Thought I'd share a few pictures of Qurum Park in Muscat. The park covers a very large area consisting of manicured lawns and flower beds, A man made but naturally filled ornamental lake, a continuously spring fed wadi leading to a coastal lagoon and vast mangrove swamp area. Most of it is quite inaccessible mind you. It's the best place in the capital for birds.
Taken with the camera on my phone.
Looking towards the start of the tidal lagoon although the beach is at least 2 Km from this point. The recent heavy rain has caused quite a lot of damage to the reed beds and dumped an awful lot of rubbish, rocks and mud which they are slowly clearing up
One of the paved areas between the large lawns
This is the lawn where the Kestrel and Crow were having their spat the other day
The shallow reed bed area of the spring fed wadi, the water is very warm. Again a bit of a mess because of the rains.
Walking up towards the lake
A few of the lake, the water level is lower than I've ever seen it but the birds seem to be loving the exposed wading/hunting areas now.
A large area of scrub leading to the tidal lagoon with the beach at the end of the tree line.
Its becoming very popular ss a winter destination Alan the governmrnt realise tourism is the future as the oil will one day run out
fantastic beachrs, mountsins, wadis and masses of cultural history
Do a web search for the bar al jissa shangri la hotel
super spot and hotel
A very relaxing place to chill out for a couple of days :-)
Very interesting to see your local patch, Andrew. It's a wonder that the major birding tour operators haven't picked up on it. It looks an ideal destination for winter birding.
I notice that one of companies I've travelled with are offering trips to Kuwait this winter so maybe Oman will be on the agenda soon.
____________________________________________________________________
Tony
My Flickr Photostream
TJ, At least you can get a beer in Oman, Kuwait you can't and after a long hot days birding .........
The whole of the Gulf is a super place for birding outside of the silly summer months.
You may find this site of interest
http://www.birdsoman.com
Andrew