Chapter 4 - Barbecue and El Gouna

Yesterday evening we were invited to a barbecue to the beduins in the oasis.
It was very nice and the grilled chicken tasted very good. Today we went to El gouna,
a man-made tourist oasis. Though I don't like golf places at all, this one is a very good
birding place! Just at the entrance of el gouna there was a wonderful Cream-coloured Courser,
and this one was much more tame than that in the oasis! (see picture ;) The other pictures show
a Black Kite during our observations; us at the barbecue and a watering moat in the Oasis.

Chapter 3 - Heavy MIgration!

Hello again!
Today it was my third day of work and I'm still enjoying it ;) There is a lot to discover!
Today I finally ticked the Cream-coloured Courser, a beautiful shorebird species, at the oasis.
Unfortunately it was to shy to take good photographs. Not so those to Steppe Eagles, which were
roosting shortly on the top of a hill, then taking of. (see picture!) The other pictures show our 4wd-
car in the middle of the dessert (with Abdul, our driver, sleeping in it!), the view from my
window and a little boy, playing with goats in the oasis.

Chapter 2 - The first day of work

Today was my first working day. We spent two times three hours counting migrating birds (mainly raptors) in the dessert. In the 4 hour break between the two counting periods we visited an oasis! It was very nice having lunch underneath palm trees and watching roosting songbirds!
Picture 1: My working place! (you have to zoom in to see Micheal and Zegi down there!)
Picture 2: The oasis where we had our break.
Picture 3: A nice male Subalpine Warbler in the oasis.
Picture 4: Manfred, Micheal and Micheal watching football.

EGYPT - Chapter 1

This spring I got the opportunity to spend 2 months in Egypt to work as a field ornithologist. So yesterday I arrived in Ras Gharib - the town in where I live and today I had already a day off (every Friday). My work colleagues and I used the free time to visit to old coptic monasteries (Yes mum and dad - culture!!!) but we never put away our bins, so "birding" was done all the time. And it was really nice actually - there were many "lifers" under those birds observed. A really stunning observation was that of the Pharaoh Eagle Owl (formerly treated as a subspecies of the Eagle owl!) ! and birds in oases were very nice because they
weren't shy at all! But written enough - let's show some pics! The first shows a Hoopoe in an oasis. Second is the Pharaoh Eagle Owl mobbed by a Brown-necked Raven. Third is the view from the wall of the coptic monastery. The fourth picture shows just my room!