On 28-30 Oct we visited the Asir region at the south with my fellow birder Brian James.

We landed to Abha around noon of 28 and from there we drove around 100 km north to Tanomah. Just outside of Tanomah, up on the top of the mountain is located the Al Mehfar Park (Mahvar tourist park on Google maps) and there is located the Mehfar Resort; we stayed there for the first night. We spend the afternoon of 28 and the morning of 29 in the Al Mehfar Park, with the highlight being the Spotted Eagle-Owl (Arabian) that we spotted at dusk of the first day (Oct 28th).

Later in the morning of the second day, we took our way south to Al Soudah, stopping in a number of spots, including the Tanomah waterfall; among others, I managed good shots of the Arabian Magpie and the Arabian Babbler

Continuing our way to Al Soudah through the mountains, birds of prey were all around us; a Steppe Eagle was one of my best shots. We arrived to Al Soudah late afternoon and we headed to Raydah Escarpment; we spend there an hour before the sunset and the whole next morning of Oct 30th. We stayed overnight at the Green Plaza Hotel.

The Raydah Escarpement is one of the main birding sites in Saudi Arabia for endemic species, starting from the summit, all the way down on a very steep slope (you cannot make it back if you have an old car). Heading down on the left side we stopped at the (abandoned) farm which is great spot; we spend some time there and then we continued all the way down to the base of the slope, to the dried up wadi. According to Brian who has been there few times in the past, maybe the end of Oct is not a good period; he was able to see many more birds in his previous visits. Still we could see good number of birds; managed some nice shots of the Abyssinian White-eye, African Grey Hornbill and Palestine Sunbird.

A Little Rock Thrush and a Short-toed Snake Eagle posed nicely in our last good stop for the day at another waterfall not very far away from the Raydah Escarpement.