Photos with this report (click to enlarge) | |||
Desert lark |
Sinai rosefinch |
Crowned sandgrouse |
A brief report of a birding week 6-13 March 2010 in Southern Sinai, based in Sharm but visiting some other interesting places such as Ras Mohammed and Nabq National Parks, Saint Catherine, Feiran oasis, and the areas around the cities of El Tur, Dahab and Nuweiba. We are used to go birding in Sinai in October, and in comparison to our previous autumn checklists of around 160 species, this time it was much shorter with only around 90 species and a general low migrating activity, particularly noticeable was the almost complete absence of raptors, for which the site is rightly famous in the autumn.
Nonetheless we have had some interesting records, the best of all being a stunning male Grey Hypocolius seen and digiscoped in Nabq NP. In the same area a couple of Pied kingfishers were present all week, as well as a good selection of waders including a lot of Greater Sand Plover, Oystercatcher, Ruddy Turnstones, Grey Plover, Whimbrel, Western Reef Heron and Striated Heron. Further northeast along the coast, around Dahab, another single Pied Kingfisher was seen, along with a nice group of around 250 Slender-billed Gulls, while in Nuweiba a Hooded Crow was spotted (a pair was also in Sharm). El Tur had a lot of House Crows and two beautiful Great Black-headed Gulls in full breeding plumage, as well as some migrants in a cultivated area just south of the town. The areas in and around Feiran oasis and Saint Catherine monastery had some usual species such as gorgeous and obliging Sinai Rosefinches, Spectacled Bulbuls, Tristram's Starlings, Blackstart and Bonelli's Eagle, as well as some Lesser Whitethroats and a nice male Ruppell' s Warbler in migration.
The area of Sharm had the three sandgrouse species, Crowned, Spotted and Lichtenstein's, a single Eastern Bonelli's Warbler, a lot of Bluethroats and Spur-winged Plovers, some White Storks.
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Great Cormorant
Striated Heron
Cattle Egret
Little Egret
Western Reef Heron
Grey Heron
White Stork
Northern Pintail
Osprey
Bonelli’s Eagle
Black Kite
Eurasian Sparrowhawk
Kestrel
Eurasian Coot
Oystercatcher
Black-winged Stilt
Ringed Plover
Little Ringed Plover
Kentish Plover
Greater Sandplover
Grey Plover
Spur-winged Lapwing
Ruddy Turnstone
Dunlin
Curlew Sandpiper
Little Stint
Green Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Common Redshank
Common Greenshank
Whimbrel
Eurasian Curlew
Black-headed Gull
Slender-billed Gull
Armenian Gull
Caspian Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull ssp. intermedius/graellsii
Pallas’s Gull
Sooty Gull
White-eyed Gull
Caspian Tern
Spotted Sandgrouse
Lichtenstein’s Sandgrouse
Crowned Sandgrouse
Rock Pigeon variety domestica and possible ssp. palestinae
Eurasian Collared Dove
(probable, no photo) African Collared Dove
Laughing Dove
Nightjar
Common Swift
Pallid Swift
Hoopoe
Pied Kingfisher
Eurasian Wryneck
Crested Lark
Greater Short-toed Lark
Desert Lark
Sand Martin
Pale Crag Martin
Barn Swallow
Common House Martin
Tawny Pipit
Water Pipit probable ssp. coutellii
Meadow Pipit
Red-throated Pipit
Pied Wagtail
Yellow Wagtail ssp. thunbergi and feldegg
White-spectacled Bulbul
Grey Hypocolius
Bluethroat ssp. svecica
Common Redstart
Northern Wheatear
Isabelline Wheatear
Blackstart
Desert Wheatear
Eastern Black-eared Wheatear
White-crowned Wheatear
Hooded Wheatear
Siberian Stonechat
Lesser Whitethroat
Sardinian Warbler
Ruppell’s Warbler
Willow Warbler
Common Chiffchaff
Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler
Hooded Crow
Brown-necked Raven
House Crow
Tristram’s Starling
House Sparrow
Pale Rosefinch
Corn Bunting