Ringing

The weekend could have been easily a washout with a strong northerly wind generated by the presence of a tropical storm of the southern coast of Oman persisting through out.

On Friday we caught nothing in the nets so we tried our hand with spring traps baited with insect larva on the Jebel Dakhan in a forlorn hope of catching some of the numerous Mourning Wheatears wintering on its slopes. The birds were tempted but managed to take the larva with ease – we have to improve on our technique.

On Saturday the wind although still strong had dropped to a stiff breeze so we were able to sting two nets out across one of the crop circles in a bid to catch some of the numerous larks and pipits feeding in the area. This proved to be quite fruitful as we caught 9 Water and a Meadow Pipit. Despite the presence of a large number of Red-throated Pipits we failed to catch a single bird of this species as was the case with the Larks whose number included several Oriental (Small) Skylark, they never approached the netted area.

Nets in the trees yielded both White-cheeked and Red Vented Bulbul, but the best birds of the day have to go down to Abdullah who managed to catch a Kestrel and a Pied Wheatear using traps.

Kestrel

Pied Wheatear

Water Pipit

Red-vented Bulbul