The politics of the region are problematic, but there is tremendous scope 
in the Middle East for the bird photographer. Many of the endemics are 
little studied photographically, and there is a wide range of migrating 
and wintering species, too. Photographically, it is an exciting region, and 
politics, time and money permitting, I know I will be returning there for 
many years. 
Paul Doherty, 18 Austen Way, Larkfield, Kent ME20 6UL, UK 
Great Black-headed Gulls on Lake 
Nasser, Egypt, in January 1989 
Ted Hoogendoorn 
On 25 January 1989, 4pm local time, I watched three adult winter Great 
Black-headed Gulls Lanis ichthyaetus at Abu Simbil, Egypt. The birds 
could be identified and aged by their large size, white head with blackish 
mask from eye to ear-coverts, medium to pale grey mantle, back, scapulars 
and upper wing, featuring white outer primaries with an irregular, 
subterminal black crescent across the wing-tip. 
They flew closely past the flat tops of several steep promontories jutting 
into Lake Nasser near the Nubian temples, following the heavily indented 
western shoreline of the lake, in a roughly northeastern direction. For 
about five minutes, they maintained a distance of 100-200m between 
each other, until they encountered a small flock of Black-headed Gulls L 
ridibundus feeding on the lake, about 1.5km to the northeast. After 
harassing the Black-headeds for several minutes, the Great Black-headed 
Gulls continued flying northeast, heading out of sight. They were not 
seen again that day, nor during the first half of the next day, after which 
I left the area. 
Apparently, this is the first record of Great Black-headed Gull for Lake 
Nasser. Goodman and Meininger (1989) mention three rather recent 
records for the southern Egyptian Nile Valley betwen Idfu and Dishna, 
400-600 km north of Abu Simbil, one in November and two in February. 
The species usually migrates singly or in parties of up to five (Cramp and 
Simmons 1983). Judging from their behaviour, the birds at Abu Simbil 
were probably early migrants to more northern areas (cf Hoogendoorn 
1 991 ). Nevertheless, since the shores of Lake Nasser are larely inaccessible 
to birders, a hitherto undiscovered population may winter on the lake. 
Cramp and Simmons (1983) and Goodman and Meininger (1989) have 
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