Seawatching in the south of Oman (Salalah area) (1 Viewer)

I am a bit under a time pressure here since I have to arrange things.
Does anyone know how the weather conditions while seawatching in this region:storm:?
Probably need my North European rainoutfit because of summermonsoons, but is hard wind to be expected in the next few weeks. How are temperatures?

Hi Gerd,

I don't know if you have access to a copy of the Birdwatching guide to Oman by Sargaent, Eriksen & Eriksen, but the section on climate says: "Salalah, in the south, has its own distinctive climate, greatly influenced by the Indian Ocean monsoon from June to Spetember. The affect is not heavy rain, but rather a constant drizzle, especially in the mountains, where visibility is greatly reduced. the humidity on the coast is high, and the sea extremely rough [...] Seabird watching from the shore can be good in September, though is sometimes not possible due to fog and mist. As the month passes the visibility improves." The section also gives the average August temperature as between 23 and 28 degrees, and average rainfall as 25mm.

Hope that helps,

Stuart

PS, Scanning through the site guide, under the section about Ras Mirbat ("60km east of Salalah, one of the premier sea-watching headlands in Oman") it mentions that "High seas, and potentially fog, during the summer monsoon season mean that the optimal period [for seawatching] is between September and November".

Cheers,

Stuart

The weather was indeed foggy. But Ras Janjari was a good place to be seated.
Found a 5000 ish FleshFooted Shearwaters every day, going west. Jouanins' where really poor during the day; perhaps a few tens but from 1430 h. birds started to pass every day in major movements, going east.
The wind made them move very vast and in the beginning I still had to construct my understanding in identifying dark tubenoses. At day three I realised that the movement in the afternoon eastwards where in bulk Jouanins'; counted 1893 birds.
Movement of Persian Shearwaters must have been in their thousands every day. Second day I had large flocks of 500 birds all day, feeding just off shore.
Paying attention the most for the pelagic movements must have resulted in a loss of birds closer to the coast e.g. Terns and this Persian Shearwater.
Wilson's Stormpetrel was well present with about 200 birds in 5 days but last few days, I had higher numbers every day, definitely experience would have produced higher counts in the first few days.
Swinhoe's Stormpetrel was positively identified several times and the number of dark rumped Stormpetrels made it to about 10. Again, experience in seawatching would have produced higher numbers the first few days.
Wedge tailed Shearwater is not a common bird. Second day I saw a dark bird, wedge tailed, immediately followed by a Shearwater with a pale underside. I suppose these two where Wedge-tailed.
At day four, I wanted to focus on Jouanins', to make an exact number, overruling the incomplete 1893. At the count of 1800, sadly, I lost my count but not without reason: I saw a Wilson's Storm petrel, accompanied by another Stormpetrel and this bird was seen to have a white belly, while bouncing the sea.
Indeed the sea is rough up there, waves of 5 metres breaking the shore are common (first night I really stayed 4hours outside my tent because I wasn't sure, I had not pitched it to low near the water) and to loose Stormpetrels is norm rather than exception. So in this bird. Lost it after a few bounces.
Searched for it some while but gave up and started counting Jouanins' again. At the count of 2200 Jouanins' I saw again a white bellied Stormpetrel really close by and could look upon its size and shape compared to some close Persian Shearwater;it being bigger and broader winged than Wilson's and had razor sharp looks upon its underside. White median wingcoverts where seen with grey greater ones. The white of these median coverts was cut off from the white belly by all sooty dark flanks, difuse to the white belly. A black belly stripe was positively not seen. Projecting feet lacked, though, I only in few instances could see those to the Wilson's.Dark colour as Wilson's not brown as Swinhoe's; dark difuse flanks appeared browner though.
Again I lost this bird and the count of Jouanins' resulted in at least 2400 but I lost considerable numbers during prime time of their passage. I would suggest White-bellied Stormpetrel rather than Black-bellied. Number of Jouanins' would have topped at 3000 for this count if it not had been interrupted so 2400-3000ish.
One dark rumped Stormpetrel had been much darker day three (not brown) and appeared to have fringing to the back and rump; this I suggested afterwards about that bird at day three, compared to the positive Swinhoe's I found. In no case I felt not even lukewarm for Matsudaira's in any of these 10 (not pleading authority for my person) but in this one bird it might have been a dark phase White-bellied.
Last day, I had highest count of Wilson's (100+), 4 dark rumped Storm Petrels, some positively Swinhoe's type. And saw a White faced Stormpetrel at the back!
Bridled terns passed every day in some hundreds, being a most common tern. Or Swift Tern. Followed by Common Tern. Then Lesser Crested Tern and Common Noddy, few Lesser Noddy. 3 White cheeked,1 Roseate Tern, tentatively 2 Saunder's, Gull billed present.
Flocks of Rednecked phalarope where present with some hundreds. Groups of Dolphins and Seaturtles I have yet to identify.

Interesting stuff Gerd, I can't remember the status of some of those Storm Petrel species in Oman but I suspect that there aren't many records of any of them, apart from Wilson's & Swinhoe's.

Hi Gerd,

White-bellied Storm-petrel has never been recorded for Oman or in Omani waters but there have been two records of Black-bellied Storm-petrel off the coast of Dhofar up to 2003 (Oman Bird List Edition 6). One record is of 3 birds in July 1963 and is just recorded as being off the Dhofar coast and could have been off Mirbat or Ras Janjari. The other record just refers to one off Sawqirah (which is further north than Ras Janjari). There have only been two previous records of White-faced Storm-petrel up to 2003 but I believe there has been a more record.

Numbers of Pale-footed Shearwater previously recorded in July in Oman were much lower than your counts - no more than a few hundred in a day and the maximum previous count of Jouanin's Petrel is of 900 off Mirbat on 6 August 1987 - however several thousand probably breed on islands just to the north of Ras Janjari. There have also only been 11 previous records of Swinhoe's Storm-petrel up to 2003 though here again there have be some more recent records. Wilson's are much commoner with the largest number being 1,820 off Mirbat in 1984.

It would be very useful if you were to write up your observations for publication in Sandgrouse as they are of great interest to those of us that occasionally seawatch off Ras Janjari and I am sure the Oman Records Committee would welcome descriptions of your Storm-petrels to formalise their acceptance on to the list of Oman Bird Records. You can contact the Oman Bird Records Committee through Simon Tull at:- simon.tullATbtopenworld.com

Excellent report and some good seawatching and good to see you survived the 'khareef' (monsoon).

AG

Hello AG

Other goodies included an African Spoonbill at Al Mugshayl and East Kwhar, according to the list only a fifth for the country. Two adult Lappet Faced Vulture Kwhar Rawri; Sooty Falcon over Ayn Razat; 10 Yemen Serin at Wadi Darbat means a species unrecorded for that area and an Intermediat Egret at Taquah.
For seawatching I expected better numbers than recorded because birders will visit Oman with landmigration in mind, which means that summer months will pass without due attention (better months for summervisiting seabirds).
The number of Jouanins' may yet have been known bit higher as listed since the species got a bit more known recently.
Swinhoe's is still not much recorded but I read in one of Eriksen's an exceptional number of 99 birds in a single day. So following his suggestion, it definitely must have been overlooked in the past.
The book of R.F Porter et al mentions White-bellied Stormpetrel as unconfirmed for Oman, so I suppose all records of that species got rejected by the committee with difficulty to eliminate Black-bellied.
At the time of observing the WBS, I thought about some forms of Black-bellied not having a black belly stripe and considering the underwing pattern and the bouncing at sea urged me to consider this species, but the closer observation revealed clearly the complete absence of this belly stripe. Following Onley and Scofield on both species, dark morph Black-bellied would show a very broad dark belly stripe with still an almost open connection to the white underwing coverts. This bird showing an all white belly eliminates the posibility of dark morph BB. The sollid dark flanks are diagnostic for White-bellied.
The White-faced is really unmistakeable and Red-necked phalarope was easily eliminated by shape and structure, the all black and full tail, the rump showed virtually white and the black markings even to the darker grey back where fully clear, leaving no doubt about the uniformity of both black tail and virtually white rump. Size, wingshape, wingbars and grey coverts and mantle where much in evidence.
When I left the Netherland I just snapped a Nikon coolpix 5100 in the las minute before boarding so photo's where taken from the Spoonbill, the Serins and the Intermediate egret. Large groups of Flesh Footed where captured. I worked without an adapter so I didn't even try the Stormpetrels.
My darkside: I strung a sitting juvenile Redshank for a Great Knot and considered an aberrant Whiskered Tern as Aleutian.

Only here to correct the Intermediate Egret in the previous post. This bird showed no gape stripe, but that must have been due to quality of the photograph. The bird was very big and that feature, people here at the forum argued to be Great White's. I agree with them.

we are spending one day in Salalah in March on a cruise ( Dover to Singapore) and I would like to do some bird watching. is it practical to take a taxi to any good spots ?
John

johnandjaney said:

we are spending one day in Salalah in March on a cruise ( Dover to Singapore) and I would like to do some bird watching. is it practical to take a taxi to any good spots ?
John

Click to expand...

Hi John,

There are several good birding sites around Salalah which can be reached by Taxi. The cruise ships anchor at the port which is a little distance from Salalah so you will need a taxi to get into town. You can easily get the taxi to drop you off at a birding site and then easily find a taxi from near the birding site when you want to return to the cruise ship. The birding sites are within Salalah or on the outskirts where plenty of taxis cruise around.

If you can hold of the following site guide to Oman:-

Birdwatcing guide to Oman by Hanne & Jens Eriksen and Panadda & Dave E. Sargeant.

The section on the Dhofar region covers all the sites around Salalah.

With just a day or part of a day you are a bit limited but I would recommend Ayn Sahnawt which is just to the north of Salalah. This is the closest site for some of the Dhofar/African speciliaties in the early morning. If you have more time the best place is a few miles up the coast at Ayn Hamran for a wider range of the special birds but if time is limited then Ayn Sahnawt will provide some of the species.

Then if you have any more time, East Khawr or Khwar ad Dahariz as it is sometimes known, is right on the outskirts of Salalah and is a small estuary with extensive reedbeds further inland and is small enough for you walk around. There is a good range of waders, terns, herons and a few passerines to find there and taxis are always around the sea inlet on the Salalah side.

Oman is probably one of the safest countries in the world to visit and you can walk around with your equipment without any problem and you will not be interfered with whilst you are birding. Most people speak English, particularly the many Indians that run all the shops in Salalah, and everybody is very friendly.

Hope this helps with your visit and enjoy.

S

Don't pay too much for the Taxi's !!!!
1 Ryal is a fair price to get you anywhere if you stay in the Town itself. Perhaps 500 besa is even better.

Visiting Oman?

If you birdwatch in Oman, please send me your records as I enter all records to the Oman Bird Records database. Only with your help can I update the Oman Bird List and Birdwatching guide to Oman. Thanks.

Jens Eriksen/www.BirdsOman.com