Another brief stay in Jordan, this time limited to the Dead Sea shore and its surroundings, since my work meetings took place in the Marriott Jordan Valley, where I spent 3 days.

May 6.
The Marriott is right next to the Mövenpick hotel , where I lodged during a previous visit (see Jordan report #1). The gardens are quite similar, and so are the birds, with a few nice additions given the time of the year. An early morning walk in the hotel gardens (after 6:30 a.m. the gardeners start to work, quite noisily, and the birds are less visible) produced a large number of birds. Especially numerous were Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla); also present were Graceful Prinia (Prinia gracilis), Olivaceous Warbler (Hippolais pallida), Sardinian Warbler (Sylvia melanocephala), Lesser Whitethroat (Sylvia curruca), Blackstart (Cercomela melanura), Thrush Nightingale (Luscinia luscinia), and a breeding group made of an adult and several recently fledged Indian Silverbill (Euodice malabarica), a species that seems to have successfully colonized the area since I saw a small group further up the road to Karak in 2002.
A beautiful male Masked Shrike (Lanius nubicus), a species I had missed in my previous two visits, seemed to have its hunting grounds around the Seashore Bar. Laughing Dove (Streptopelia senegalensis) and Rock Martin (Ptyonoprogne fuligula) were also present.
 
After lunch I drove the seashore motorway, north towards Amman, until at around km. 5 I saw a small road departing to the right, following the left side of a small wadi. It is sign posted “Isban Dam Project” in English, and it soon turns into a dirt track and follows the wadi until the actual dam works. Shortly before this turn there is another, unmarked small paved road that follows the right side of the wadi and leads directly to a military camp (more about this later).
At the beginning of this road there is a small group of large trees surrounded by tall grass, and here I was surprised to see a flock of Desert Finch (Rhodospiza obsoleta) mixed with Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris). In my previous visits I had spent hours unsuccessfully looking for Desert Finch in Wadi Al Butm, Qasr Amra , and other sites where they’re supposed to occur. And now here they were at a roadside, with cars and trucks noisily speeding along the motorway.

Desert Finch

Further along this road I found a recently dead Corncrake (Crex crex), a pair of Masked Shrike in the bushes bordering the wadi, and in the trees near what seemed a water deposit, a pair of Smyrna Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) and European Bee-eater (Merops apiaster). I later visited this area at different times of the day and it was always very productive. Other birds included Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius), Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis), and Crested Lark (Galerida cristata).

Following the road, at the top of a hill I arrived at the entrance of a military camp, that wasn’t signposted or indicated in any way. I turned around and drove back towards the main road, stopping after the camp wasn’t visible to photograph a Southern Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor). While I was working the camera and scope a pair of armed soldiers came walking down the hill and started to ask questions. One of them spoke some English, and both looked rather relaxed. I showed them my passport and hotel keycard and, with the help of my bird books, explained what I was doing there.
They told me to go with them to “see the Captain”, and got into my car. We drove into the camp, parked at the entrance and walked a few hundred meters to the Captain’s office. All the time they were polite and calm, offered me some excellent tea, and we discussed the poor performance of Real Madrid that season (except of course Zidane, who is and forever will remain “number one”), and King Juan Carlos, whom everybody in Jordan seem to sincerely like. My only real concern was my camera, and whether they might confiscate it together with the pictures I had taken so far.
I showed them the photos in the camera’s LCD, all birds, and after a couple of lengthy phone calls I was released. They saw me to the car and waved a courteous “welcome to Jordan” as goodbye. Before, I secured their permission to walk along the wadi, as long as I didn’t get within sight of the camp.

That’s the problem with the Dead Sea shore and the mountain range that borders it: it constitutes the natural border with Israel, and is full of military outposts and road controls. Every promising dirt track leading into the mountains seems to end at a military camp.
A lone foreigner carrying binoculars, telescope and camera is suspicious to say the least, and I didn’t want to take any more chances and stumble upon personnel that might be less understanding, so from then on I tried to avoid anything that could suggest military presence. However, I must stress that every time I had contact with military or police personnel in Jordan I was treated very nicely and never had the slightest problem.   Driving back to the motorway I saw a Booted Eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus).


I took again the “Isban Dam” track and followed it for a while; it was near noon and getting rather hot, but I caught a brief glimpse of a Sand Partridge (Ammoperdix heyi) as it flew over a ridge. Sights of this species are often very frustrating, since they always seem to be strategically near a gorge or a ridge behind which they disappear in a second.   Back to the main motorway, I continued north until the town of Wadi As Sir.
I traversed its very busy central avenue and reached an area of suburbs surrounded by orchards and stony hillsides. This whole area didn’t have any signs, so I more or less improvised and took whatever small tracks that seemed to lead to a promising area.

Shortly before the road ends, a small, paved road leaves to the left (south), and leads to a sizable mosque placed at the end of a large wooded area, mainly of old oak trees. Here I saw many Jay (Garrulus glandarius atricapillus), Cretzchmar’s Bunting (Emberiza caesia), Black-eared Wheatear (Oenanthe hispanica), Lesser Whitethroat, Chukar (Alectoris chukar), and Great Tit (Parus major). At 4:30 pm the light was starting to dim so I headed back to the hotel.

Little Ringed Plover

May 7.
Early in the morning I drove to Suwayma, to the area where in my first visit I saw a breeding colony of Dead Sea Sparrow . This time they seemed to have finished their breeding season, for all I could see were empty nests. A Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorus) flew over the area, but little else. After that I took the King’s Highway, actually not a highway but a rather crummy road that leads Northeast to Wadi Al Mujib, a big canyon that cuts deep into the desert.
When I arrived it was almost noon and very hot, and I only saw Mourning Wheatear (Oenanthe lugens), the usual Desert Lark and Blackstart, and a distant Bonelli’s Eagle (Hieraaetus fasciatus). However, the scenery was quite spectacular, especially from a roadside viewpoint when the road starts to wind down into the wadi.

I followed the road towards Karak, and shortly after passing the small town I stopped by some promising gorges, in rocky terrain bordering a very big and deep wadi (probably still Wadi Al Mujib.) The second I got out of the car I flushed four Sand Partridge and I saw them very briefly as they dove down into the gorge and out of my sight, making their characteristic alarm call. I descended as far as I could, trying to find them, in vain. I drove past the hotel and to the Isban Dam road, and followed for 3 or 4 kms.

Until I saw what looked like a Sand Partridge flying low over the road, as usual only seconds before it disappeared into a gorge. I rushed out of the car and could see it landing at the bottom of a nearby wadi, behind some rock boulders. I walked slowly until 100 meters or so, trying to get as close as I could without flushing it, and was rewarded with excellent views of a male Sand Partridge on the ground, loudly displaying in front of a female whose colour and lack of markings made it virtually invisible unless it moved.

May 8.
I left the hotel at dawn in order to further explore the area around Wadi As Sir (aka Wadi Esser, see the Jordan introduction ). I drove through the town until, shortly before the end of the main road, I took the same small paved road to the left as the first time. I followed it down into a valley until the mosque on top of a ridge, surrounded by mature oak wooded hills. In the wooded area I saw Syrian Woodpecker (Dendrocopos syriacus), Masked Shrike, Sardinian Warbler, Cretzchmar’s Bunting, and lots of Jay. Sunning in the rocks I saw several Starred Agamas (Laudakia stellio). I was photographing one of these which after a while decided I was getting too close and sought refuge in a small cave; suddenly a large snake emerged from the shade and stroke, missing the lizard by inches. I identified it as a Montpellier Snake (Malpolon monspessulanus insignitus). In a small crevice on a sunny slope I also saw a beautiful immature Red-headed Whip Snake (Coluber rubriceps).

  I walked up to a hill that oversaw the mosque and seemed to contain the ideal habitat for Long-billed Pipit, stony slopes with scrub and boulders (Andrews). On the way I saw Black-eared Wheatear, a pair of Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus) a Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) and Lesser Whitethroat. And sure enough, on top of the hill there was a Long-billed Pipit (Anthus similis), singing from a boulder and offering a sight almost identical to Killian Mullarney’s illustration in the Collins Birdguide.

  Back to the valley, and in an area of young oaks and shrubs, I saw a pair of Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator), and in the same shrub a pair of Barred Warbler (Sylvia nisoria), angrily trying to mob the shrikes away.