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| Wadi Darbat |
“Want to be a hotel-husband for a couple of days?” my wife asked me; she was off to Muscat, Oman to give a couple of lectures at a conference. People sometimes choose to be a house-wife or a house-husbands for long periods: somehow hotel sounded more fun with no chores! When she added for good measure “believe the birding there is pretty good”, it didn’t take me too long to say yes though I had my doubts – birding in a desert?
So off we went to Muscat, which has a picturesque location on the Gulf coast with a backdrop of hills. Don’t miss Qurum Natural Park, we were told: that’s where most birders head tick off a number of species. The highlights among the 20 odd species we saw there were a Pallid Scops Owl and some Arabian Green Bee-eaters.
We headed off to Salalah, on the coast to the west of Oman, the next day: all reports pointed to this small town as the birding headquarters of Oman. Mr Siva Prakash, a resident of Salalah and superb bird photographer, was a most gracious and knowledgeable host: he knew exactly where each species is found and how to get the best shots! He first took us the next morning to a coastal area packed with waders and shore-birds, all keeping a watchful eye on a Western Marsh Harrier. The Sooty Gull was a lifer for me. A drive through the desert was most productive: the lovely Cream-colored Courser strutted around, a majestic Imperial Eagle perched regally on a shrub as if the British empire still existed and Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouses dotted their favorite morning watering hole. We were satiated even before the breakfast that followed.
Siva Prakash took us to several habitats that afternoon: a meeting point of a rivulet with the sea near Salalah Port (where we saw Greater Flamingos) and Salalah’s garbage dump and sewage treatment plant (where White Storks and Abdim’s Storks abounded). Eurasian Oystercatchers did their thing on the coastline.
