Nottingham RSPB
local group

Egypt

As soon as we left the airport building (and fought our way past the 'baggage handlers'), I realised my fears would be groundless. There were birds in Egypt, lots of them.

On of the first seen was one of the black headed Warblers, not a Blackcap, I knew that, but its identity remained a mystery as my binoculars were still packed away in the luggage. Usually they are always hung around my neck, just for times like this but the airline did not seem to like it. But things began to get better, it soon became clear Hooded Crows would not be hard to find. They were everywhere! And plenty of Swallows flew around but they looked different, I could not wait to get my 'bins' out. But the highlight of the short bus trip from the 'plane to the boat came as we dropped people off at one of the hotels. A Little Green Bee-eater as catching insects in the grounds, only yards from where we sat. The bus stopped and on the short walk to the boat Richard saw a Hoopoe but I dipped out.

Dave in Egypt

It only took a short time to settle into the cabin and before long we made our way onto the sun deck. Little Egrets and Pied Kingfishers joined the Hooded Crows as common Egyptian birds, and all through our stay they remained so. As well as these birds there seemed to be a lot of Doves around, especially on the wires. I got quite excited when I identified my first Laughing (or Palm) Dove. But surprise, surprise, these too were a very common bird. Later I found out the reason for this. It seems the Palm Dove is protected from hunting, by a religious taboo, for it is said that it rested upon the Prophet Mohammed's tomb at Mecca.

The first day drew rapidly to a close, Jan and I were really surprised how quickly night came, it seemed one minute the sun was up and then it was gone and it was dark.

We sailed overnight for Edfu, to visit the temple there. I could not believe my luck when I got up and went on deck. A Black-winged Kite was hovering over three men working in a field. A massive raft of vegetation sailed past and it was full of birds! At least 15 Black-winged Stilts, along with Grey Herons, Hooded Crows (of course), Squacco Herons, Common and Whiskered Terns. I then solved the puzzle of why the Swallows looked so dark, they had blood red underparts, it was quite unusual to see a 'normal' one. I had also started seeing Swifts and slowly began to realise they were not all the same, some of them were paler, in fact in places the majority and it dawned on me that these were Pallid Swifts. I would not like to have to identify one in England without a common to compare it with, but it soon became fairly easy here. Being on the boat had its advantages and disadvantages, Purple Gallinule were easy to see where from the land they would be nearly impossible. But the Little Brown Jobs on the farms and islands were out of the question with just my binoculars. Never mind, another two 'lifers' soon found their way into my notebook. Cattle Egret and Spur-winged Plover. Then came one of the biggest surprises of the trip. Out on the water was a flock of about 200 Ducks! Most of which were Shoveler, but at least one male Pintail and quite a few pairs of Garganey. Just as we drew near Edfu I spotted a small number of Lesser Black-backed Gulls and then a group of European Bee-eaters. The temple at Edfu was stunning but I could not take my eyes off the Martins flying around it, I later identified these as African Rock Martins.

Friday morning we were heading towards Aswan, on the way we passed a colony of Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters and watched them excavating nest holes in the sandy bank. A little later three Purple Heron flew by and then a male Little Bittern flew low over the water and disappeared into a bed of reeds.

In places, there seemed quite a substantial amount of land bordering the river, but in others there would be either a single row of trees or nothing at all between river and desert. In one of the latter places, desert cliffs came close to the river and I saw a Raven flying over, this turned out to be a Brown-necked Raven. It had a long tail and Egypt's other Raven, the Fan-tailed, is said to look tailless in flight. We passed several small pools, which were playing host to some small Waders, but these too were to far away to identify.

The Hoopoe

On Saturday morning we had docked at Aswan and while some of the group flew off to Abu Simbel, the rest of us were taken to Kitchener's Island a botanical garden in the middle of the Nile. We were told it was the only place on earth where you could see all the different species of Palm Tree at one time. And I must admit some of them were quite unusual, one, the Royal Palm had an all white trunk. But while Jan looked at the plants, I was off after the birds. One of the first seen was a Hoopoe, and it was really close, it led to a bit of an argument, as I was trying to take a photo with my still camera and Jan was stalking it with her video and I got in the way. Incidentally in Arab foklore the Hoopoe also known as the Hud-Hud was said to be the messenger between the prophet Sulayman (Soloman) and the Queen of Saba (Sheba) a service for which he was rewarded with his feathered crown.

Another shot of the Hoopoe

I noticed movement in one of the smaller trees and hoping it was one of the many Warblers I had missed I went to investigate. What I found literally took my breath away, out of the foliage, just above my head came one of the most stunning birds I have ever seen, it had greenish upperparts, eye burningly bright yellow underparts and a very delicate downcurved beak, for once in my life I was speechless. Little did I know. The leaves began to move again and just above this bird sat a second. This one out dazzled anything I had seen before. Its back was a metallic blue/black, which caught the sun as it moved and reflected all the colours of the rainbow, it's underparts were even more yellow than the first birds, and it had a long scissor like tail easily as long as the bird itself. This too had a delicate downcurved beak. I rapidly unpacked my Birds of Egypt book, and it told me I was looking at a pair of Nile Valley Sunbirds. But the photographs in the book could nowhere near do justice to this vision. Sunbirds are the old worlds equivalent of the hummingbirds of the Americas.

Pied kingfisher

With a great effort I managed to bring myself back down to earth and began to realise there were other birds still to see, House Sparrows were all over, even nesting in some of the Palm Trees, I finally managed to identify a greyish Warbler I had glimpsed a few times, an Olivaceous and several Common Bulbuls were seen sitting in the trees. By the river, was a tree which looked as if it was in flower, it was not, it was covered in Little Egrets, my second male Little Bittern of the trip flew passed and again disappeared into a reed bed. All too soon we had to make our way back to the boat which would take us back, but all was not lost. While waiting for it to appear, I had excellent views of another Pied Kingfisher and a fishing Little Egret, which stood over a sheet of plastic that had been thrown into the water. I saw it catch at least five fish in a short space of time, all from on the plastic. We all boarded the motor boat to take us back, and as it got underway small children appeared in homemade rowing boats. They grabbed hold of our boat as it passed and started singing songs in the hope we would give them money. A very dangerous occupation! On the way back to Aswan I saw two Gull-billed Terns and a Striated Heron.

The great thing about this holiday was being able to indulge in my two passions, birds and history, I had thought that birdwatching would not get in the way of Jan and Ricks holiday as it could be conducted while moving from place to place. But it did, this came to the fore at the temple of Philae where as the guide led us to the temple I spotted a bird sitting out in the open, it looked very Wheatearish and it was, a White-crowned Wheatear. Another, or maybe the same bird put in an appearance while the guide told us the history of the temple. On went the trip, and the next place of interest was Egypt's pride and joy, the High Dam at Aswan. We had all boarded on of the lovely air-conditioned coaches and were being driven to the dam. On a fence post by the road sat a male Lesser Kestrel, I did not have the best of views as the bus was moving at the time, but I did see it had a plain grey head and no moustachial stripe. While at the dam I found my second male Nile Valley Sunbird, but it was a little scary watching it as everyone here seemed to be armed to the teeth. It is a very sensitive area and cameras etc. are not allowed. My birdwatching here was further frustrated for as we left in the bus we passed a pool, over which a large bird of prey flew. This joined the growing ranks of unidentified birds, as did the hundreds of Gulls, Terns and small Waders it put up. It was impossible to get a good view as parts of the structure kept getting in the way.

Back on the boat we set sail for Kom Ombo and on the way I saw my one and only Egyptian Goose of the trip. We had had a long day and most people slept in the afternoons I had not been one of them as I was frightened of missing any birds we passed, but today I was a little tired. I settled down on my bed and was just about to nod off when Jan said "what's this big white bird on the water?", expecting yet another Egret I nearly decided to stay where I was. How glad I am I got up, for Jan had found a White Pelican, it was so big, from a distance it looked like a Swan, sailing on the water. But we were soon put right as the boat sailed right passed the bird, which ignored our presence.

While travelling on the river, Egrets, Little, Cattle and to a lesser extent Great White, along with Pied Kingfishers and White-winged Black Terns were the most numerous birds. In the towns Palm Doves and House Sparrows took over, but I still think the most numerous bird of the week was the Hooded Crow, this was everywhere you looked, even at times landing on the deck of the boat.

Guard (?)

Sunday we started back for Luxor and on the way had to pass through the only lock on the Nile. While waiting here I found my third male Sun Bird. As I watched it a heavily armed soldier called up to me to ask if I had any pens for his children. Pens in Egypt are like gold, and as all the members who go on the outings know I always carry one or two (hundred). I tried to give most of them to children but found it hard to refuse a man with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, even if he was carrying a bunch of pink flowers at the time.

On the way back to Luxor, I had plenty of time to watch birds and finally managed to see one that had been haunting me. All week, every stand of reeds we passed, even very small ones held a bird that sang, but I had never seen it, until now, I had finally got to see a Clamorous Reed Warbler. We were passing very close to some cultivated areas and lots of LBJ's were flitting about. I saw two Larks in flight, they were very pale birds which showed no sign of any white on their tails or anywhere else. They were about the same size as a Skylark and flew very much like one. They even sang and you could tell it was a Lark's song, even if it was only a few seconds long. As I puzzled over their identity one of their relations had pity on me and I was able to add Crested Lark to my list. I saw several of these some of which were singing. A little further on I saw a reasonably familiar bird, but one that is getting a little rarer in Britain, a Turtle Dove. Then our boat started to move away from this shore and I spied a large bird of prey, paddling in the water, it screamed Osprey at me, but was too far away for me to know for sure. (Since arriving back in Britain I have consulted the groups leading Osprey expert, Mr. S. Taylor esq. and he informed me it is not unknown for Ospreys to paddle in the shallows looking for an easy meal of dead fish). From another area of pools and reeds I saw a male Night Heron and a little later on a flight of 8 of these birds passed close by the boat. The thing that most caught my attention with these birds was some of them had bright red legs.

Monday was spent in the Valley of the Kings and very little birding was done, I did see a bird of prey but it was yet another female Kestrel. After the Valley of the Kings we visited an Alabaster factory and then the temple of Queen Hetshepsut.

The week was rapidly coming to an end, Tuesday we went on to Dendera and here we had a real shock, the crew came up on the sun-deck and took down everything that stuck up above the railings, all the awnings and suchlike. We tried to go back down the steps but they showed us a way by the stern of the boat. And sticking out of the stern was a massive machine gun on a mounting! This was manned by two sailors, not members of our crew. Things were even worse at Dendera itself, as we made to dock we were escorted by police boats full of armed men. The sight that greeted us from the shore was even worse, police cars, armoured lorries, soldiers, sailors, police and tourist police everywhere. We were shepherded to waiting buses and then with a massive escort set off for the temple, there seemed to be a soldier every few yards along our route and they were all in the same position when we returned several hours later.

One of the more unusual birds seen on the holiday

After the visit to the temple we returned to the boat just in time for lunch and as we were sitting down to the meal we set off back to Luxor. I saw my second White Pelican as I went back on deck, this rode the water as if it owned it and only moved when the bow of the boat nearly touched it. After this began some of the best birdwatching of the week. I had good views of several Purple Herons, some stunning Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters another male Night Heron and of course the beautiful White-winged Black Terns that seemed to be all around us. A female Marsh Harrier came up from out of a reed-bed and put on a show for everyone, even impressing the none birdwatchers among the passengers. Then we must have passed through a colony of European Bee-eaters as they appeared both sides of the boat and overhead as well. I estimated there must have been over 100 birds. We went on to pass reed-beds and cultivated areas full of birds, lots of Black-winged Stilts and Spur-winged Plovers, several small waders that will forever remain a mystery as will many of the small brown birds in the fields.

Wednesday morning and its time to pack up and go home. The bus will pick us up at 2pm to take us to the airport, we go on deck to say our farewells. Out of the corner of my eye I spot something big, I jump up and point it out to anyone who might be interested, then I realise we are in Luxor one of the few places we see planes. But this is not a plane, the last bird I see in Egypt glides slowly towards the boat, then veers off to cross the Nile. It is a White Stork, and I watch it until it disappears out of sight, it did not beat its wings once!