Another Bird Blog: Egypt

Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts

Monday, November 13, 2023

Some Things Never Change

It’s not just me. Studying the latest news on local web sites it is clear that most birders are struggling with the weather in being able to get outdoors for even a spot of birding, never mind ringing. Apologies for the lack of posts in recent days and for the next week or so as Storm Debi is the latest Atlantic arrival to batter our lives.

I raided the archives and found memories of warmer, drier days gone by in The Middle East and Egypt where politics and/or religion are often a cause of trouble.

After arriving in Egypt to tanks on street corners the holiday was uneventful but totally relaxing. Late on Friday November 8 2011 we arrived in Manchester safe and sound from Hurghada and The Red Sea, many miles from the shock waves still emanating from Cairo and other Egyptian cities.

Sue and I had healthy tans from a wonderful holiday, and after two weeks of unbroken 28 degrees, together with staving off Pharaoh’s Revenge, we felt pretty relaxed about Egypt. Most other Europeans went home with tails between their legs at the first sign of trouble, and left mainly German and UK nationals remaining. By our second week, the early mornings saw a halt to hostilities in the “Towels on Sunbeds War” and where available sunbeds on our deserted beach easily outnumbered potential occupants by five to one.

These unexpected plusses neatly allowed me to head off for a little local birding in the by now extremely quiet but lush, well-watered, green resort of Makadi Bay where Bougainvillea clad buildings greet at every turn. I quickly established a couple of miles local patch that comprised boating wharfs, the beach and numerous garden areas of the many four and five star hotels.

The locals tell you that Egypt is 95% sand, where the Red Sea resorts are built on strips of land bounded by sandy shores on one side and desert sand on the other, Hurghada being no exception to that rule. That rather limits the birding unless car hire is taken, but that wasn’t on the agenda in strife torn Egypt. I found plenty of birding and photographic opportunities with morning and afternoon forays and gentle strolls around the beautiful bay.

Here is a flavour of the birds I saw in Egypt, and in the next week or two I hope to post more pictures after first catching up with blogging friends everywhere, news from my local patch here in the UK and get in an overdue ringing session.

Common and numerous everywhere in Makadi Bay are Bluethroats, wintering birds from the several races of Europe.

Makadi Bay

Bluethroat

I found lots of ground-hugging Red-throated Pipits skulking about the quiet grassy areas where Cattle Egrets also fed as Kestrels and an Egyptian soldier kept a look-out.

Red-throated Pipit

Kestrel

Cattle Egret

Bougainvillea

Egyptian Soldier

The beach and the shore held Western Reef Herons and an occasional Striated Heron, crepuscular in their habits.

Sunrise, Makadi Bay

Striated Heron

Western Reef Heron

Stay tuned folks. Storm Debi can't last forever can she?

Another Bird Blog is back soon.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Another January

We’re into the third week of storms with no prospect of birding or ringing for several days. Storm Ella is lined up to be next.

Almost every day has been so awful that I have struggled to get out birding or ringing, even for the occasional “window of opportunity”. Everyone is pretty fed up, not least those people whose homes have been flooded. Fortunately here in coastal Lancashire, apart from fencing panels, we have escaped any serious damage, but there’s more to come from the current cycle with its misplaced and overactive jet stream.

UK 2020 - Getty Images

Meanwhile the Government is happy to blame so called “climate change” for the damage and destruction while muddying the waters, diverting attention from building on flood plains; or forgetting to mention the Environment Agency’s failure to properly maintain dykes, ditches and rivers because of the European Water Framework Directive 2000. Roll on 2021 when Britain becomes again an independent nation, free from the dictats of unelected bureaucrats in Brussels, and when our politicians will be paid for making decisions of their own.

For those of an enquiring mind willing to read other than mainstream media I recommend:

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/18/boris-tories-floods-arent-our-responsibility-blame-climate-change/

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/02/16/the-link-between-climate-change-and-britains-winter-storms-clue-there-is-not-one/

That’s the whinge over for now. Meanwhile a few pictures from January 2011 and a holiday in sunny Egypt where we saw a somewhat limited range of species within the confines of the resort of Makadi Bay, Hurghada. A couple of miles of beach plus 15 or so lush hotel grounds provided ample time and opportunity for birding while soaking up the winter sun.

Makadi Bay, Egypt

Red-throated Pipit

Bluethroat

Kingfisher

Kestrel

Laughing Dove

Makadi Bay

Sleepy Camel

Striated Heron

Osprey

Cattle Egret

Makadi Bay, Egypt

Hooded Crow

Bluethroat

Kingfisher

Greater Sand Plover

Greenshank

Cattle Egret

We had a great time with two weeks of unbroken sunshine in the eighties when back home there would be rain, wind and whatever else the British weather might throw at us.

I know someone who went to Hurghada just two years ago. Following terrorist atrocities in Egypt the rules are now more controlling whereby tourists are unable to leave the confines of their hotel grounds, barred even from walking into neighbouring hotel surroundings because of security concerns - such a shame.

It's raining now. Back soon - sometime, never?

Linking today to Anni's Birding and Eileen's Saturday Blogspot.

Friday, March 16, 2018

Something For The Weekend

Spring has yet to arrive. In fact the weather at the moment here in Lancashire is still like winter with low temperatures, biting easterly winds and even snow predicted for the weekend.

Something For the Weekend

With little prospect of birding or ringing I dipped into the archive for the sunny days of Egypt in 2011.

The post from February 2011 seems especially relevant now as we in the UK await Chiffchaffs fresh from the wintering grounds, one of the first spring migrants.

Chiffchaff

Ringers know that early Chiffchaffs often carry pollen residues on their bills. This pollen was deposited by the feeding strategy known as nectarivory, birds indulging in sipping nectar from flowering plants during which flowering pollen is left on the bird itself, mainly around the base of the bill, the part of the bird most closely in contact with the flower. Nectarivory is also known to occur in some species of bats.

Chiffchaff

During the 2011 holiday to Egypt I saw countless Chiffchaffs and also saw nectarivory in action. The number of Chiffchaffs was not entirely surprising as unlike the closely related Willow Warbler which winters mainly in West Africa south of the Sahara, Chiffchaffs also cross the Sahara and concentrate in Senegal, while others remain in the Mediterranean North Africa of Egypt.

At least 3 often inseparable races breed in the Middle East, collybita (includes brevirostris), menzbieri and probably abietinus and at least two others visit. So at any time, and especially during winter, spring and autumn the origins of Chiffchaffs and race of each individual in Egypt is hard to determine. The latest scientific and perhaps unremarkable opinion is that races of Chiffchaff interbreed freely, thus making racial definition and identification in the field difficult if not impossible.

There is no doubt that in Egypt I heard and saw our familiar UK collybita, with both the typical “hweet” call and occasional snatches of “chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff”. I also heard the “squeaky chicken” call frequently and on a couple of occasions, snatches of the fast, melodious song of Siberian Chiffchaff tristis, totally unlike the Chiffchaff song I know but more like a demented Dunnock.

In Hurghada I witnessed many Chiffchaffs taking nectar, at times the liquid being visibly sipped as birds stuck their heads deep into the flowers, and upon the bird withdrawing from the flower, drops of the nectar spilling from their bill. A particular favourite plant of the Chiffchaffs was a flowering Mexican Saguara cactus shown in the photographs below. In a few of the pictures, by zooming up it is possible to see the nectar drops around the bill.

Chiffchaff on Saguara cactus

Saguara cactus - Egypt

Chiffchaff

In the two week trip I had one sighting only of Nile Valley Sunbird, another bird that takes nectar. In view of the tremendous number of flowering plants in Makadi Bay my single sighting was a little disappointing.

The biggest numbers of Nile Valley Sunbirds occur much further south than Hurghada, but in the last 100 years, helped by the building of tourist resorts, the species has spread from the southernmost parts of the Red Sea and up to the Cairo area where it breeds. I didn’t get to Cairo to look for more sunbirds so settled for my one brief encounter and a couple of distant shots.

Nile Valley Sunbird

Egyptian Garden

Some of that sun and warmth of Egypt would be very welcome right now. Maybe soon? Log in again to Another Bird Blog to check.

Linking today to Anni's blog and Eileen's Saturday.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Egypt Matters

When I watched the TV news and read today’s newspaper which described the tumult going on in Egypt it made me both sad and angry.

“The Foreign Office (FCO) issued the advice for the resort of Hurghada, where violent clashes erupted earlier in the week in an area away from the main tourist section. The FCO advised that in Hurghada on August 14 there were some violent clashes, in an area away from tourist resorts. One man was killed. Hurghada police advised tourists to remain in hotel grounds, avoid all demonstrations and large gatherings and if becoming aware of any nearby protests, to leave the area immediately and to not attempt to cross road blocks erected by the security forces or protesters.”

Sue and I enjoyed a wonderful winter holiday in the Hurghada resort in January 2011 and it grieves me to think of those poor, hard-working and proud Egyptian people suffering such turmoil.

It’s raining hard here in the UK, so I put together some pictures from Hurghada 2011. Apologies to any readers seeing a few of these pictures again but to anyone who didn't find them until now, I hope that after seeing them you will agree that Egypt should be on any birder's or photographer's wish list.

Hopefully Egypt will recover soon from this setback and their tourist industry return to normal.

"Click the pics" for a better view of Egypt.