Now midway through another trip to this amazing land, the country again impressing me no end. One detention by the military to report so far, but the birding excellent, quite a number of extreme rarities found for this little watched country.
And so to the report, my arrival coinciding with the aftermath of the embassy storming in Tehran, the mutual expulsion/withdrawals of all diplomatic staff and closures of embassies both in Tehran and London. However, for all the media hype and political, Iran remains the Iran that enchanted me last time, a land of incredible kindness and welcome at every turn.
Return to Iran. 17 December.
Ping-pong around Europe on flights via Frankfurt and Istanbul, the last leg of my flight to return me to Iran departing Istanbul at 9.30 p.m., next stop Tehran. Fingers slightly crossed that the appalling crash in diplomatic relations might not have any negative results at the immigration desk awaiting me.
Sushtar & Karun. 18 December.
2.00 a.m., Iman Khomeini International Airport, Tehran. Queues near non-existent, immigration in a good mood, I was through passport control and customs in barely 20 minutes. Out to the throngs of taxi drivers, next stop Mehrabad Airport on the opposite side of the city. Roads as entertaining as ever, the concept of rules clearly not an issue taken too seriously, but arrived at Mehrabad without incident. Dawn on the runways, Jackdaw, Hooded Crow and Rook strutting about, into the air I went again, a one hour internal flight taking me to Ahvaz, heart of the south-west province of Khuzestan.
Eighteen months earlier, I had literally dripped under a hyper-humid 46 C, the birding excellent but the conditions the hardest in all Iran. Vowing then to return, I was now fulfilling that desire. An hour later, I was in the historic town of Shushtar, time for the birding to begin. A pleasant 24 C, a quick stroll along the river soon got the trip list up and running – a Pied Kingfisher hovering over an ancient Sassanid weir, Clamorous Reed Warblers grating in small reedbeds, Little Egrets and assorted gulls and waders on a gravel spit just upriver. Skirting the town’s edge, climbing over the remains of the Salosel Castle, Graceful Prinias bounced out of scrubby vegetation, my first Afghan Babblers of the trip appeared and White-cheeked Bulbuls chattered and squabbled in courtyard bushes.
Some way to the west, I had read of a series of fish pools, pools that seemed to hold great promise. Locating them on satellite maps, access seemed relatively simple, a mere 12 km or so on the back road to Shush and I should be able to see them roadside. It was time to put myself in the hands of Iranian hospitality, I walked to the town’s edge and stuck my thumb out.
Smiling motorbike rider pulled up, had no idea whatsoever where I wanted to go, but offered me a perch on the back of his bike and off we went. And sure enough, a little while later the pools materialised out of the semi-desert and my first real birding was about to begin. Darn, no sooner had I arrived and first a couple of roadside police spotted me, then two security guards at the pools. Both flagged me over, a camera with an unhealthy length of lens and binoculars, I had fears that I would be refused entry. More fool me, the police merely wanted to know who I was, the security guards insisting I sat a while and took a tea. The pools themselves were a rather pleasing intro to the birding over the next couple of days – both Marsh and Montagu’s Harrier quartered, a Great Spotted Eagle impressed with a slow fly-by, a Merlin doing the same a little later, albeit rather faster! And, in reeded fringes, the first target birds of the trip – family parties of Iraq Babblers. The fish pools turned out to be very good for both babbler species – the Iraq Babblers favouring the reed and damper areas, Afghan Babblers dominating in the drier arid areas. Also, a nice bunch of waders, wintering Wood Sandpipers amongst the haul, but the real crown going to the smart White-tailed Plovers strutting their stuff on an embankment between two pools.
No ducks whatsoever, which slightly surprised me, but Common and White-breasted Kingfisher completed the day’s trio and, as afternoon sun began to dip, Black Francolins began to emerge, smart males and their accompanying females scurrying form scrub, rarely pausing long enpough for any admiration form me!
Soon it would be time to head back to my hotel for some well-deserved rest, the previous night essentually a non-event on planes and taxi dashes, but first the first big bonus of the trip – atop a tree just beyond the pools, a pair of Black-winged Kites. This species was first recorded in Iran in 1998, but since then has appeared to be rapidly colonise the south of the country, an additional 17 records occurring in the country up to the end of 2010.
Well that was a good start. Passing an Isabelline Shrike and a bunch of Spanish Sparrows, it was back to the road I wandered, a car quickly stopping to give me a lift back to Shushtar. End of day one.