United States
£ GBP
The site guide section of this excellent birdwatching guide covers over 60 of the Sultanate's top birdwatching sites - each including a detailed map, information on habitats, access and a complete list of the species with relative abundance. A birdfinder is included with details of how, where and when to best find each species, as well as a complete checklist with seasonal status.
Following the success of the 1st edition of the guide, this new 2nd edition has been completely revised and updated with all maps upgraded and redrawn, plus additional sites added. Hence, this edition is a completely new work expanding on the first edition.
In order to assist visitors all maps now contain GPS data for significant features, roads and tracks - all waypoints can be downloaded from the web (details within the book). The familiar sections on accommodation, tour operators, car rental and logistics has been greatly revised to reflect the pace of tourist infrastructure development in Oman. All Site Lists and the Bird Finder information has been updated as of January 2008.
&i;"The first edition of this book was published in 2001 - but the speed and scale of development and change in Oman meant that some of the information contained in the book very rapidly became out of date. This second edition is therefore both welcome and necessary.
The new roads that have been constructed, the paving of graded tracks, the expansion of single track roads to dual carriageways and the changes that have occurred at certain sites have all meant changes to the text - although the information on the birds remains basically the same as in the first edition. The accommodation section has expanded to four pages, reflecting the increased number of hotels that have been built in the last seven years.
Over sixty sites are covered in detail, each with a map. A bird finder section is included with details of how, where and when to best find each species, as well as a complete check list with seasonal status.
The species lists have been updated to reflect those that have been added to the official Oman list up to January 2008. As well as textual changes, an extremely useful addition is the inclusion of GPS waypoints and co-ordinates on the maps. The photographs are also different from those in the first edition and are of the usual superb quality expected from the Eriksens. This book remains an essential purchase for any birdwatcher visiting this beautiful and very accessible country and is indeed a worthwhile addition to the bookshelves of anybody interested in the birds of the region."&o;
- Ian Harrison, Sandgrouse, Volume 30 (2) 2008.
