24 October
Our Royal Jordanian flight to Amman arrived on time just at sunset and after meeting our local guide Lou’ai we drove to Dana, some two hours to the south. Arriving at Dana rest house at about 8 p.m. under a spectacular star-spangled sky with bats flicking around us we soon settled in and enjoyed a good dinner before retiring to our beds.
25 October
Waking up at first light to the breath-taking view from the rest house and the sounds of the first Chukars and Bulbuls greeting the day, we took a pre-breakfast stroll through the village and adjacent groves. A wide range of birds included such highlights as 60+ Tristram’s Grackles, Laughing Doves, Blue Rock Thrush, Scrub Warbler and various migrants including an unexpected Red-breasted Flycatcher.
After a delicious breakfast, back at the rest house, the terrace came up trumps with good views for all of our first Sinai Rosefinches and Tristram’s Serins. The rest of the morning was spent exploring the hot dry Juniper woodland at nearby Barra then walking back to the rest house through some very dramatic scenery. Birds included a Steppe Eagle passing low overhead and good views of Long-billed Pipits.
After lunch, during which a Bonelli’s Eagle made its way majestically across the distant skyline, we explored around the groves and the village again before the early sunset encouraged our return to the rest house.
26 October
Another fine sunny day. After an early morning walk around the high ground at the top of Wadi Dana with Chukars and Scrub Warblers calling all around us and then briefly through the village groves again where a noisy fly-past of 95 Tristram’s Grackles, a Red-backed Shrike and a fine male Red-breasted Flycatcher were the highlights, we set off for Shaubak Castle. The journey through the high, rolling, steppe landscape was punctuated by stops for first a Black-Eared, then a Mourning and finally a Finsch’s Wheatear. One bird often leads to another, and whilst watching the Finsch’s Wheatear, 7 Tristram’s Serins very pleasingly put in appearance.
Shaubak Castle in its dramatic hill-top position proved well worth the visit and the local guide both humorous and informative. After our picnic lunch there we proceeded to Little Petra or Bayda, stopping only for two colourful roadside Bee-eaters en-route. We then enjoyed a late afternoon walk among some fine desert scenery and noted Desert Larks, White-crowned Black Wheatears, a brief Blackstart and some beautifully acrobatic and vocal Fan-tailed Ravens before we finally made our way to Wadi Mousa and the palatial Petra Palace Hotel.
27 October
Yet another fine hot sunny day and a full exploration of Petra. Everyone was suitably awed by this remarkable place and our late departure via the moonlit Siq provided an atmospheric end to a long and rich day. Birds included good views of Sinai Rosefinches, Mourning and White-crowned Black Wheatears, Desert Larks, Palestine Sunbirds, Scrub Warblers and lots of Fan-tailed Ravens, whilst reptiles included at least one of the strange blue Sinai lizards so characteristic of Petra.
28 October
Hot and sunny again. We left the Petra area after an early breakfast and drove up and out of the carunculated sandstone mountains and gorges around Petra and Wadi Mousa to the high, dry, rolling limestone plateau of the Sharra Highlands. Notable birds along the way included Desert Wheatear, Tawny Pipit, lots of Crested Larks and good numbers of migrant Northern Wheatears. Descending into the heat of Wadi Rum we took a walk along the base of Jebel Rum itself, a world of hot sun, sand flats and towering red sandstone cliffs. Sinai Rosefinches, Desert Larks, White-crowned Black Wheatears, a Long-legged Buzzard and an impressive Starred Agama provided interest as we made our way to the rest house for lunch.
Regular scanning of the crags failed to produce the sought after Verraux’s Eagles, so after lunch we made our way through the spectacular desert landscape to the irrigated fields at Disi. A good range of birds here included fine views of a Hobby, several White Storks, numerous Red-throated Pipits, an unexpected male Hen Harrier and 11 Grey Cranes feeding confidently in a stubble field. Thus, after another long and rewarding day we made our way down through the mountains to bustling Aqaba and the sea.
29 October
Hot and sunny, but with a stiff NNW wind whistling down Wadi Araba. A pre-breakfast stroll from our hotel down to the nearby beach gave us views of such notable birds as Barbary Falcon, Caspian Tern and White-eyed Gull.
After breakfast and a lengthy wrangle with both the military and water authorities we finally got permission to enter the famous Aqaba Sewage Works which sits excitingly close to the Israeli border fence. Several superb Little Green Bee-eaters by the gates provided an encouraging start and despite the high wind we saw a good range of species in a relatively short space of time. Among the highlights were: 2 Slender-billed Gulls, lots of Spur-winged Plovers, an immature Purple Heron, two unexpected Pied Kingfishers, lots of Red-throated Pipits, several obliging Bluethroats and a striking maura Stonechat. Particularly memorable for many was the marvellous spectacle of about 80 White Storks descending out of the sky, legs dangling, to land close by behind a belt of trees.
The afternoon saw several of us trampling along the rather barren beaches South of Aqaba town towards the Saudi Border. We were soon rewarded by fine views of a Greater Sand Plover and a male Desert Wheatear, then, it was time to return to Aqaba for a last stroll along the bustling sea front as the sun set.
30 October
Another hot, sunny day, but no respite from the now gale-force NNN wind which threatened to hinder our second session at the sewage works. Nevertheless "good birds presented themselves and additions to yesterday’s list included single Spoonbill, Glossy Ibis and Great White Egret, two Marsh Harriers, 3 rather than 2 Pied Kingfishers and a Red-backed Shrike. Among the waders Green Sandpipers numbered over 30 and Marsh Sandpipers 10, whilst Red-throated Pipits were everywhere and overhead a moderate passage of raptors involved several Steppe Eagles and Buzzards, Short-toed and Booted Eagles and an all too brief Levant Sparrowhawk.
In the afternoon some of the group stayed in Aqaba whilst others went down to the Royal Diving Centre for a swim and some snorkelling in a rather too choppy sea.
31 October
An early start for the journey to Amman and another hot sunny day without, mercifully, the fierce wind of the previous two days. Our journey took us North through the dramatic desert scenery of the Wadi Araba. Our first stop was to be Wadi Fidan, some 140 km north of Aqaba and all went according to plan with only brief stops to view a close long-legged Buzzard, and a Great Grey Shrike, until a Hoopoe Lark flew up from the roadside some 15 km South of the Fidan turn. Stopping to look at this striking bird we soon found a fine male Desert Wheatear and then, very excitingly, a superb and unexpected Desert, Warbler. Flushed with our success we continued to Fidan where a short walk across the desert quickly produced close views of three neat Bar-tailed Desert Larks and two further Hoopoe Larks and an exploration of a nearby Acacia grove brought our first good views of Blackstarts.
Continuing our journey we stopped at Lot’s Cave for lunch then went on to the mouth of Wadi Mujib. Our walk here was very productive: first we flushed a noisy Smyrna Kingfisher from the riverside rushes, then we discovered two smart. Arabian Warblers and at least two Spectacled Warblers in the scrub. Elated we carried on to Suweimah and our last stop, an extensive area of Tamarisk scrub by the shore of the Dead Sea where we hoped to see Dead Sea Sparrows. After a short search we located a flock of about 40 birds flying over and succeeded in getting very good views of one handsome little male perched in a Tamarisk. Here, too, we enjoyed good views of 3 or 4 Hoopoes before we finally made our way back up past sea level and on to Amman.
1 November
After our first lie-in of the trip and a late breakfast we departed for the airport and our flight home. All went well and we arrived back at Heathrow safely and on schedule.
Andy Smith (leader)