Birding in Musandam, Oman

Just back after spending a beautiful day in the Musandam peninsula of Oman with family! While there I was able to sneak in a few bird moments!!

Spend last night and most of today in the main city of the region – Khasab (photo below). The hour long route from Ras Al Khaimah (UAE) offers one of the best sea-side drives in the region.

The region is famous for the amazing Hajjar Mountains, which is in geological terms quiet young and were ancient sea beds that have risen to their current heights due to volcanic activity.

While there we took an idyllic dhow cruise in the Khor Ash Sham – a lagoon like area surrounded by extremely impressive mountains.

And as expected we saw a lot of gulls...

with the most common being the Common Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus)

The next two photos are of the either of the 'Caspian Gull' (Larus (cachinnans) cachinnans) or the 'Steppe Gull' (Larus (cachinnans) barabensis) --- The difficulties of separating these two are well known..

The cliffs and small islands along these sheltered waters are suppose to have some good sea-bird nesting sites, however I will have to make another trip with a lot more time at hand to go to one of those!

The next few snaps are of a lifer for me - Slender-billed Gull (Larus geneii)

These are probably the most elegant of all the gulls I have seen.

The next few snaps of the Socotra Cormorant (Phalacrocorax nigricollis)

This small rock outcrop with a lot of gulls and cormorants is as close as I got to a proper sea bird colony !!

I will end this post with a set of photos of this region’s most famed residents - its Dolphins.

In fact we saw lots of them including a school with a few calves.

And most of the photos indicate these to be of the species known as the Indo-pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis).

Here's a few close-up of its famous hump!