert at night especially in the north. Possibly Black-tipped Thick-tailed Scorpion (above) and possibly Black-tailed Alligator-backed Scorpion (below). They were easy to find using an ultra-violet light as they glow luminiscent yellow . 

Oman Night Birding

We did several nights owling and night birding while in Oman- two nights in the Al Hajar mountains looking for Omani Owl, one night doing Nightjars near Maqshin, two nights looking for Desert Owl and two nights looking for Arabian Eagle Owl and Arabian Scops Owl in the Salalah region. There was no sight or sound of the Omani Owl (there have been no reliable sightings this autumn anywhere in Oman) and despite having up to three Desert Owls singing relatively close we only managed to glimpse one but we had better luck with the other targets with great views of Arabian Eagle Owl, Egyptian Nightjars, a bonus Syke's Nightjar and an encounter with Arabian Scops Owl. We also picked up Spotted Thick-knee (calling) and Barn Owl.   

We also picked up a few mammals at night including Arabian Wolf, Sand Gazelle, Arabian Wolf and several bat species including what were presumably Egyptian Fruit Bats (large fruit bat in the Al Hajar) and several smaller and medium sized bats including one species flying round at our feet. 

Arabian Eagle Owl

Egyptian Nightjar

Arabian Wolf

Sand Gazelles at the Egyptian Nightjar site - part of an introduction project if we understand correctly

Steve had an ultra-violet light which made finding scorpions easy- they were basically everywhere in the wadis in the Al Hajar mountains with a few in the south 

I had the Lepiled out while we were in the wadis- will post seperately on the moths 

Orion and Orion nebula (centre constellation) over the wadis at night. The atmosphere in the desert at night is stunningly beautiful 

Bats over the wadis (above and below). Presumably Egyptian Fruit Bats above.