Promoted as a secluded oasis set in beautiful gardens on Elephantine Island, the 5-star Mövenpick Aswan resort is located on an island in the middle of the Nile in Aswan city right next to the Sahara desert. A vegetable garden, tall trees in the middle of an otherwise densely populated Egyptian city. Here, the Möwenpick Hotel has committed itself to a green project. Whether green washing or not. One appreciates it: the Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robin (Cercotrichas galactotes).
Suddenly and unexpectedly, a brownish-grey bird approaches from another part of the garden. It stilts his brown tail again and again. Identifying the species is not difficult. We sit very still. The Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robin comes closer and closer to us. The bird is cautious but not really warry. At some point I throw myself face down on the floor. So I have the Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robin just at “eye level”. I’m afraid that the close-up limit of the lens is undercut. Then his beak snaps down. The prey, an arthropod (perhaps a young centipede), is nice to see.
We stroll through the rows of gardens, which always have different types of vegetables. Finally we come to a few tall trees, many palm trees of course but also a few deciduous trees provide shade here in the sweltering heat. There is not much going on apart from shade and heat. A few lizards let themselves be attracted by the running water from thick garden hoses. Otherwise, masses of House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) can be seen. Plus the inevitable Domestic Pigeons (Columba livia).
A successful afternoon at the southern end of Egypt and therefore the western Palearctic.
Aswan is the capital of Aswan Governorate in southern Egypt. Aswan is a busy market and tourist center north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the Nile, on the first cataract.
To cope with the growing demand for top shots of the rarer species of the Palearctic Bird-Lens is keen to enrich the range of pictures of birds you can find in the western palearctic. Trips to remote places like this one to capture images not only of rare birds of western palearctic were very successful. The nice image of the blog is only a first impression, what you will find in the gallery in the “Picture Shop” very soon. Just give bird-lens.com a message, if bird-lens.com could serve you with an image needed before the new pictures are online.