SCILLYSPIDER: Oman Day 2 Eagles at Raysut Tip

Sunday, 9 December 2018

Oman Day 2 Eagles at Raysut Tip

If you want to see eagles, Mostly Steppe Eagle, up close and personal, then the place to be is a drive through Raysut Tip on the west side of the city of Salalah.

Mush made his ways home north and I flew south to a country I've always wanted to visit, Oman. I love flying but boy was I tired! I slept from Kuwait to a country I stopped off for a two day stay last year, Doha, Qatar, while coming from Thailand on my ways to Palestine. This time it was only a few hours in Doha Airport and I was asleep on the plane before we even left the runway. It was over two hours later that I awoke from the thudd of landing at Salalah Airport in SW Oman. It was 11.00 and the first thing I had to do was pick up my car and then I made a few inquiries of where to stay. I found Jawharet Al Kheir Furnished Apartments for only £5 a night!! Better than a hotel with everything provided. Fridge, cooker, microwave, sofa, I'm looking around the room now, bed, tables and chairs, TV, wifi, shower, bread maker, coffee dispenser, ice cream maker, blender, toaster, 12ft snooker table and not any Ikea rubbish in sight! You think that's cheap staying here, then filling your car cost less than £10!! Water is more expensive than fuel! Anyways, I was gone and that afternoon I slept like an ant.

I couldn't fit the snooker table in the same image I'm afraid Pretty good for only £5 a night!

So Day 2 was on the 3rd December and first thing in the morning, I made the ten minute drive to Raysut Sewage Works. Here there were Greenshank, Black-winged Stilt, 15+Temminck's, 25+Little Stint, 3 Ruff, 10 Wood Sandpiper and a single Spur-winged Plover. Skimming the surface of the gunge were 37 Whiskered Tern and on the shore good numbers of Citrine Wagtail, including what looked like a Grey-headed Wagtail? The only new species was up to 22 Abdim's Stork all perched on railings.

The only new species at the sewage works were 22 Abdim's Stork

There were 37 Whiskered Tern altogether

Grey-headed Wagtail?

Citrine Wagtail were buzzing all over the shop!

A scan to the NW from the sewage works and you could see distantly the 100s of eagles over Raysut Tip. When I arrived at the latter site, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of eagles hanging the air! At the entrance gate, Steppe Eagles were on posts, rubble, tyres, sheds, anything really and as I continued through the gates towards the tip, eagles gently rose from the ground and were carried away towards the tip by a slight breeze. As I climbed higher into the tip, there were easily 100 Steppe Eagles on the deck with 100s more above me. The heat was so intense and not helping the stench coming from the area as you would expect. Steppe Eagles were only meters away from me on rocks and not getting out of the car, I only managed to see 2 Eastern Imperial and 3 Greater Spotted Eagle. There must of been more but after a good 30 minutes of up close and personal with eagles, I had to move on to get away from the dust and smell.

And not one gull in sight!!

Hanging out at tips can have it's hazards

This is just a small percentage of the sheer scale of how many eagles were hanging in the breeze above the tip and on the deck!

Talking about gulls, I really wanted to see Sooty Gull and a few minutes later from the tip I arrived at Shaty Alsyadynm a small attractive fishing port. In with over 100 Heuglin's Gull hanging outside a restaurant, were some 40 Sooty Gull. On the beach nearby there were easily 200 and while a fisherman was emptying his pots in the harbour, all the gulls came in with a single Socotra Cormorant already in the water.