Sites in Hurghada and the surrounding area (1 Viewer)

Dear All,
I am off to Hurghada for 2 weeks in June and was wondering if anyone had any advice on any birdwatching sites in the area. I am going diving and hopefully off to Luxor for a day or two, so i’ll have a couple of days on the road and out at sea. I have the recommended books, from other threads in this section, but my search for other places is proving to be very fruitless (mainly due to my inability to find locations on the map of Egypt via Google Earth). I was wondering if anyone knows of either a good guide to Egypt which includes it's nature reserves or has any firsthand knowledge?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated,
Paul

Hi Paul

Been to Egypt twice, in 1995 and 2006. The first time was a total blitz around all the well known sites, the second visit we concentrated on the coast with just a day and a half visit to Luxor to see Painted Snipe (we succeeded, great views at Crocodile Island-you need to find damp areas and pools in the grassy bits, they won't be on the banks of the actual Nile). Be warned that in June it will be extremely hot! We went in May and in Luxor I believe it reached around 45C!
Getting back to the coast, we flew to Hurghada and drove south from there to Shams Alam resort about 200 miles to the south (good gardens for migrants) and stayed several nights. From here we made a trip to Shalatein and saw numerous Lappet-faced Vultures and also took a snorkelling trip out from Hamata (where we had one Goliath Heron in the mangroves). I would say that if you can you need to take a trip from Hamata rather than Hurghada which is very degraded from a diver's point of view. On this boat trip, as well as the snorkelling being first-class we had a single Crab Plover and a couple of Bridled Terns. Brown Booby would be likely on this trip too (we had one at Hamata from shore). I think the place to stay at Hamata is Wadi Lahami resort.
Don't think there are any proper site guides to Egypt available unfortunately.

Hope this helps

Perry

Perry- thanks for the informative response. Hopefully, with a bit of luck and patience, I'll get to see Painted Snipe at Luxor.