Irish Bird Images

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. February 2002.

Introduction
An eight day trip to UAE brought a few surprises to say the least e.g. Plain Martin and Pectoral Sandpiper. 1st and second records. Due to fantastic light digi-scoping was made easy. Birds were tame as most sites were near water and desert species will at some stage of the day visit pond's, sprinklers, and reservoirs. Coolpix 990 was the camera on this trip, still with Leica APO 77mm. Scope.

We hired a car American type not to small, from the hotel, for about € 300 and found traveling easy as all the roads are new and above standard. The Shell Birdwatching Guide to the United Arab Emirates, this is all you need apart from The Collins Bird Guide. Simon Aspinall runs the birdline and is one very helpful guy, we spoke everyday with out getting bored. Birdline details are on ( where do you want to go Birdwatching today ) trip report site. See "Links" all you need to know about UAE is included here.

We visited Emirates Golf Course: What a place, after three visits we saw White-eyed Buzzard (first),Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse,Grey Francolin,Little-green Bee-eater,Pintail Snipe (1) Jack Snipe (1), and lots of Common Snipe. Bluethroat,Citerine Wagtail,Red-wattled Lapwing, Marsh Sandpiper,Southern-grey Shrike, Isabelline and Masked. Always check the birders logbook at the gate.

Mushrif National Park: Here we saw several Pallid Scops Owl (easy), Humes-leaf Warbler (1), Shirka (1) plus the usual array of warblers.

Dubai Pivot Fields and Wimpey Pits: These two areas are along side each other and are a must. We saw in one day. Pectoral Sandpiper, Plain Martin, Egyptian Nightjar! After several visits we saw Black-necked Grebe, Cattle Egret, Purple Heron,Glossy Ibis, Greater Flamingo, Russian White-fronted Goose, Garganey, Marsh Harrier, Pallid Harrier, White-tailed Plover, Wood Sandpiper, Whiskered Tern (45), Indian Roller, Tawny Pipit, Red-throated Pipit, Water Pipit (eastern ), several races of Yellow Wagtail, Siberian Stonechat, and several Wheatears. The whole array of species changed from day to day.

Khor al Beidha: Tidal and we got it wrong but we still saw, Lesser and Greater Sand Plover's, White-Collard Kingfisher, Black-crowned Finch Lark, Sykes Warbler and Clamorous Reed warbler. On Shore were, Socotre, Great Black-headed Gull, Swift Tern, Lesser Crested Tern, White-cheeked Tern, and Saunders Little Tern. The Gulls large white headed gulls appeared to be, Baltic, Siberian and Pontic.

Qarn Nazwa: Eastern Pied Wheatear (1), Hume's Lesser Whitethroat, desert Lesser whitethroat,Plain Leaf warbler, Siberian Chiffchaff, Desert Warbler, Hume's, Northern, Isabelline and Red-tailed Wheatear's, we missed the resident Eagle Owl.

One of the best trips to date, memories are lots of Western Palearic fringe birds, Good light, Good food, Good roads and nice people and no hastle at all, we shall be back again and soon. Down side, just one we did not see any Grey Hypocolius, a good reason to go back.

Little-green Bee-eater UAE February 2002 Common but should it be called Blue-cheeked?

Caspian Gull's UAE February 2002 Long bill, yellow legs, dark small eyes, set well back into the head, long wings and dark backed.

Eastern Pied Wheatear UAE February 2002 1 seen considered rare and nearest Western Palearic site.

Graceful Warbler UAE February 2002 Common and breeding in hote areal we stayed in.
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