After our night in Thumrait the 7 November was spent driving a loop around the southernmost part of Oman close to the border with Yemen before we headed towards our final accommodation of the tour in Salalah. Today we made an early pre-breakfast start heading for the town of Mudayy 40 miles to the west of Thumrait where we hoped to see one of the main targets of our tour, the Grey Hypocolius. After an uneventful drive, we arrived in Mudayy and went straight to the area near the mosque where the Hypocolius was known to visit each year. Hardly had we arrived at the site, when one of our group saw two on the birds in a group of tree right next to the mosque. Thankfully the two Hypocolius stayed in the trees for a few minutes eating berries allowing us to get a few photographs before they flew off.
Following this early success we drove to a ridge on the edge of town for a field breakfast. While eating we kept our eyes open for birds and a Blackstart posed nicely for us on a nearby road sign.
After breakfast we walked around the area of palm trees that can be seen in the photo above. The best photo we got here was of an Asian Desert Warbler, which after moving around for several minutes, finally stayed still for a few seconds enabling us to get an acceptable photo. On leaving the stand of palm trees, we walked along a narrow trail to a viewing point over a barren area where we hoped to see Crowned Sandgrouse. Although the birds were very distant, we did see a number of them but we only got a record shot as the birds flew away. As we started to return to our vehicles, a Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse jumped out from behind a rock enabling us to get the sort of photograph we would have liked of the Crowned Sandgrouse.
Continuing our 4-hour loop south of Mudayy we next came across Desert Lark and African Collared Dove, while a Lappet-faced Vulture circled above.
Throughout the trip we saw several species of butterfly, with the Blue Pansy being the ost common.
After spending the morning birding around Mudayy we returned to Thumrait for lunch, although finding a restaurant that was open proved difficult as many were closed for Friday prayers. However, after a bit of a search we discovered a restaurant serving Arabian food that was open on Thumrait Street and we gave it a try. There wasn’t a great deal of choice for lunch and we were served the inevitable chicken biryani, which was fine. Most of us ate at a table but our two guides chose to eat in the Omani fashion sitting on the floor.
As soon as we’d finished lunch we drove the short distance to the Thumrait waste disposal site where we had a remarkable sighting of 120 Steppe Eagles. The birds were perched on a rock face and also soaring above us, giving great photo opportunities.
After our session photographing the Steppe Eagles to drove south to Salalah were we were going to spent the last five nights of the tour.