 |
| Asian Pied Starling |
While on a short visit to Dubai I made a short
birdwatching trip to the edge of the city last week with Nimeesh Suseelan.
 |
| Asian Pied Starling |
 |
| White-cheeked Bulbul |
I know Nimeesh from my school and thru Facebook I discovered that he had recently
taken to birding.
 |
| White-cheeked Bulbul |
 |
| Common Hoopoe |
I gave him a call and he was more than happy to accompany me for a few hours of birding.
 |
| Habitat panorama - Al Warsan Lakes |
We started at - Al Warsan Lakes - a site that I had only read about.
 |
| Grey Heron and Socotra cormorants |
It's an amazing wetland at the edge of a large residential development
called the international city and was supposed to be development into a
proper bird watching park till the recession hit the city and stopped
the work.
 |
| Marsh Harrier |
 |
| Little Grebe |
 |
| Common Chiffchaff? |
 |
| Socotra cormorants |
 |
| Common Chiffchaff? |
 |
| Common Chiffchaff? |
 |
| Graceful Prinia |
 |
| Purple Sunbird - female |
 |
| Socotra cormorants in flight |
 |
| Socotra cormorants |
 |
| Isabelline Shrike |
 |
| View from one of the hides (this has been left incomplete and abandoned) |
Probably that's a good thing because if the park was completed it would
probably be attracting 1000s of (noise) people like at all the other
parks in Dubai and would end up chasing away the very birds they came to
watch..
 |
| Black-headed Gulls |
 |
| Collared Dove |
 |
| Socotra cormorants and some Gulls |
 |
| Another habitat photo |
 |
| Purple Sunbird - Male |
Our next stop was the close by site popularly known as Pivot fields. I had been here once a couple of years back and was impressed with the diversity of this site and this visit was even better.
 |
| Nimeesh photographing a Pratincole! |
Nimeesh knew exactly where to go to find almost every bird I asked for
(of course I have been keenly following the bird sightings at this and
other locations in Dubai on this meticulously updated UAE birding
website by Tommy Pedersen - http://www.uaebirding.com/ ).
 |
| White-tailed Lapwing |
 |
| White-tailed Lapwing |
Here I even got a couple of lifers ..... the White-tailed Lapwing, and a Wheatear species.
 |
| Crested Lark |
 |
| Little Ringed Plover |
 |
| Long-billed Pipit? |
 |
| Isabelline Wheatear? |
 |
| Grey Francolin |
 |
| Yellow Wagtail |
 |
| Northern Wheatear? |
 |
| Common Starling |
 |
| Collared Pratincole |
 |
| White-tailed Lapwings |
 |
| White-tailed Lapwings |
 |
| Bluethroat |
 |
| A better view of the Bluethroat's Blue throat :-) |
 |
| Little Ringed Plover |
 |
| Cattle Egrets glowing in the morning sun.. |
Our last site was Dubai's most famous birdwatching site (especially with non-birding folk) - Ras al Khor.
 |
| Habitat photo of the Ras-Al-Khor flamingo sanctuary |
 |
| Greater Flamingoes and a Common Shelduck in the foreground |
This is one of those places that can never disappoint and this time
around the fact that the winter chill is still here meant that the ducks
and other wintering species were still very much here.
 |
| Mixed group of Greater Flamingoes, Western Reef Herons, Socotra cormorant, Common Teals, Northern Pintails and a Northern Shoveler |
 |
| More Greater Flamingoes, this time with Eurasian Spoonbills in the foreground |
 |
| Green Shank |
 |
| Another mixed group of Western Reef Herons, Grey Heron, Socotra cormorant and a Northern Shoveler |
 |
| Green Sandpiper |
 |
| And one more photo of Greater Flamingoes |
All in all an amazing day and what a list
we managed in just a few hours of almost effortless birding. Here's a
complete list including a few I saw in between these site (in particular order):
1 Asian Pied Starling
2 Common Myna
3 Little Brown Dove
4 Black-headed Gull
5 House Sparrow
6 White-cheeked Bulbul
7 Red-vented Bulbul
8 House Crow
9 Purple Sunbird
10 Rose-ringed Parakeet
11 Bluethroat
12 Common Starling
13 Socotra cormorant
14 Pallid Swift
15 Long-billed Pipit?
16 Isabelline Wheatear?
17 Red-wattled Lapwing
18 White-tailed Lapwing
19 White Wagtail
20 Yellow Wagtail
21 Northern Wheatear?
22 Marsh Harrier
23 Common Chiffchaff
24 Graceful Prinia
25 Collared Pratincole
26 Collared Dove
27 Black-winged Stilt
28 Greater Flamingo
29 Northern Pintail
30 Northern Shoveler
31 Green Sandpiper
32 Pond Heron
33 Grey Heron
34 Purple Heron
35 Western Reef Heron
36 Cattle Egret
37 Little Ringed Plover
38 Isabelline Shrike
39 Eurasian Spoonbill
40 Common Teal
41 Common Shelduck
42 Grey Francolin
43 Little Grebe
44 Barn swallow
45 Common Hoopoe
46 Crested Lark
47 Blue Rock Pigeon
48 Great White Egret?
49 Green Shank
A big shout out to Nimeesh for his time and enthusiasm - THANKS DUDE!!
Next time we'll aim for Al Ain and Fujairah ... I hope we can get some owls :-D
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment