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A very nice pair of Eagle Owls today, before the dust storm blew in . . . .

The Missus:

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The Mister:

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And an addendum . . .

Here's a pic of another individual taken at the same location almost exactly four months ago, followed by one from the latest set:

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What strikes me is the...

Andrew -

"Aye, there's the rub . . ." as someone once commented. You've hit on a central point of my confusion; I too have gone round and round with Porter/Aspinall. If you go through past...

Due to my own wonderings about the Clamorous/Indian/Great complex, have been after a good series of pics of the Clamorous as found around here; finally got some this morning.
...

Stunning clip, Jim!

And yes, it is a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) . . . an old friend of mine. They are big birds; length 43-63 cm and wingspan 91-152 cm.

John

Might look at the Steiner Skyhawk Pro 10x42's also (Sharaf DG stocks them). Yes, they are twice the money, but big difference in optical quality. I looked at both when my old Bausch & Lomb...

Gwen -

Here's a Google Earth screenshot:

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And a species list (to date):

Grey Francolin (Francolinus pondicerianus)
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)

After seeing the Red-crested Pochards in the little piece of scabland I've been occasionally visiting, I decided to do an "inventory", just to see . . .


Walked it from 7:00 am - 10:00 am and...

Looks like a classic Accipiter to me . . . . though I've not seen one here yet, I'd put it down as an immature Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus). Short, choppy wingbeats interspersed with brief...

GREAT shot, Khalifa, and congratulations!


John

or . . . . the . . . . pochard whisperer . . . .

:cool:

John

Sweet!

'K, everybody, here's a google zoom of the pond; its changed a lot from the aerial photo. The white oval shows the extent of open water at this point, the rest is a heavy growth of reeds. ...

Khalifa, that put me in mind of something . . . .

Looking again at Porter/Aspinall, I noticed that the ranges indicated for the Marbled Duck and the Red-Crested are pretty congruent, although they...

Figured as much . . . but something tells me they won't have gone too far. Everything about them, though it was brief, said to me that they weren't plastic. Worth an RBR?

John

Don't know if this will bring anyone any joy, but here's where they were . . . . .

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John

Mark -

Fully winged . . . . I was working from behind a screen of reeds just at sundown, and the birds were nervy; as soon as they became aware of 500mm pointed at them they launched, so the pics...

Was on a different quest today . . . for tartuth (Cynomorium coccineum) but spotted this fellow and his mate, first Red Crested Pochards for me. They didn't hang around long for the photo op....

Josh -

Though I've never used it (on my wishlist, natch), the Bigma is well regarded among Olympus users, although it may be generally stated that it is a tad slow and a tad soft . . . .
...

Looks an awful lot like the immature Oriental Honey Buzzard I saw a couple of weeks ago at Mushrif; the almost fox-red plumage threw me off, too.

John

Da List:

Grey Francolin (Francolinus pondicerianus) - numerous
Crested Honey Buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus) - 1
Eagle sp. – poss. Greater Spotted or Steppe? - 1
Shikra (Accipiter...

About 10-12 mm long . . .

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John

Unfortunately, didn't get any pics of the bird in flight. However , per Porter "in flight, has conspicuous large white patch across primary bases, on outer underwing coverts and on tail corners"...

Apologies in advance for the pics . . . . shot at work with my P&S through a very dirty window . . .

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The very strange thing about this bird is that there was absolutely no white...

Personally, I'm saving up to get this bit of pelagic kit:

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Just the thing for my quest for Gulf Sea-Owls . . . .


John

I'm no expert (yet), but I think this is the dread Blue Spotted Arab . . . .

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Assuming its one of the ones you're looking for, no charge.

John