OMAN BIRDING ADVENTURE

Oman must be one of the most exciting destinations we can travel to right now. Combining a whole bunch of Middle East endemics and specialities along with an ecletic mix of Asian and African species too! Beginning in the scenicly splendid Sayq Plateau we will search several different wadis for the recently-described Omani Owl. These northern areas are also good for Sand Partridge, Lappet-faced Vulture,  Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse, Pallid Scops Owl, Red-tailed and Variable Wheatears, Streaked Scrub Warbler, Plain Leaf Warbler and  Long-billed Pipit. Moving on to the wader extravaganza at Barr Al Hickman and it's thousands upon thousands of shorebirds including the most-wanted Crab Plover, we will eventually head inland deep into the 'Empty Quarter' or Rub al Khali, and reach Qatbit. The deserts could provide Cream-coloured Courser, Bar-tailed and the nomadic Dunn's Lark. There are several places we could see good numbers of Chestnut-bellied, Spotted and Crowned Sandgrouse as well before reaching the desert oasis of Qatbit. Here we hope to see Hypocolius amongst some great migrants and anything can turn up here from shrikes and flycatchers, to Bluethroat, Asian Desert Warbler, Wryneck and Menetries's Warbler. Moving on to Thumrayt we will be looking for Sand Partridge, African Collared Dove, Hooded Wheatear and Nile Valley Sunbird, before heading to Salalah for a 5 night stay. What an area we will find ourselves in and there's plenty to find and our first evening here will be spent searching for Arabian Scops Owl and Arabian Eagle Owl. Amongst a long list of target species we also hope to see Arabian Partridge, Desert Owl, Blackstart, Arabian Wheatear, Forbes-Watson’s Swifts, Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak and Yemen Serin. A pelagic from Mirbat could well be the highlight of our time here with Masked Booby, Socotra Cormorant, Jouanin's Petrel, Persian Shearwater, Saunders's and Bridled Terns and Sooty Gull amongst others. There's also an amazing variety of European, African and Oriental species present here to mess with our minds with species such as White and Abdim's Storks,Yellow Bittern, Little, Spotted and Baillon's Crakes, Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Pallid Harrier, Bruce's Green Pigeon, Namaqua Dove, Grey-headed Kingfisher, Singing Bushlark, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Turkestan Shrike, Abyssinian White-eye and so much more. Oman is bound to leave you amazed by its avian riches, great hotels, good roads and superb food. So why not?