The last full day in Oman with @naturetrek.bsky.social & hoping for flight home tomorrow. Returned to Muscat via Wadi Fanja, a wet wadi with 5 Greater Spotted, 2 Steppe & Booted Eagles. Also found Arabian & Sand Partridge plus Long-billed Pipit. Isabelline Shrike was a crowd pleaser too
Booted Eagle, pale phase
Purple Swamphen
Marbled Teal
Red-knobbed Coot
Some recent highlights from Costa Blanca for NatureTrek
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Adult male Orca
Adult male Orca
Humpback Whale
Humpback Whale
More wildlife on the @naturetrek.bsky.social Iceland - Northern Lights and Winter Wildlife tour today with an excursion out to sea for the many whales feeding off the north shore of the Snaefellsnes Peninsular...🐳 #icelandwildlife 😊
Some highlights from my recent @naturetrek.bsky.social trip: Taiwan Blue Magpie; Swinhoe's and Mikado Pheasants & to brighten up a wet & miserable day a very obliging White's Thrush
The gorgeous Abyssinian Roller was surely bird of the day on the Gambia in Style. @naturetrek.bsky.social
Very unexpectedly back leading Gambia in Style again!
Let's see what we can find... @naturetrek.bsky.social
Red Fox courtesy of Glyn Evans.
Robert's Giant Orchid.
Les Baux.
A trip to Les Baux yesterday provided us with our main quarry - the Wallcreeper - on the @naturetrek.bsky.social Wallcreepers & the Camargue tour on only day two! Eurasian Eagle Owl later too...😊🦉
The Wallcreeper at Les Baux yesterday... @naturetrek.bsky.social
Video courtesy of Glyn Evans...😊
Lesser Flamingo courtesy of Glyn Evans.
Greater Flamingos Parc Ornithologique.
More action today on the @naturetrek.bsky.social tour in south France with Bonelli's Eagle, Western Swamphen and many others and bumping into an adult Lesser Flamingo amongst the Greater Flamingos at Parc Ornithologique...🦩🪶
Bar-backed Partridge
Grey Peacock-Pheasant
Blue-winged Leafbird
Greater Yellownape
Highlights from Kaeng Krachan, Thailand with NatureTrek
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Orange-breasted Trogon
Grey-headed Woodpecker
White-browed Scimitar Babbler
Great Hornbill
We then moved from KK to Khao Yai, NE of Bangkok where the excellent birding continued
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Blue Pitta
The final highlight from KK, a cracking Blue Pitta
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The Dhofar region is producing the goods for the @naturetrek.bsky.social Oman group: 1/3 Crested Honey Buzzard #birds
The Dhofar region is producing the goods for the @naturetrek.bsky.social Oman group: 2/3 Citrine Wagtail #birds
The Dhofar region is producing the goods for the @naturetrek.bsky.social Oman group: 3/3 Masked Shrike #birds
Day 2 in Tunisian Desert with @naturetrek.bsky.social was all about Larks. We found the iconic Hoopoe Lark, charismatic Thick-billed, Desert, Bar-tailed and Temminck's. Ably supported by CC Courser, Desert Sparrow & Pharaoh Eagle-Owl. Magic stuff
Silver-eared Mesia
Hill Blue Flycatcher
White-tailed Robin
Siberian Blue Robin
We moved from K Yai & flew up to Chiang Rai in the North to explore Doi Lang with its amazing wildlife
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Day 3 in Tunisia with @naturetrek.bsky.social is always one of transition from desert to coast. Started at Ksar Hallouf with its many House Buntings, found more Marmora's Warblers in a rocky wadi, before heading to Boughrara with Spoonbills waders and Flamingos. Also treated with Eagle Owl at nest.
Bay-backed Shrike and Brahminy Starling; both vagrants to Oman from India!
It all went crazy on the Oman @naturetrek.bsky.social tour today! Jouanin's Petrel, Red-billed Tropicbird & Persian Shearwater; Bay-backed Shrike, Brahminy Starling (pic), Asian Koel, Yemen Serin, Bonelli's and Verreaux's Eagles, Arabian Wheatear and Partridges..& a large pipit to work on! #birds
The large pipit from today on the @naturetrek.bsky.social Oman tour. It will need some further analysis, effort and reading, and I would welcome informed comment (only call was a "chep...chep"), but we're thinking quite strongly that it's a Blyth's Pipit, which is a major rarity in Oman. #birds
Crimson-rumped Waxbill
Reed Cormorant
Black Bush Robin - first record for Aswan
Egyptian Yellow Wagtail
South Egypt highlights leading for @naturetrek.bsky.social
Crimson-rumped Waxbill, Reed Cormorant, Black Bush Robin, Egyptian Yellow Wagtail, African Pied Wagtail, Greater Painted-snipe, Brown-throated Martin, Namaqua Dove, Red Avadavat, African Green Bee-eater White-tailed Lapwing Kittlitz’s Plover
Siberian Rubythroat
Final NatureTrek Thailand highlight was bird of the trip for many, the legandary Siberian Rubythroat
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More great times in southern Oman with @naturetrek.bsky.social We're filling in the last few gaps: Black-crowned Tchagra and this Long-billed Pipit (Mike Morse) on a return visit to Ain Hamran. #birds
Further Oman drama with @naturetrek.bsky.social An ARABIAN COBRA! Rare and deadly.... but not*too* close. Photo by client Mike Morse.
Massive success on the last full day of the @naturetrek.bsky.social Oman tour: African Sacred Ibis, Menetrie's, Asian Desert and Yellow-browed Warblers, Sand Partridge, Blue Rock Thrush, Steppe Eagles, Nile Valley Sunbird and at least three superb Grey Hypocoliuses. Image by Mike Morse #birds
The last day in Tunisia with @naturetrek.bsky.social was a full circuit of Djerba island. Shorebirds were the target & we found a few new species for the trip. Red-throated Pipit & Ferruginous duck were key species - however flamingos, spoonbills & gulls were plentiful esp Slender-billed & Med
Another day, another superb Omani bird with @naturetrek.bsky.social. Greater Hoopoe-Lark. #birds
The first of the highly sought-after true Arabian endemics on the @naturetrek.bsky.social Oman tour: (South) Arabian Wheatear. #birds
Day 6 of the @naturetrek.bsky.social Oman tour starts with a bang: two Asian Koels at Duqm. A very scarce migrant/winterer from India. #birds
Incredibly, the Asian Koels weren't the highlight of the day on the @naturetrek.bsky.social Oman tour. They were upstaged by a very rare and normally nocturnal AFRICAN WILDCAT, accidentally disturbed from its daytime lair at the base of acacia, 50km from habitation! Photo by client Steve Hughes
