Sharm-el-Sheikh, 13-16 December 2023 (3 Viewers)

[Earnest lad]

The full trip list is as follows: It is quite modest, even for the brevity of the vacation.

Common Kestrels
Eurasian Sparrowhawk
Osprey
Black Kite
Black-winged Kite
Bonelli’s Eagle
Imperial Eagle
Steppe Eagle
Greater Spotted Eagle
Common Buzzard cirtensis
Sooty Gull
Slender-billed Gull
Caspian Tern
Rock Dove
Eurasian Collared Dove
Laughing Dove
Dunlin
Whimbrel
Grey Plover
Greater Sandplover
common ringed Plover
Green Sandpiper
Greenshank
Black-winged Stilt
Spur-winged Plover
Kentish Plover
Pied Kingfisher
Western Reef Heron
Cattle Egret
Little Egret
Glossy Ibis
Squacco Heron
Little Swift
Pale Crag Martin
Hooded Wheatear
White-crowned Wheatear x2
House Sparrow
Spanish Sparrow
White Wagtail
Red-throated Pipit
Desert Lark
Crested Lark
Bluethroat
Hoopoe
House Crow
Hoodie Crow
Brown-necked Raven
Striolated Bunting
Willow Warbler
Eurasian Teal
Ferruginous Duck
Little Grebe

 

[Barred Wobbler]

Thank you for sharing that lovely experience. I didnt manage a trip or St Catherines or Ras Mohammed. Someone mentioned that Nabq Protected Area is better for birding than Ras Mohammed. What I can say is that with Nabq Protected area, I had practically the whole area to myself apart from the resident Bedouin; and they seemed few in number. The beauty and serenity of the place was awesome.

Ras Mohammed was similar, but with fewer people. Small patches of mangrove only, not as extensive as at Nabq, stony desert, with bits of scrub, Right on the very southernmost tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Birds that spring to memory from that morning were brown-necked ravens, reef egrets, my only scrub warbler of the trip, a Ruppell's warbler, desert wheatear and tawny pipit.

A great Spotted Cuckoo was a bit of a surprise amongst the rocks right on the southern tip (I was there in March), but the biggest surprise of all, probably the biggest of the trip, was a bird I saw flying due north over the sea, coming in-off the Red Sea and the very southern tip. I photographed it from a distance as it came in and I was surprised to see it was a short-eared owl. It appeared to land behind a rise almost as soon as it reached the shore, but although I searched, I couldn't relocate it. It rings a bell that I came across the GS cuckoo as I was looking for the owl (my photo is timed only minutes later). The nearest land in the direction from which it came was the Egyptian coast about 60 or more miles away, south of Hurgada. This was even more surprising, because when I look at the range maps for Short-eared Owl, they show up as winter visitors on the Mediterranean coastal strip in Northern Sinai, yet here was one flying north off the sea in March, over 220 miles south of that range

 

[Earnest lad]

Ras Mohammed was similar, but with fewer people. Small patches of mangrove only, not as extensive as at Nabq, stony desert, with bits of scrub, Right on the very southernmost tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Birds that spring to memory from that morning were brown-necked ravens, reef egrets, my only scrub warbler of the trip, a Ruppell's warbler, desert wheatear and tawny pipit.

A great Spotted Cuckoo was a bit of a surprise amongst the rocks right on the southern tip (I was there in March), but the biggest surprise of all, probably the biggest of the trip, was a bird I saw flying due north over the sea, coming in-off the Red Sea and the very southern tip. I photographed it from a distance as it came in and I was surprised to see it was a short-eared owl. It appeared to land behind a rise almost as soon as it reached the shore, but although I searched, I couldn't relocate it. It rings a bell that I came across the GS cuckoo as I was looking for the owl (my photo is timed only minutes later). The nearest land in the direction from which it came was the Egyptian coast about 60 or more miles away, south of Hurgada. This was even more surprising, because when I look at the range maps for Short-eared Owl, they show up as winter visitors on the Mediterranean coastal strip in Northern Sinai, yet here was one flying north off the sea in March, over 220 miles south of that range

Thank you for sharing that lovely experience. The Great Spotted Cuckoo photo is lovely. I would love to see one one day. The Short-eared Owl sighting is amazing too. My trip being outside peak migration there weren't too many migrants around.

Birds I was hoping for but dipped on were Desert Wheatear, Mourning Wheatear, Striated Heron, Sand Partridge, Sandgrouse species, Marsh Sandpiper, Scrub Warbler, Arabian Warbler, Desert Warbler, Blackstart, Hoopoe Lark, Bimaculated Lark, and some others.