It has really been a year of visits down to Dhofar! This time for the Christmas holidays like I did last year with birder friends Carl and Scott, but on this occasion on a family visit. I had around 6 days to explore my new favourite playground after visits in August (full Khareef season) and October (after Khareef season). The landscape was now in full dried out mode, and will remain so until the monsoons return next June.
Birds are high on the menu during the winter in Dhofar, especially eagles and other birds of prey. Mammals are also usually a little easier to see compared to when the vegetation is in full bloom. Reptiles generally seem to have low activity at this time of year, with many diurnal species not around at all such as Uromastyx and chameleons. With some effort, juveniles of some lizards can be seen during the hotter hours. In contrast to my expectations, I saw more snakes than I had anticipated for a winter visit.
REPTILES
While driving down to Dhofar we stopped for one night in the Wahiba sands area. Although it was quite cold a few geckos were active at night and during the daytime I managed to uncover an Eastern sand fish (Scincus mitranus).
Once in Dhofar, many reptiles didn’t seem to show a lot of activity, the absence of geckos at night was especially noticeable. Nevertheless the omnipresent Guweira semaphore gecko (Pristurus guweirensis) was still very active, this species seems to tolerate lower temperatures better than the larger gecko species. A few Dhofar fan-footed geckos (Ptyofactylus dhofarensis) could be seen basking on a cloudy afternoon. Surprisingly, while photographing the Verreaux’s eagles, I saw a few individuals of the Anderson’s rock agama (Acanthocercus adramitanus), mostly juveniles but also one adult. Sadly not very blue!
While birding during the daytime I stumbled across several Forskal sand racers (Psammophis schokari) which typically disappeared without a photo. Despite cooler night temperatures some nocturnal species were still on the move. I found four Arabian cat snakes (Telescopus dhara) and two juvenile Puff adders (Bitis arietans). I had to hold onto one of the latter to release the next day as a mafia of local farmers arrived when I found the snake and insisted that I take it away with me.
BIRDS/MAMMALS
As mentioned, eagles were high on the menu, I especially wanted to get better images of the majestic Verreaux’s eagle (Aquila verreauxii) which is very localised in Arabia. On my last day I went to the high mountains and was treated to exceptional views of a pair hunting the valley below which allowed me to improve on last years photos. Probably one of the best birds that I have ever seen in the wild.
Daily sightings of other eagles such as the eastern imperial eagle (Aquila heliaca), short-toed snake eagle (Circaetus gallicus), Bonelli’s eagle (Aquila fasciata) and steppe eagle (Aquila nipalensis) were supplemented with large numbers of coastal birds, waders and smaller jobs that are typical of the monsoon affected areas of Oman.
Mammals stole the show once more, but sadly nearly all went without being photographed. I twice got good views of a striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), once at very close quarters. Arabian wolves (Canus lupus arabs) were seen several times, but typically flee as soon as the spotlight hits them. One new mammal for me that was photographed this time around was the white-tailed mongoose (Ichneumia albicauda).
