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Hurghada in April (1 Viewer)

Woodchatshrike

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Hurghada in Early spring

JUst managed to get a cheap deal to Hurghada in Feb/March. Anyone got any birding info? Has anyone ever been?
 
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I've been there in April!

You'll find birds wherever you can find a patch of green i.e. Hotel Gardens. The biggest garden is the Hilton and you should get plenty of Wrynecks, Bluethroats, Wagtails and warblers.

I stayed at the Moon Valley Village and had an incredible few hours looking at Subalpine Warblers, Ruppell's Warblers, Bluethroats, Nightingales, Quail, Wryneck, Ortolan Buntings, Black-eared Wheatears, and various Yellow Wagtails as they took shelter in the few bushes and drank from the lawn sprinklers.

White-eyed and Sooty Gulls are easy and you may find Great Black-headed Gull still around. Caspian, Gull-billed and Crested Tern should also be about in good numbers, though April is too early for White-cheeked Tern. If you have a scope you should look out to sea for Brown Booby, and scan the offshore islands for Osprey.

If you can get out of town into the desert look for the specialities such as Crowned and Spotted Sandgrouse, Hoopoe Lark, Desert Lark etc. and also more common birds like Lesser Grey Shrike and Striated Heron.

There is a mangrove swamp a few miles down the coast which should be your best chance of Western Reef Heron.

If you can get to the mountains, any time from late morning on is good for raptors, Steppe Buzzard is the most common bird on the move, but Lesser-spotted, Booted and Short-toed Eagle should be easy enough to see.

Darrell
 
Darrell Clegg said:
I've been there in April!

You'll find birds wherever you can find a patch of green i.e. Hotel Gardens. The biggest garden is the Hilton and you should get plenty of Wrynecks, Bluethroats, Wagtails and warblers.

I stayed at the Moon Valley Village and had an incredible few hours looking at Subalpine Warblers, Ruppell's Warblers, Bluethroats, Nightingales, Quail, Wryneck, Ortolan Buntings, Black-eared Wheatears, and various Yellow Wagtails as they took shelter in the few bushes and drank from the lawn sprinklers.

White-eyed and Sooty Gulls are easy and you may find Great Black-headed Gull still around. Caspian, Gull-billed and Crested Tern should also be about in good numbers, though April is too early for White-cheeked Tern. If you have a scope you should look out to sea for Brown Booby, and scan the offshore islands for Osprey.

If you can get out of town into the desert look for the specialities such as Crowned and Spotted Sandgrouse, Hoopoe Lark, Desert Lark etc. and also more common birds like Lesser Grey Shrike and Striated Heron.

There is a mangrove swamp a few miles down the coast which should be your best chance of Western Reef Heron.

If you can get to the mountains, any time from late morning on is good for raptors, Steppe Buzzard is the most common bird on the move, but Lesser-spotted, Booted and Short-toed Eagle should be easy enough to see.

Darrell

Thanks for that.

Do you know if there is a way to get out top the Islands?
 
Woodchatshrike said:
Thanks for that.

Do you know if there is a way to get out top the Islands?


I think you may well be able to get out there via the scuba dive boats. To be honest we didn't bother as we guessed that we wouldn't see any species different to the ones we already had. The islands are best later in the summer as thats where the Sooty Falcons are!!

Darrell
 
Haven't read any of the links but the gardens of the Hilton, which has been mentioned was full of Wrynecks, Tree Pipits, and warblers. Some of the lawns of the hotels south of Hurghada were brimming with lots of different races of Yellow Wags, plus Masked Shrikes. The hotel where we stayed had floodlights which lit up the football/volleyball pitches; these had Egyptian Nightjars hawking every night.

On windy days there was mass migration of raptors passing some miles inland but trying to hire a car was impossible. Thru the scope we could make out mainly... Steppe Buzzards, Steppe Eagles, and Black Kites. On some days this movement came over the coast. The beach had Stone Curlew and a few waders. The peak number of Caspian Tern was 56 in on one afternoon. Quite a few Wheatears passing as well.

We caught a bus from Hurghada to Suez which was brilliant and very memorable.

John.
 
Do you know if there are any restrictions on your movements due to security measures? Can you drive about unescorted or just in convoys? I know it is difficult to drive from Luxor to Hurghada these days.

Steve
 
john barclay said:
The hotel where we stayed had floodlights which lit up the football/volleyball pitches; these had Egyptian Nightjars hawking every night.

John

I'm planning on an Egypt trip this March - out of interest, which hotel were you seeing the Egyptian Nightjars and at what time of year. This is one of the species I will be targetting and, due to time, it appears that I won't necessarily be visiting Abu Simbel where they are most reliable. Any information would be really appreciated.

Anyway, with the research I've been doing combined with the research I did for a trip to Sinai last summer, you can actually drive yourself south of Hurghada along the Red Sea as far south as Bir Shalatein where Lappet-faced Vulture are pretty straightforward - there are meant to be military check-points but no convoys etc are needed.

As Steve Lister mentions, getting to the Nile Valley (Luxor) from the Red Sea seems to be a bit of a pain. From my research, there is a convoy (at least one a day) from Safaga to Luxor but I really don't have too much more info at this stage.

Decent birding in the green areas seems to be the order of the day in Hurghada itself and you'll be too early for both White-cheeked Tern and Sooty Falcon with, potentially, the offshore islands being slightly disappointing at that time of year. Sooty Gull should be seen in amongst the much larger numbers of White-eyed Gulls.

On a final note, if you can get a day south of Hurghada then Hamata mangroves would well worth a look particularly as Goliath Heron sightings seem to be the most regular here in the whole of the Western Pal. Additionally, Wadi Lahami seems to be a decent site in early spring for Crested Tern.

Good birding

Rich
 
i've been told that you can strike it lucky with the rare WP seabirds early on as they have been recorded wintering in the region. C.Tern, WC Tern and B.Booby can all be scored.
But I agree WC Tern is the least likely.
Are Eygption Njs resident in the area. I did not expect to see them or are they early migrants?
 
may head this way for a winter break early next year. Looking at a place called Soma which is i believe about 40 miles south of hurghada - do you happen to know whether there are any good spots nearby ? I gather its a little remote. How far south of H are the mangroves mentioned above....?

thanks
Tony
 
may head this way for a winter break early next year. Looking at a place called Soma which is i believe about 40 miles south of hurghada - do you happen to know whether there are any good spots nearby ? I gather its a little remote. How far south of H are the mangroves mentioned above....?

thanks
Tony

el Gouna north of Hurghada sounds impressive, as do several other sites. Check out Sandgrouse 30 (1): 2008 (OSME) back copies of Sandgrouse have all the details for would be birders wishing to make a name for themselves. Egypt is so underwatched.

John.
 
John

not sure what you mean by "Sandgrouse 30 (1): 2008 (OSME)" ?

Tony

Tony, This is the fabulous journal published by OSME (type OSME into Google to find their website) This copy, plus the back copies, are full of mouth watering places to go in Egypt and elsewhere in the region.

Oh to take a year off from work ;)

John.
 
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