Decided on a last minute break at Hurghada staying south of the airport at Jasmine Palace resort. The trip included a cultural visit to Luxor where we over-nighted at the Lotus Hotel. This was a good move as there was an active pair of Senegal Thick-knees in the vacant plot next to the hotel and these were only visible from our 4th floor balcony. Also the Grey-headed Gull sighting was literally yards away from the hotel on and over the Nile.
Our Hurghada Hotel provided plenty of the species listed though Vis-Mig was patchy and perhaps a trip 2 weeks or so later would have provided many more bird sightings.
The hotel grounds provided ample rest stops for both Bluethroat forms as well as R.T.Pipits and Isabelline Wheatears.
One highlight was the passage of 6 red-rumped swallows with many Pale crag martins during the first hour of daylight on Day 3. These migrating birds were all battling a northerly wind for most of the week, which seemed to pin down any raptors as we saw very few and no sign of any migrating. The Nile valley Sunbirds I encountered were all young males minus the long tail but
a welcomne tick nevertheless. First one was found in the Desert near a coffee-stop outside Quenea. This place also rewarded us with the only White-crowned Wheatear so it was fortunate. The other 2 birds were seen in the hotel grounds which have many flowering shrubs to attract them.
One day was spent on a snorkelling trip out to Gefton Island and this provided the best oppurtunity to get close views of the Boobys and Sooty Gulls which were loafing on the Beach 500 yards West of the Landing zone.
The trip was anything but hard-core hence the fairly low species total however the sight of sometimes up to 12 Lesser Whitethroats in one bush made up for the lack of species.
One more thing, the birds at Luxor were mostly seen en-route from a taxi window, not easy at 140 kms an hour but i like a challenge. All the others were seen from a river cruise on the Nile. We both enjoyed Egypt no end. The people are mostly quite charming and the Historys mind-blowing. The birdings not bad either.
1. Brown Booby 7 Ad+Imm. Gefton Isl.
2. Cormorant
3. Little Egret
4. Cattle Egret
5. Western reef Egret Pale Phase
6. Grey Heron
7. Squacco Heron
8. Purple Heron
9. Glossy Ibis
10. Yellow Billed Black Kite
11. Black-shouldered Kite 4 Luxor
12. Osprey
13. Kestrel
14. Black winged Stilt Luxor
15. Senegal Thick-knee 2 Luxor
16. Ringed Plover
17. Kentish Plover 20
18. Greater Sand-Plover 14
19. Redshank
20. Greenshank
21. Eurasian Curlew
22. Spur-winged Plover
23. Black-headed Gull
24. Grey-headed Gull 1 AD. Luxor
25. Armenian Gull 6
26. Heuglin’s Gull 4+
27. Yellow-legged Gull 1
28. White-eyed Gull
29. Sooty Gull 6+ Gefton Isl
30. Crested Tern
31. Caspian Tern
32. Sandwich Tern
33. Bridled Tern 1
34. White-winged Tern
35. Gull-billed Tern
36. Laughing Dove
37. Namaqua Dove 1 x M Luxor
38. Eurasian Collared Dove
39. Feral Pigeon
40. Pallid Swift Luxor
41. Pied Kingfisher Luxor
42. Little Green Bee-eater 2 Luxor
43. Hoopoe 3
44. Crested Lark
45. Red-rumped Swallow
46. Barn Swallow (Egyptian)
47. House Martin
48. Sand Martin
49. Pale Crag Martin
50. Red-throated pipit 4
51. Black-headed Wagtail 3
52. White Wagtail
53. Red-spotted Bluethroat 4
54. White-spottted Bluethroat 1
55. Common Stonechat 1
56. Desert Wheatear 1
57. White-crowned Black Wheatear 1 Quenea
58. Isabelline Wheatear 4+
59. Chiffchaff
60. Lesser Whitethroat
61. Sardinian Warbler 1-2
62. Masked Shrike 2+ Luxor
63. Hooded Crow
64. Brown-necked Raven
65. House Sparrow
66. Nile Valley Sunbird 3 x Imm.M Hotel
67. Common Bulbul Luxor