>>Discovery of my best birding spot, the Salt Pans
It was on one mail delivery trip that I discovered the Salt Pans, which became my favourite bird watching area during my stay in Aden. They lie between Khormaksar and Sheikh Othman. The main road ran through the middle and, on Friday 15 March 1946 I noticed from the mail gharry what appeared to be flamingos. It was amazing to glimpse those prehistoric shapes in the water. There was a bus service between Steamer Point and Sheikh Othman so I was able to visit during my free time, i.e. Sundays and each afternoon (working hours were 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.). The first chance was on Sunday 17 March.
Aden bird watching locations (1940s map)
Altitudes in metres
Grid square 1 km each side
Grid square 1 km each side
Before giving the results of this trip, I want to describe the Salt Pans. They covered an area of about seven square km on flat terrain along the coast just north and west of Khormaksar airfield. They were divided into roughly one hundred individual pools, separated one from the other by straight banks. The size of the pools varied a lot, from about 100 ha furthest from the coast to less than 1 ha near the coast. Depth was usually from zero up to about 30 cm but some of the larger pools were twice as deep. The bottom of the larger pools was mud and only one of these pools had any extensive underwater vegetation.
Sea water was pumped by windmills continuously into the pools furthest from the coast and there it evaporated in the sun. This increased salinity. The water overflowed weirs into smaller pools nearer the coast where salinity increased further and this process continued until the solution became saturated in the pools nearest the coast. Here were located the salt works in which sea salt was extracted from the brine and shipped off for sale.
The shallow water and muddy bottom created ideal conditions for many wading birds. These occurred mostly in the larger pools as the salinity was too high in the smallest pools near the coast. The sea was very shallow off the coast forming large mud flats at low tide on which fed many other wading birds. At high tide these birds were driven close to the land and many then flew into the salt pans to feed with those already there.
This area had the highest density of birds in any part of Aden and this is one reason I visited it so often. Another reason was my previous bird watching experience. I had become something of a wader (shore bird) specialist. I was born and brought up in the Norfolk Broads near Breydon Water, a part of England famous for water birds, especially waders. The previous year I had had some very good times on Nottingham Sewage Farm, with Black-winged Stilts but many other types of wader, so it seemed natural to me to study closely the birds of the salt pans.
My judgement in 1946 that this was a wonderful place for birds has been upheld in recent years by the declaration by Birdlife International that the coastal wetlands around Aden harbour, including the mud flats at Khormaksar and the Salt Pans, constitute an Important Bird Area (YE033). This has been justified by the large numbers of birds found there and, for several species, my 64 year old records are still the highest counts!
On this trip I walked from the main road along the banks between the larger pans (pools) furthest from the coast, then to the coast (of a bay), where the tide was low, and back again by the same route (no record of the time of arrival and departure).>>>
“Near the road were 40 Flamingos* Phoenicopterus ruber in three pools, while there were 105 -108 in other pools, and also 8 Spoonbills* Platalea leucorodia and c. 70 others elsewhere on the salt pans. The heron family was well represented, there being present 5 Common (Grey) Herons Ardea cinerea, one Red-Sea Green-backed Heron* Butorides striatus brevipes (a peculiar bird in flight, Lapwing size, long neck stretched out but legs and tail short, slightly resembling a grebe in shape. Wing beat fairly rapid but distinct pause after each stroke, giving a woodpecker-like appearance to me); several both dark blue and white (nos. approx the same) Red Sea Reef Herons* Egretta schistacea. The cry of this species is ‘aaarrk’, quite distinct from that of the Common Heron. One, probably a juvenile of the blue phase, was a good deal lighter and greyer or browner with a white patch on the top centre of each wing."
The only passerine was described as follows: “The first species, still (7 May) unidentified, seemed to be a large pipit or long-tailed lark. General colour sandy brown above, white beneath except for light brown on breast and some spots there too. Legs and tail very long, bill long and slightly down-curved. In flight white wing bars or patch very noticeable. Size of body approx. as Skylark. Three seen altogether, all in sandy or salty areas.” This was the ____________________________*.
QUIZ: If you think you know what species this bird was, please put its name, your name, how you identified it and the date (17 March 1946) in the comment box at the end of this post.
"Over the bay there was one Osprey* Pandion haliaetus."
Ten species of wader were seen, all of which except one I had seen before. These waders were Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula (“party of c.12 on the salt pans, apparently the same race as seen in Egypt, having a thinner eye-stripe than the typical race as well as other small distinctions”), Kentish Plover (“On the sandy area bordering the bay were 2-3 pairs. By their brighter and sandy upperparts and medium green-brown, not black legs, I expect they were of the Eastern race Charadrius alexandinus seebohmi. The call note was ‘wit-wit-wit’, short not ‘questioning’.”), Little Stint Calidris minuta (“about 72 scattered on the large pools, in greyish winter plumage, note repeated ‘chit-chit-chit’”), Curlew Sandpiper Calidris ferruginea (“party of 9"), Greenshank Tringa nebularia (“were fairly common and I counted 12 in one party, probably 40-50 altogether”), Redshank Tringa totanus (“numbered a dozen or so”), Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos (“a few, c.5, were disturbed”), Curlew Numenius arquata (“20-30 altogether, several single ones on the salt pans, the rest feeding in the bay”), Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa (“Feeding in water of salt pans c. 6 inches deep. About 6 had some chestnut, two being in complete breeding plumage. They were not shy and allowed me within c. 50 yards.”). Indeed, I found all waders comparatively tame, Redshanks particularly so considering their wildness and unapproachability in UK. Curlew were about the shyest.”. The last species was _________________________ * (“Two seen with Greenshanks and Redshanks on the salt pans. Note a repeated ‘chift’, reminiscent of nothing more than that of the Black-winged Stilt often heard in Notts. last summer. The plumage resembled Greenshank rather, but slightly more contrast between upper and under parts giving a more black and white appearance. Bill, pretty long, very slender and apparently straight, black also. Legs very long, yellow-green in colour, appearing almost yellow in bright sunlight as those of Greenshank are liable to do. Though body only about two-thirds the size of a Redshanks, legs give it nearly the same height.”)
QUIZ: If you think you know what species this bird was, please put its name, your name, how you identified it and the date (17 March 1946) in the comment box at the end of this post.
“The only gull was a Yellow-legged Gull. Two kinds of tern were seen. The first had a black cap, very red, thick, blunt and large bill, black or dark legs, very light grey upper wings and mantle, a little black beneath primaries, size large. Undoubtedly the Caspian Tern* Sterna caspia (probably only 2 or 3 altogether). The other had black bill (and legs?), heavy and gull-like flight and not very sharp wings. Little black on head, merely a black mark over each eye; quite definitely the Gull-billed Tern* Sterna nilotica in winter plumage."
>>Unlike in Egypt, I had no book to refer to about the birds of Aden, and as far as I know, none exists to this day. However, thanks to the Internet I have recently been able to read much of what had been written about the birds of Aden prior to my going there. This has been through online access to The Ibis, the journal of the British Ornithologists’ Union. I have been a member of the BOU for many years and received The Ibis every quarter. In 2009 I changed my subscription from the paper version to the online version and now am able to read online any issue back to the first (1858).
Because Aden was part of British overseas territories all that time, The Ibis was the natural medium for publishing bird observations from there. There were papers on the birds of Aden in 1886 (Major Yerbury), 1893 (Lieutenant Barnes), 1896 (Major Yerbury) and 1924 (Colonel Meinerzhagen). It is noticeable that these authors were all in the Army, not surprising in view of the strategic importance of Aden and the preponderance of military men among the British there. It is also remarkable that all were officers. There must have been many more “other ranks” than officers in Aden throughout its occupation by the British, but apparently they did not then contribute to the ornithological literature. None of the papers makes more than a passing reference to the Salt Pans though Lieutenant Barnes mentions that they were established in 1875 by an Italian company.>>>
Two of the species I saw there on 17 March 1946, Black-tailed Godwit and Marsh Sandpiper, do not figure in the papers cited above so were additions to the Aden avifauna, though I did not know so at the time. Both species were reported by other visitors to Aden in subsequent years (1960 Page and 1967 Clarke).
