Chapter 9 - A long awaited vistior - Wadi Habu mara - Migration

Picture description:
1. Roosting White Storks in the desert.
2. Overflying White Pelicans.
3. The landscape of Wadi Habu mara.
4. "Schrecki", our Grasshopper pet, eating a fly.
5. A gecko caught in the desert in the night.
6. Two Egyptian Vultures (Schmutzgeier) at the oasis.
7. My love doing what I`ve been doing the last seven weeks.

Chapter 8 - Just a few images !

Just a few images from last week:

1. Spur-winged Plover in Luxor
2. Nile-Valley Sunbird
3. A Bridge over the Nile
4. A crowned Sandgrouse.
5. Who finds the Bar-tailed Dessert Lark on the nest?

Thanks for the comments! Keep watching my blog!

Chapter 7 - Reptile and plant special

After a lot of pictures of birds I thought it is time to put some pictures of other
things here on my blog.
Pictures show:

1. A small succulent plant in the dessert.
2. A lizzard hiding under my foot.
3. The same lizzard in my hand :).
4. Another species of lizzard caught.
5. A sere bush.
6. A green bush.
7. And of course, a picture of a White-eyed Gull.

Chapter 6 - Luxor

Last Friday we went on a daytrip to Luxor! Because we only had about 6 hours there,
we had to do intense birding on Crocodile Island in the Nile river.
Pictures show:1. Whiskered Tern 2. Western Reef Heron 3. Red-rumped Swallow 4. Pied Crow, possible first record for Egypt!
5. A fisherman on the Nile river 6. View from the path on Crocodile Island

Chapter 5 - 2 Weeks already!

Chapter 5 - 2 Weeks already!

Here are some pictures about the time since my last post! First one shows the bird which is my
favourite since my early childhood - the Quail. Second: The guys (Zegi, Erich, Daniel and Tobi)
seabird watching in El Gouna. Third: Me counting birds in the desert. Fourth: An exhausted
Woodchat Shrike in Zafarana. Fith: A lizzard called in German "Dornschwanzagame". Sixth: A
flock of 267 (counted!) White Pelicans soaring.

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!