StuartReeves
Local rarity
Welcome to Top Gear forum everyone. Have to concede it was a good car though
-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Casual Oman Birding, November 2008 (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter StuartReeves
- Start date
I was wondering what those weird circles were in the sand at Muntasar, the unrooted palms in furrows that that looked suspiciously like the work of knobbly tires powered by great gobs of torque 
PS to the more serious members of the forum, I would like to express a certain degree of exaggeration has gone into this post and I wouldn't like to cast any accusations against these two esteemed members of our forum, other than for the flushing of the African Spoonbill, which departed South Oman on a remarkably similar date to the sighting by Stuart and his sidekick, aka The Stig
PS to the more serious members of the forum, I would like to express a certain degree of exaggeration has gone into this post and I wouldn't like to cast any accusations against these two esteemed members of our forum, other than for the flushing of the African Spoonbill, which departed South Oman on a remarkably similar date to the sighting by Stuart and his sidekick, aka The Stig
mollymawk
Well-known member
Some more thoughts about the North East
Having aired my wholly temperate thoughts about the car and the value of diesel fuel, readers might like to peruse some further photos about the wonderful north east coast of Oman. Much quieter than Al Batinah which verges on being overdeveloped, the north east has a slightly folorn and detached atmosphere which I really liked. The lagoon with the crab plovers was desolate, deserted, blisteringly bright and fascinating. It might have had something to do with have been scoured by a cyclone some months previoulsly. I got one half decent photo of CP. The immediate hinterland seemed rock and little else.
More text and photos to come.
Having aired my wholly temperate thoughts about the car and the value of diesel fuel, readers might like to peruse some further photos about the wonderful north east coast of Oman. Much quieter than Al Batinah which verges on being overdeveloped, the north east has a slightly folorn and detached atmosphere which I really liked. The lagoon with the crab plovers was desolate, deserted, blisteringly bright and fascinating. It might have had something to do with have been scoured by a cyclone some months previoulsly. I got one half decent photo of CP. The immediate hinterland seemed rock and little else.
More text and photos to come.
Attachments
StuartReeves
Local rarity
I was wondering what those weird circles were in the sand at Muntasar, the unrooted palms in furrows that that looked suspiciously like the work of knobbly tires powered by great gobs of torque
PS to the more serious members of the forum, I would like to express a certain degree of exaggeration has gone into this post and I wouldn't like to cast any accusations against these two esteemed members of our forum, other than for the flushing of the African Spoonbill, which departed South Oman on a remarkably similar date to the sighting by Stuart and his sidekick, aka The Stig
Keep-up Jos, we weren't in possession of gobs of torque, great or otherwise, at the time of our visit to Muntasar. Which was partly why we did acquire said gobs for the last leg of our trip. The spoonbill seemed to depart south every day. Maybe, at the time of your visit it was merely hidden behind a wall of Socotra Cormorants.
StuartReeves
Local rarity
Day 11, Marine reptile day.
Ecotourism was the justification for a particularly early start on our last full day in Oman, with a pre-dawn start for a guided viewing of the turtle beach at Raz Al Jinz. We saw two adult females Green Turtles and a scatter of the plucky youngsters. Natural history TV convention dictates that the latter should run the gauntlet of marauding frigate birds on their short journey to the sea. No such luck while we were there, though as soon as it was light enough to see, it was apparent that numbers of Sooty Gulls were hanging around just off the beach, presumably in the hope of a reptilian breakfast.
On route back after our reptile-free breakfast we stopped to check-out a couple of rather greyish looking pipits and were diverted, in quick succession, by a Red-tailed Wheatear, then a female Ménétries Warbler, then a Desert Warbler. After these distractions, we never actually nailed the pipits, though they were probably just Tawnys.
Having checked all of the local sites, and seen all we hoped to see in the area, our activity for the rest of the day came under the general heading of ‘relaxed poking-about’. It being a Saturday, the beaches were busier than they had been previously, and our seawatching attracted the attentions of some local lads. In many places this could have been a vaguely threatening situation, but this being Oman, despite our lack of a common language it was clear that they were entirely friendly in their intentions and simply curious about what we were doing. To try and explain what were up to, we showed them our scopes and Alick talked them through a few of his photos. Apparently satisfied, they wandered away again. Half an hour or so later, I saw them coming back, this time clutching a bottle that, on first glance, appeared to contain some yellowish liquid. I was initially concerned, anticipating that we might be expected to share this brew as a gesture of friendship, never mind the bacterial (if not alcoholic) implications. And how wrong was that assumption – the bottle contained a rather unhappy seasnake which they had presumably bought along because they (rightly) thought that we’d be interested to see it! We never did find out how the snake ended-up in the bottle!
Below:
Mum (and pre-dawn Sooty Gulls)
Scenery with reptile
Would you buy a used camera from this man? Mollymawk and would-be seawatchers
A toxic brew.
Ecotourism was the justification for a particularly early start on our last full day in Oman, with a pre-dawn start for a guided viewing of the turtle beach at Raz Al Jinz. We saw two adult females Green Turtles and a scatter of the plucky youngsters. Natural history TV convention dictates that the latter should run the gauntlet of marauding frigate birds on their short journey to the sea. No such luck while we were there, though as soon as it was light enough to see, it was apparent that numbers of Sooty Gulls were hanging around just off the beach, presumably in the hope of a reptilian breakfast.
On route back after our reptile-free breakfast we stopped to check-out a couple of rather greyish looking pipits and were diverted, in quick succession, by a Red-tailed Wheatear, then a female Ménétries Warbler, then a Desert Warbler. After these distractions, we never actually nailed the pipits, though they were probably just Tawnys.
Having checked all of the local sites, and seen all we hoped to see in the area, our activity for the rest of the day came under the general heading of ‘relaxed poking-about’. It being a Saturday, the beaches were busier than they had been previously, and our seawatching attracted the attentions of some local lads. In many places this could have been a vaguely threatening situation, but this being Oman, despite our lack of a common language it was clear that they were entirely friendly in their intentions and simply curious about what we were doing. To try and explain what were up to, we showed them our scopes and Alick talked them through a few of his photos. Apparently satisfied, they wandered away again. Half an hour or so later, I saw them coming back, this time clutching a bottle that, on first glance, appeared to contain some yellowish liquid. I was initially concerned, anticipating that we might be expected to share this brew as a gesture of friendship, never mind the bacterial (if not alcoholic) implications. And how wrong was that assumption – the bottle contained a rather unhappy seasnake which they had presumably bought along because they (rightly) thought that we’d be interested to see it! We never did find out how the snake ended-up in the bottle!
Below:
Mum (and pre-dawn Sooty Gulls)
Scenery with reptile
Would you buy a used camera from this man? Mollymawk and would-be seawatchers
A toxic brew.
Attachments
Similar threads
