White-eyed Bulbul - Pycnonotus xanthopygos
The start of a New Year for the Task and we head off to Oman where I caught with a few new bird species while camping for a couple of nights in the Hajar mountain range. The loveliest thing about camping is that you are bound to wake up early wanting to leave the tent and then buzzing all around you are usually birds on tap. I almost didn't give this Bulbul a second look and then noticed something slightly different about it - no white panel on the cheek. I am used to seeing White-cheeked (Himalayan) and Red-vented in abundance just outside my patio doors in Dubai.
From our campsite which was lovely and off the beaten track I took a stroll up a dry valley which probably floods every so often at about 7 am. The sun was just clearing the mountains. Great big crags of some sort of sandstones or other deposited materials heaved up into all kinds of weird and wonderful shapes. Really stunning in different lights.
I have a number of shots of birds that I haven't yet identified. My online Handbook of the Birds of the World is proving very useful. A new Bulbul to kick off a new year.
Oman, Hajar Mountains
31 December 2013
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