[Jos Stratford]

A few other images from earlier in the trip:
1. Iraq Babbler, common at the Dez River.
2. Mesopotamian Crow, endemic to marshes of south-east Irag and extreme south-west of Iran.
3. Pied Kingfisher, eyeing me from a bridge.
4. Black-winged Kite, expanding into southern Iran, but still only 20 or so records to the end of 2010.
5. Bluethroat, common winterer.

[James Lowther]

good photos Jos,
nice looking bird that mesopotamian crow
cheers,
James

[Jos Stratford]

Thanks James. Indeed it is a nice bird. geographically isolated from Hoodies, a lot more distinct that, for example, some of the U.S. crows, I'm happy to follow the few authorities that consider it a species. either way though, a good thing to see.


One more photo, I'll let Mahmoud provide an alternative translation, by I took this sign to mean "This way to the birding" :)

[ghasempouri]

Originally Posted by Jos Stratford

One more photo, I'll let Mahmoud provide an alternative translation

Thanks Jos!
The board said: "Group 1 --> Harvester"
I think harvester is a kind of mechanical engineering agricultural machinery.

--------------------------------------------------
to homeland people who search around Persian name:
برخی پرندگان که در تصاویر به نام آنها اشاره شده

Iraq Babbler لیکوی خوزی
Mesopotamian Crow کلاغ ابلق
Pied Kingfisher ماهی خورک ابلق
Black-winged Kite کورکور سیاه
Bluethroat سینه سرخ ایرانی

All shots had taken in Qeshm island
همنه تصاویر مربوط به جزیره قشم می باشد

[Jos Stratford]

Minab & Tiab. 26 December.

Qeshm departure, official speedboats weren’t running, perhaps too early in the morning, so with a bunch of others I was herded down rocks to a small speedboat waiting in the shallows. Sat with assorted cargo, it really felt as if we were smugglers as we motored back across the Strait of Hormoz just after dawn, the bumpy crossing marked by little more than a farewell House Crow in Qeshm town and a few Swift Terns meadering between assorted cargo ships anchored off Bandar Abbas.

Arriving in Bandar Abbas, I made my way across town to catch a savari to my next destination - 85 km to the south-east, the small town of Minab.
A slither of greenery sandwiched between arid hills and saltflats, Minab offers some of the best birding on the entire Iranian coast – an excellent range of species in the date groves, plus rich pickings on the intertidal creeks at Tiab, just 20 km to the east. Add to this some of the warmest folk in all Iran, a comfortable hotel within walking distance of the date groves and all was set for an excellent few days. Eighteen months earlier, despite oppressively high temperatures and humidity, Minab had been one of the highlights of my trip to Iran, so here I was back for more – the temperature was now a pleasant 26 C, the humidity basically gone and, after dumping my bags in the Sadaf Hotel, I was back in the date groves.

Ah, Little Green Bee-eaters and Indian Rollers, the staples of Minab, so too White-cheeked Bulbuls, Eastern Pied Wheatears and Purple Sunbirds. Zipping about everywhere these birds, most pleasant. A couple of 'buzzards' drifted low through the palms, the glimpses suggesting something a little interesting, but I got nothing conclusive. I wandered on in vain hope of Sind Pied Woodpecker, but instead ran into a flock of Spanish Sparrows in shrubbery, an Indian Pond Heron on an irrigation ditch and a Bonelli's Eagle high overhead.All was very nice, but as the heat climbed, I decided to abandon the shady retreats of the palms to hitch-hike down to Tiab, a coastal area some 20 km to the west. On that trip eighteen months earlier, I had discovered three Great Stone Plovers on a mud bank down there, maybe there would still be present. Arriving, I quickly located the spot, a deep creek leading past a port of traditional lengeh boats.

Now, as then, the sun was going to be in exactly the wrong position - if the birds were to reappear as the sun began to drop, they would again be silhouettes. I however still had time to relocate and try to approach from the opposite side ...a small detour that added about four kilometres each way to my walk. A good walk though, one Black Stork flying over, eight Broad-billed Sandpipers in a small channel, seven Curlew Sandpipers too. As I began to approach the mudbank, still purely on a hunch that the Great Stone Plovers would still be there, I found the going was getting ever more gooey, my feet now weighing a tonne due to caked mudflat accumulating in great wads. A flock of 15 Dalmatian Pelicans wafted over, a single and a pair a little later. The creek came into view, two Pied Kingfisher hovering aside a lengeh, a White-breasted Kingfisher on a mooring line.

And then all the slopping and sliding paid off. From a clump of scubby vegetation, out stepped one enormous beak, a head of bold blacks and whites and a body of sleek sandy-grey, a dash of black making up a bar across the wing - Great Stone Plover, a beauty. And then another, and another, and another! Eeks, they were everywhere! Eighteen of the stunners, adorning the banks of the creek left and right, fantastic. With the sun dropping rapidly behind me, I got my photographs, then began the long walk back. Lesser Short-toed Larks on route back, a Citrine Wagtail and Water Pipit too. Distant, 40 Western Reef Herons were dropping onto pools, something to investigate the next day.

Hitched a lift back to Minab and retired for the night, rather content.

[Jos Stratford]

A few images from the day..

[michaelboustead]

Many people blog, a few are special. Your site is special!

[ghasempouri]

To be frank, you can not believe how nice Persian text will extract when your manuscript translate! It very seems to short stories from "Sadegh Choobak", Iranian famous author. Your nice departure first sentences:

هنگام ترک کردن قشم فرا رسیده بود، قایق های مسافربری معمول هنوز آغاز به کار نکرده بودند ، شاید برای این بود
که صبح زود منطقه را ترک میکردم. با یک دسته از کرجی یا قایق موتوری سریع السیر کوچک برخورد کردم که در ساحل در انتظار مسافر بودند با محموله هایی از همه رقم جنس قاچاق،

Maybe we should sing a protocol for translation your memories
Checklist of some birds which had seen by Jos (Geshm-Minab):
چک لیست دیگر پرندگانی که آقای جاس استرافورد در هنگام ترک قشم به میناب دیده است - دسامبر2011

House Crow کلاغ هندی / Swift Tern پرستو دریایی كاكلی بزرگ / Little Green Bee-eater زنبور خوار سبز / Indian Roller سبز قبای هندی / White-cheeked Bulbul بلبل خرما / Purple Sunbirds شهد خوار / Sind Pied Woodpecker دارکوب بلوچی / Spanish Sparrow گنجشک سینه سیاه / Indian Pond Heron حواصیل هندی / Bonelli's Eagle عقاب دو برادر / Great Stone Plover چاق لق هندی / Dalmatian Pelican پلیکان پاخاکستری / Pied Kingfisher ماهی خورک ابلق / White-breasted Kingfisher ماهی خورک سینه سفید / Lesser Short-toed Lark چکاوک سینه خط دار / Citrine Wagtail دم جنبانک زرد / Western Reef Herons اگرت ساحلی

[Jos Stratford]

Originally Posted by michaelboustead

Many people blog, a few are special. Your site is special!

Many thanks, praise indeed. It takes a while to get it how I want, so happy it is appreciated.

[Jos Stratford]

Minab & Tiab. 27 December.

What an eventful day! Found Iran’s 5th ever Black Drongos, found Iran’s 12th ever Pallas’s Fish Eagle, found another Black-winged Kite and two Great Knots, both official Iranian rarities, and in addition to all, that got detained by the military! And I lost my watch.

The day had started with an attempt to reacquaint with a family of Spotted Little Owls. Eighteen months earlier, in the depths of the palm groves, I had found the birds basking in the early morning sun on a dead mango tree. If I could find the same tree, supposing it hadn’t been chopped down, there had to be a reasonable chance that the owls might still adorn it. My walk began, Indian Rollers and Little Green Bee-eaters dripping off the bushes, White-cheeked Bulbuls everywhere, Purple Sunbirds in full song, I snaked between the palms searching out my tree. A half hour of walking and I found myself on a familiar path, another few minutes down a track between mud walls and huts and there was my tree, still twisting up between date palms. And cor blimey, bingo, there was a Spotted Little Owl sitting on exactly the same branch as last time! Well that chuffed me considerably, I had not really expected such luck.

Another couple of hundred metres, as I paused to admire a gaudy Indian Roller having a bicker with a White-breasted Kingfisher, a distinctive sh’weeep sh’weep call caught my attention. And stone me, there sallied a pair of Black Drongos, perching on exposed twigs then swooping out like a bee-eater before returning to the same point. As said, Black Drongo has only been recorded in Iran four times before, so a few photographs to record the event, then my first coffee of the day to celebrate.

Onward though the groves, Eastern Pied Wheatears on piles of stones, a Grey Francolin calling, a Desert Lesser Whitethroat making a brief appearance, an Isabelline Shrike pausing rather longer. And then another bonus - sitting atop a palm watching a scrubby field below, yet another Black-winged Kite, my fifth individual of the trip.

Though the morning was going well, my intended destination of choice this day was not the date palms at Minab, but rather a return to Tiab to further explore this vast region of intertidal flats, creeks and saltpans. With this in mind, I departed the palms, got a lift on a motorbike to the main road and then hitched the 20 km to Tiab. Checking satellite maps, I had noticed a track that seemed to veer south, then west continuing all the way to the mouth of a large creek where it emptied into the Strait of Hormoz. A very nice gentleman just happened to be going down this track as I arrived, gave me a lift and took me right to the end, a distance of about 10 km. The result was a feast for the eyes, the road petered out at a small port harbouring a couple of dozen traditional lenge boats, and to each side mud flats ladden with birds, a rising tide pushing them ever closer. Dalmatian Pelicans, Spoonbills, Western Reef Herons, Oystercatchers by the hundred, I didn’t even need binoculars!

Time for second coffee I decided, settling down between two of the wooden hulks for my first careful scan. Terek Sandpipers and both Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers in their usual dominant positions amongst the ranks of waders, but also more Curlew Sandpipers here than elsewhere, plus a good assembly of assorted other waders and a few Lesser Crested Terns. A little further on, a small walled compound jutted out onto the river front, the views from there would be fantastic, the sun perfect and an extensive mud bank just beyond. Navigated around the compound, stopping a while for a very obliging Pallas's Gull on the beach and then set my scope up for a nice long gander at the comings and goings on the river front. And perfect it was, several Dalmatian Pelicans loafing in the water, an Osprey overhead and, after a long search of the countless waders scattered before me, suddenly two of my target birds plodding along on a sand spit just about to be swallowed by the tide.

With only one record in Iran prior to the year 2000, small numbers of Great Knot have since been discovered most winters on the coastal flats off Minab. And that is exactly what I was now watching, two smart Great Knots retreating from the rising tide. Eventually up came the water and off they flew, settling in a wader roost further up on the beach.

All very pleasant. Further out, on sand bars sandwiched by the pinks of Greater Flamingos, I then spotted a big blob. A big blob probably about 2km away in the murky depths of the heat haze. With the scope it was clearly a Haliaeetus eagle and clearly an adult, some white on the tail could be discerned and a pale, almost creamy head. White-tailed Eagle would be rather rare on the Persian Gulf, so the extra-limital Pallas’s Fish Eagle had to be a contender too, occasional records of this Iranian rarity having occurred a little further east.

And as I squinted to try and make out more detail, so an Iranian soldier found me. Unbeknown to me, the compound against whose wall I was sitting contained a small military post. Oops. And bigger oops, I did not have my passport with me, something that certainly seemed to miff my new soldier friend. And oops number three, my optical firepower was all pointing out to the Strait of Hormoz, the very body of water that also unknown to me was at that very moment centre stage in the dangerous games of international power play being slogged out, tiddlywinks on a grand scale. My soldier was calling the camp, repeatedly posturing for my passport. I stuck to my eagle, a black terminal band to the tail emerging from the ground haze as the agle shuffled, a fairly clean contrast between creamy head and dark back. Good light, but no hint of pale bill. It was a Pallas’s Fish Eagle! Soldier began to pace. I thought it time to make a tactical retreat, packing up my scope and rather long telephoto lens. No chance, just as I got round the front of the compound, I was summonced by another soldier, next rank up it seemed. Very friendly guy, but I was going nowhere - except into the compound and there escorted to an office, five senior army guys round a table. Oo er, this had potential to be leading towards trouble. Five pairs of eyes showing some form of mystification, faces more ones of surprise than anger. I decided a nice smile would be order. They replied the compliment. Fear not however, despite more requests for my passport and a general non-understanding on their part that hotels in Iran always hold onto tourists’ passports, I had little to worry about – Iran is essentually a country of incredible hospitality and these guys were no exception. Lots of smiles, plus tea and biscuits over interrogation, the latter rather limited due to little common language. Two more officer types arrived, more hand shakes, half an hour drifted by, nothing seemed to be happening. I truly hoped upper levels of bureaucracy were not going to become involved – hours could easily turn into days and weeks that way – but then, after I had mentioned my hotel name several times, I think they called and checked who I was, they waved me off goodbye, big smiles as I went.

Despite wanting a flight photo, or indeed any photo beyond a smudgy blob, I thought it prudent not to return to my eagle - besides it was high tide now, so it was probably gone. Instead I began to wander back, a Shikra on roadside wires deserving a quick photograph, a Booted Eagle circling overhead a few more. Two more soldiers approached on a motorbike, just a wave as they went by, I was to remain a free man.

I soon hitched a lift on another motorbike back to the village of Tiab, jumping off just before I got there to look for some fish pools I had also spotted on the satellite maps. I found them with little trouble, they were not amazing, but not too bad either – six Black Storks, about 150 Western Reef Herons and a couple of Black-necked Grebes the highlight.

With so much excitement during the day, not to forget the long hours under a burning sun, I decided to head back just after 3 p.m. for a couple for lazy hours at the hotel. And the first car that went by, one of the officers from the military camp! Back to the camp for me?! No, a big smile and big hello, and the nice gent then gave me a lift all 20 km back to my hotel. Perfect end to a perfect day!

[Jos Stratford]

Some photographs from the day...

[wolfbirder]

Amazing experience Jos. Good birding too.

Maybe they read your blog?

[MKinHK]

What a day - no better exposition of "Live each day as if it were your last"

Bearing in mind the things you get up to:

a) you deserve all the birds you get
b) your guardian angel is a class act!

Cheers
Mike

[albatross02]

Excellent bird pictures, but in Iran I am not sure if I had so much time for birding,
I would prefer Persepolis, Esfahan or Shiraz.

It is very hard to decide waht to do in such countries with high variety of interesting things.

[wolfbirder]

Originally Posted by MKinHK

What a day - no better exposition of "Live each day as if it were your last"

Bearing in mind the things you get up to:

a) you deserve all the birds you get
b) your guardian angel is a class act!

Cheers
Mike

I have said before, Jos's diaries would make a fantastic book, genuinely. Maybe one day he will do this. What better way to learn truly about a nation and its environment and of course its level of avian interest, than reading 'Jos's Chronicles'.

As for the "living your day as if it were your last", I think he has already had a few of those very close shaves, having being chased and attacked by machete-wielding natives somewhere on the african continent. He'll correct me if that's wrong.

He is in a far more tranquil place right now, you can tell. He just needs to stop birding from military compounds

[Jos Stratford]

Originally Posted by albatross02

I would prefer Persepolis, Esfahan or Shiraz.

Just for you...

Esfahan is one of the most stunning cities in the world. I too would recommend even the most ardent of birders make a little detour for this. Persepolis pretty stunning too, reasonable birding also - Eastern Rock Nuthatches and Eastern Pied Wheatears, etc, hopping about on the monuments.

Shiraz is nice enough, but I wouldn't detour to far to bother with it.

[Jos Stratford]

Originally Posted by wolfbirder

... chased and attacked by machete-wielding natives somewhere on the african continent. He'll correct me if that's wrong...

There wasn't much chasing involved in it

[Jos Stratford]

Minab & Jask. 28 December.

Back to the date plantations, a little after dawn. A tad too late for more encounters with the Spotted Little Owls, no sign of the Black Drongos either, but I had a new bunch of treats lined up for me on this day.

First was a Blue Rock Thrush atop an old building at the village edge, the next was a confirmation of a bird I thought I had seen on previous days. Gliding across the canopy of palms, magically managing to always remain mostly hidden, I’d had several glimpses of a medium-sized raptor the day before, all pointers suggesting Oriental Honey Buzzard, but never a view to confirm it. All that changed today, after a couple of frustrating repeats of birds moving behind palms, out soared my first definite Oriental Honey Buzzard, a female passing stright overhead, right into the line of fire for my camera. Excellent bird, and another newcomer to Iran, the first records only dating back to 1999. In the intervening 12 years, almost 20 more records have occurred, most in this south-east corner of the country.

I was certain that all the glimpses I was getting actually related to several birds, so finding an open area, I sat myself on a pile of dirt and had a little sunbathe, one eye to the sky. The tactic worked, no less than four Oriental Honey Buzzards identified during the morning, three females and one smart male. Also notched up two Shikras, a White Pelican circling with 18 Dalmatian Pelicans and, on a tussock of vegetation just nearby, my only Indian Silverbills of the trip. My nose slightly more sunburnt than before, I eventually decided it time to move on, my chosen route adding a pair of Hoopoes, a total of seven Desert Lesser Whitethroats, one Long-billed Pipit and a smart semirufus Black Redstart. Loads of Spanish Sparrows too, plus a few African Rock Martins passing over. It was time for me to wander back to the hotel, I was planning to leave Minab.

Heading south and east from Minab really begins a voyage into adventurous lands – harsh jagged landscapes of arid desert, few settlements, no formal accommodation and, for lands in a line east of Jask, on travel advisories warning against all travel (the region close to the Pakistan border being the one area of Iran where occasional trouble does surface). Just my cup of tea. I shared a taxi with two most delightful ladies for the 210 km hop from Minab to Jask, they seeming most amused that I would be going to a town late in the afternoon that had absolutely no hotel.

And indeed it did not have a hotel, a couple of circuits of the essentially one-street town and I began to think it was time to head out into the desert for a rather uncomfortable night not only tent-less, but also without sleeping bag. I still however had a sneaking suspicion that the town did actually have a mosaferkhaneh hidden away somewhere, a type of ultra basic guest house, so I began to quiz locals on the street. Responses all seemed in the negative, but then I was bundled into a car and driven round a few back streets, the driver stopping to bang on locked metal gates at a periodic moments. Gates opened at the third place, I had a home for the night! The term ‘basic’ was actually an over-statement - even by my rather low standards, this place was a dump, the cat picking through the rubbish outside a fitting compliment to my des res this night. Still, who cares if the ragged mattress is on the floor when you’re asleep?

[Jos Stratford]

From Minab, one close, one miles away...

[halftwo]

This is great - out of the Hormuz frying pan, into the border fire!

Great stuff with the Pallas' fish eagle et al.

At least we already know you survived!

[Jos Stratford]

29 December. Jegen River.

Fled my accommodation at dawn, plans to use it as a base for a couple of days shelved. Hit the road and hitched to Jegen River, an occasional water course sitting some 40 km east on the lonely road that winds ever on into the dust of Pakistan many many hours away.

Few tourists venture this way, the local Balutchi population seeming a little suspicious, requests to see my passport a norm. One or two incidents would make me advice caution in visiting this area. For me, however, getting a lift relatively quickly, it was all a side issue – once I’d jumped out at the river bridge, I soon disappeared into the old tamarack woodlands that border the river, venturing north away from a small village that exists to the south. Not another soul disturbed the peace for my whole morning, but excellent birding - Desert Lesser Whitethroats and White-cheeked Bulbuls the most numerous passerines present, Eastern Pied Wheatears, Black Redstarts (semirufus) and Purple Sunbirds also in no short supply, plus Afghan Babblers, a Great Grey Shrike (aucheri) and Brown-necked Raven. One Plain Leaf Warbler was an expected highlight. My main reason to be here however was Sind Pied Woodpecker, a species of very limited global range, its heartland the borderlands of Iran and Pakistan. Took over an hour to find, and then I found two – a male and female travelling together, a similar scenario to my previous visit here. I had hoped to get good photographs, but the birds had other ideas, vanishing behind trunks or into thickets of branches everytime my lens pointed in their direction!

Soon however, I was to be distracted my woodpeckers, the liquid bubbling voices of sandgrouse descending to a set of low dunes just yonder, magical. Trotted off in their direction and soon could see them feeding on the ground, 40 Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, a bonus indeed. A short way on, three more sandgrouse on the deck, more Chestnut-bellied I assumed. But, hmm, funny head pattern, nice plumage. Stone me, Lichtenstein’s Sandgrouse! Widely assumed to be an uncommon resident in south-east Iran, there have been nevertheless only a half dozen records in the last 30 years, what staggering luck. And it was to continue, after a pair of Bonelli’s Eagles overhead and a distant Steppe Eagle, I then encountered two phylloscs that roused interest – basically Chiffchaffs, but with a warmth of brown totally replacing any hints of green or yellow, even the rump area a uniform brown. With clear supercilium and dark legs, really only one candidate – Mountain Chiffchaff, another bird for which the distribution is poorly understood in the region. Known to breed in the Kalibar Mountains of north-east Iran, its wintering grounds are basically unknown, the only previous winter records being two birds near Bushehr on the Persian Gulf and four birds in January 2005 in these very same forests along the Jegen River.

With the sun now burning and really not feeling much like mid-winter, bird activity was beginning to quieten down. Time to move on I thought. Ideas to visit the excellent Soorgalm mudflats and Khoor-e Khalasi both would require a multi-kilometre hike across the desert, the potential reward at the end including possible Goliath Heron and Oriental White-eye. Laziness however persuaded me to give it up for another visit – time to turn north instead, from the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea, a journey of 1950 km in front of me.

Hitched 40 km back to Jask, took a savari the 220 km to Minab, arriving just in time to connect with an evening bus north to Shahr-e-Babek, another nine-hour slog to the north.

[wintibird]

Excellent reading, thanks Jos!
Do you think we could use your picture of the Mesopotamian Crow for the Opus?

André

[Jos Stratford]

Originally Posted by wintibird

Do you think we could use your picture of the Mesopotamian Crow for the Opus?

As you asked so nicely, I'll even give you an extra one

[Jos Stratford]

And I don't expect any requests for the cruddy quality of my Jegen River efforts :)

[MKinHK]

Some top quality birds there - the crow, the woodpecker and the sandgrouse (both of them) especially.

Cheers
Mike