September.

One of the more easily overlooked, but curiously exotic, sights that the autumn migration brings to Sharm El Sheikh can be seen in early September. Heading out of the town to the south the road passes through an intermittently efficient checkpoint and curls up a long hill into the desert, flanked on one side by an emergency run off for the trucks that find the long, hot descent hard on the brakes.

 As you climb away from the blue of the Red Sea, all of the colours become variations of the red and yellow of the desert, apart from the plastic bags that the wind blows on to the remains of the barbed wire surrounding the old trenches of the Israeli wars. Towards the top of the hill a stationary armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a reminder that the Sinai is still in a tough neighbourhood, or would remind us except that a friend told us that when the APC has to come into town to be serviced it takes almost a full day to get it running.

Cresting the rise, the Ras Mohammed national park stretches away before you to the most southerly point of the Sinai. On either side of the road, marking the courses of the dry wadis, low ragged scrub and occasional Nile Acacia trees are the only obviously living things, but if you slow down a bit (which will make you a novelty on Egyptian roads) you will start to see that every single tiny scrap of vegetation has at least a couple of birds perched on the top. Hundreds and hundreds of Shrikes.

The largest and most eye-catching are the Great Gray Shrikes with their striking black and white plumage occupying the choice perches. Choice perches in case you are wondering are those that don't waggle around too much in the desert wind.  Next are the Lesser Greys which can be distinguished, in theory, from the Great Greys by the black forehead, but because many of the birds are juvenile the whole game becomes much more interesting. For example, by far the most common are the Red Back Shrikes, which presents a problem because many of the individuals are juvenile- and juvenile Red Backed Shrikes look rather like Isabelline Shrikes which are much rarer in Egypt. Distinguishing between them entails stopping the jeep every 10 metres and arguing about whether a shrike has a red tail or not, which they seldom do.

 Of similar size to the Red Backed is the Woodchat Shrike, a dashing bird with a chestnut cap and an irritating inability to pose for a photo. This brings us to the fifth and final species, and my personal favourite, the Masked Shrike. Like a Long Tailed Tit on steroids, with a pinkish wash through the breast and a Zorro style eye patch, they are truly beautiful birds.

In Europe, Shrikes can be infuriating, sometimes sitting high and easily seen and then at other times skulking and impossible to find. But as they pass through Sharm the Shrikes can be easily seen in all their glory.