Yemen 2001 (Birdquest)

Yemen 2001 (Birdquest) Tour Report by Dave Farrow dave@shortwing.co.uk Norwich UK As the twin-towers of New York came crashing to the ground, it looked very unlikely this years Birdquest tour to Yemen was ever going to go. However, I am always a little apprehensive about travelling to Yemen due to its unpredictable reputation and this time it was no exception. My twelfth time visiting the country, I felt sure that the Yemeni hospitality would be as friendly as always. It seemed that the country was as stunned by the events of September the 11th as anyone else, anyone with a beard was under arrest and they were more concerned with the massive loss of tourism revenue. So, having checked the situation with sources in Yemen, off we went. In fact only two of nine people cancelled, the others maintaining a robust approach to travelling in the Middle East! After a comfortable night flight on the national carrier, we arrived in Arabia Felix under a warm sun and we were met by our team. Fadl Al Sabah, my driver on my previous three tours here, and the very capable Mohammed Bokshan, for his second time as my guide/translator, plus another two handy looking chaps, Khaled and Jamal. Soon after we set about finding the bird specialities of the country. Dusky Turtle Doves cooed from the hotel garden, at Wadi Dhar with its impressive rock palace we found both Yemen and Arabian Serins, Little Rock Thrush, Pale Crag Martin, Little Swift, South Arabian Wheatear and a Barbary Falcon, with the typical highland Yemeni background noise of gunfire to celebrate a wedding!. Further up the road on the plateau-top we found Yemen Linnets, Red-breasted Wheatears, Cinnamon-breasted Buntings, a large flock of migrant Greater Short-toed Larks and a few of the local Red-capped Larks, at home here in the high plains habitat. An irate man with a Kalashnikov came running towards us, shouting. He couldn't understand what we were doing, couldn't see the Larks we were watching and claimed we shouldn't be there. He was a major in the army, if that is supposed to make you feel better! We politely shrugged it off and went on our way? No visit would be complete without a trip to the fortress village of Kawkaban, perched up on the table-top mountains. As we rolled up onto the open rocky landscape, a dozen Philby's Rock Partridges performed right on cue and emerged into the dry fields for our viewing pleasure. A majestic Lammergeier came soaring over the cliffs, plus several Eurasian Griffon Vultures and Red-rumped Swallows. A walk down the face of this impressive massif brought us into the habitat of many of the endemic birds. A pair of Arabian Accentors (the only true Yemeni endemic) played hard to get, as its sweet song came from a deep and hard-to-observe ravine. They finally sneaked out to give as they came down to drink. We also found Yemen and Brown Woodland Warblers, Palestine Sunbird, Abyssinian White-eyes, more South Arabian Wheatears, Tristram's Starlings, and had some brief views of Yemen Thrush. It should have been hard to follow such a great morning, yet we found several migrant Eurasian Golden Orioles as we searched a well-watered mountain wadi. We were eventually treated to our first Arabian Woodpecker, that came bounding over the trees towards us and allowed lengthy views. We set off for the Red Sea coast, and soon after leaving Sanaa our local crew were haggling with the local police over the new rule of having to take an escort. We ended up with a carload of young coppers in their funky blue camouflage, 'moonlighting' as our travelling companions. In spite of having a different escort each day, these extra members of our caravan stayed discreetly out of our way, and only occasionally had to be told to keep quiet! At our first stop en-route, we walked through a euphorbia-clad hillside where the Mark found a Plain Nightjar, trying to sleep in the shade of a thicket as we surrounded it with telescopes and cameras, except mine which I had left in the vehicle! A rather scarce summer visitor to Yemen, and never before recorded on this tour! A pair of Golden-winged Grosbeaks flew by and alas disappeared, but two more appeared and posed for us on the scrubby hillside. Black-headed Tchagras and Barred Warblers flicked between the bushes, some Arabian Waxbills appeared briefly as they came down to drink, then just down the road we found Olivaceous, Wood and some very obliging Arabian Warblers. After lunch in a traditional style Yemeni 'fonduq', we dropped closer to the Tihamah. At the very gates of the foothills we watched a Fan-tailed Raven mobbing a Verreaux's Eagle, a rare sight in this country. Overhead came the only Black Stork of the tour, and in the roadside thickets White-browed Coucal and Black Scrub Robin popped up into view. We followed the valley of a flowing river (unusual to see this in Arabia!) which yielded a Western Reef Egret (some 60km inland!), our first Hamerkops and Citrine Wagtails, before we completed our journey and reached the Red Sea port of Al Hodeidah. Bad news! They have closed the only bar, here in our hotel, however the helpful staff nipped out and found us a crate of contraband beer to keep us going! We began early, in the cool pre-dawn (which doesn't last long here!) and searched around the cultivation of this steamy coastal plain. A flock of Lesser Kestrels sluggishly took to the air, Black-crowned Sparrow Larks sang overhead and African Collared Doves crowded out the few Namaqua and European Turtle Doves. Ruppell's Weavers filled the bushes, and looking through them we found a flock of twenty Arabian Golden Sparrows, with several males still in brilliant sulphurous plumage. A late-staying Grey-headed Kingfisher perched up, all part of the festival of colour headlined by some superb Abyssinian Rollers that posed fearlessly for us. In our time around this splendid birding area (and despite the obvious lack of rain here) we also found Dark Chanting Goshawks, Pallid Harriers, Collared Pratincoles, European Bee-eaters, three Black-headed Herons, but no sign of what the locals name 'Lawam'; the Arabian Bustard. One large bird that did appear was something of a shock - a Great Bittern that walked slowly across the asphalt road under a hot sun! On the nearby coast we scanned through flocks of terns and waders, finding plenty of Crab-plovers, the adults pursued by begging juveniles. As night fell, Nubian Nightjars started calling and flying about, one of which flew down and stood on its strange little upright legs just metres from us. A Barn Owl appeared on a Doum palm and sat with our spotlight gleaming off its white breast. In another part of the Tihamah we found the more natural habitat of scrub and trees alive with Shining and Nile Valley Sunbirds, White-browed Coucals, a migrant Rufous-tailed and resident Black Bush Robins, Menetries Warblers and three Ortolan Buntings. Under a group of acacias we found a roost of four Spotted Thick-knees with six Eurasian Thick-knees. Our last call was the foul smelling Al Hodeidah sewage lagoons, accessed through the infernal rubbish tip. The drivers really hate this bit! We found another Black-headed Heron with a flock of Greater Flamingos, Glossy Ibis, plenty of waders, ducks and our first Tawny Eagle. The sewage ponds were also populated with the foulest looking dogs you have ever seen! I tried to get one of our police escort boys to let me have some target practise on these hell-hounds with his AK 47, but he wasn't having any of it! Moving southwards through this hot land, we found raptors sat on roadside pylons including Short-toed, Booted and Tawny Eagles, and in some real desert we stumbled upon a group of 55 Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse that allowed close approach, and hundreds of Black-crowned Sparrow Larks that flew off the roadside. At Al Khawkha, more waders teemed across the mud-flats, two African Spoonbills stood with the Sooty, White-eyed, Heuglin's and Yellow-legged Gulls, and far out to sea passed the only Brown Booby and Bridled Terns of the tour. Nearing Taiz we were delayed by the magic spectacle of 54 Abdim's Storks that dropped into a wadi and proceeded to feed alongside a busy farmer, and we found our first Grey Hornbill in a foothill wadi. We made the most of our time here in Taiz, starting in Wadi Duba where we immediately found an Arabian Woodpecker, flocks of Arabian Waxbills and some beautiful Zebra Waxbills coming to drink in the river. Red-eyed Doves called from the agaves, then further up we found a Yemen Thrush, African Paradise Flycatcher, Yemen Warbler, Common Redstarts and some great views of more Golden-winged Grosbeaks. Several brightly-coloured Yemen Chameleons sat sunning themselves in the tops of bushes, all blushed-up as if to signal that love was in the air! Our afternoon programme was delayed as the bureacratic cretin police failed to turn up, so when he did so he was given a mouthful by yours truly. They rushed us through the city with sirens blaring, and all to go to the rubbish tip! We scanned the dump from a sanitary distance, watching the Tawny Eagles and White Storks overhead, and on a small pool we watched Hamerkops catching long worms. The nearby Taiz sewage ponds hosted an errant Sacred Ibis, another Dark Chanting Goshawk, Long-billed Pipit, Temminck's Stints and Spotted Redshank. The police didn't seem worried, they just parked up and got on with chewing the qat. We were still short of one of the endemics, so en-route to Aden we travelled into terra-nova in a search for the Arabian Partridge. Reaching a high vantage point we were able to scan the terraced fields below us and eventually into view walked this large gamebird. We enjoyed looks at a covey of nine, before the heat-haze kicked in, the birds scuttled out of view and we headed south. Travelling down a bumpy wadi-bed road, a large fig tree hosted a flock of gorgeous Bruce's Green Pigeons and a handful of the less alluring Bush Petronia. Reaching Aden we explored the exposed mudflats and lush marsh on the fringe of the bay, finding three Black-headed Herons, Red-throated Pipits, a group of Lesser Flamingos with the more plentiful Greaters, while two Greater Spotted Eagles were harried by the plentiful House Crows. Our Aden hotel was rather nice, with the only 'bar-with-cold-beer' on the whole tour! We made full use of it! We hit the road again, to Al Mukalla, a days journey that was punctuated with a few Desert Larks and House Buntings, a Hoopoe Lark that ran on the road, mile after mile of fantastic scenery, a memorable lunch of chicken, two punctures and a few cheekfuls of qat to pass the time. It was on this section of road that the kidnapping in 1998 of the Explore Worldwide group happened. There were certainly a lot of guns, and at one point when I asked Fadl if we could stop for a toilet break, he suggested that it wasn't a good place and floored the accelerator! We were well tooled up all through the tour, each of our three Toyota Landcruisers being equipped with an AK 47 (in our car it was wedged between the drivers seat and the gearstick mount) and the drivers personal pistol, that usually ended up bouncing around in my footwell! The Qat comes into its own on a long drive. For those of you unfamiliar with the stuff, its like chewing leaves from a privet hedge! Its effects are mild, yet very pleasant, and everyone in Yemen chews it every afternoon. The miles flew by that day (650km!), the drug helps you just sit and think, in a dream-like reverie. Not that one is intoxicated by it. Its great for going birding, as it helps you to remain alert and energetic, yet gives a very content and relaxed feeling, allowing the mind to be clear. And another effect is that it seems to give you very sharp long-range vision, so I find that I am always spotting birds at extreme distance! At Al Mukalla we embarked on a pelagic going some twenty miles offshore, finding that the sea was very quiet, all the food and therefore most of the birds had gone elsewhere. We still managed to find the key species; several Jouanin's Petrel and Persian Shearwaters gave close views around the boat, as did a squadron of Pomarine Skuas. We added a single Flesh-footed Shearwater and a few Red-necked Phalaropes to the list before we headed back to land and spent the afternoon scanning tern flocks of Sandwich, Greater and Lesser Crested Terns roosting on the beaches. We crossed the bleak and deserted Jol plateau, finding a covey of Sand Partridges scuttling through the rocks, and then dropped into the spectacular Wadi Hadhramaut. We paid a visit to the 'Manhattan of the Desert'; the ancient town of Shibam with its impressive mud architecture, and up a side-wadi we watched a Bonelli's Eagles pair hunting in tandem, more Sand Partridges and another Arabian Warbler. Another long journey awaited us, and we set off from 'civilisation' to cross the Empty Quarter across to Marib. Now with an asphalt highway going all the way across, we made use of this until it was time to 'off-road', and head out into the flat sandy wastes. Short stops on the way revealed another Menetries and several Desert Warblers, smart Desert Wheatears and a male Black Redstart. We scoured the desert for Larks, finding the unusual number of 13 Bar-taileds, then finally in a rare patch of sparse vegetation were the Dunn's Larks, sheltering in the shade of some bushy plants. We watched these deep desert specialities at our leisure, and in another area we found two Cream-coloured Coursers in the shimmering haze. For this section our escort was a Bedouin who delighted in finding for us a Sand Fox sett, then proceeded to chase one of the pair around the flat desert in his 4x4! Our last day began with a walk around the lush waterlogged wadi at the Marib Dam, where we found numerous Citrine Wagtails and some Purple Herons. This is supposed to be bandit-country par excellence, and is the area that most of the tribal (as opposed to the political) kidnappings occur. Its all to do with money and broken promises by the government. So for this section we were escorted by a 'technical' gun truck, a Toyota Landcruiser with a four foot long 50mm cannon mounted in the back! No one was going to mess with us andd get away without a few dozen casualties! So it was an eventful ride back to the capital once more, where we finally managed to 'sheikh-off' our police chums racing behind us. On arriving in Sanaa we took a walk around the fascinating old town, remarkably clean and un-populated on this Friday afternoon. We made one last outing to complete the trip, at dusk on the acacia-dotted slopes close to our hotel. With the call to prayer ringing across the mountains, African Scops Owls began duetting from the trees and then flew towards us, landing close-by. One showed itself in a plain view just metres away, lit up like the fairy on a Christmas tree!. A great way to end a splendid trip. We had found all the endemic birds of this corner of Arabia, and enjoyed an exciting tour through stunning landscapes free from any hassle. May Yemen remain a peaceful and welcoming country and encourage more visitors - it's a great place to visit!

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