In September 2023 I moved from Adelaide to Abu Dhabi. Well, not completely…. I started a new, full-time job at a new university as their Chair of Department in Computer Vision, but for the first 12 months at least, we agreed on a hybrid arrangement in which I would work some of the time in UAE and some in Adelaide. There were lots of reasons for taking on the new role, but it certainly didn’t escape my attention that there might be some new birds on offer, and that AD and nearby Dubai are the gateway to many, many more birding and travel opportunities.
A decade earlier I had done a 36-hour stopover in Dubai, in which I hired a car and drove about to various sites twitching many of the region’s specialties. In that short trip I saw Crab Plover, White-tailed Lapwing, Indian Roller, Lichtenstein’s Sandgrouse, Black-crowned Sparrow-lark, Hume’s Wheatear, Sand Partridge, Sooty Gull, Socotra Cormorant, Persian Shearwater and Pallid Scops-owl. Not a bad haul birding solo on a strict time-budget! Trip report here.
As an almost entirely desert habitat, UAE does not support great resident avian diversity – and I’d seen a lot of it in that smash-and-grab trip in 2013 – but regular spring and autumn migrants and vagrants swell the country list to well over 400. September is supposed to be one of the better months for migration, but my first month in the country was very busy with work, and even when I was not busy with work, it was hot; staggeringly hot. People had reassured me that things start to get better in September, but in 2023, a year of temperature records worldwide, that meant 43 degrees and 75% humidity — better than 50deg in high summer, but still weather that it is uncomfortable and even dangerous to be outside in. Hardly “better”.
Consequently, for two weeks I did almost zero birding at all. Then one Friday afternoon and Saturday morning tiring of the confines of the hotel room and office, I decided to brave the heat and walk and cycle to a few spots on Yas Island, my temporary home. Around the hotel gardens I found various common birds: White-eared Bulbul, Red-vented Bulbul, Purple Sunbird, Delicate Prinia, House Crow, and on the fairways and greens of the neighbouring links golf course I could pick out Whimbrel, Eurasian Curlew and Common Sandpiper, a single Kentish Plover, as well as resident (and common) Red-wattled Lapwing. Kestrel and Black-winged Kite cruised overhead, Grey Francolin (feral) and Crested Larks and a Hoopoe picked their way through dunes. Arabian Green Bee-eaters added colour and charisma. Indian Silverbill was a (relatively dull) lifer.
I cycled in the heat of Saturday morning to West Yas mangroves and added Common Redshank, Western Reef Egret and Grey Plover. A warbler in the hedge and then on the grass looked good on size/shape and behaviour for Eastern Olivaceous, but I did not get enough on it for a definitive ID. Cycling further afield looking for “North Yas Mangroves” led me on a wild-goose-chase, battling traffic and busy roads, then off road (on my road-bike, not the most pleasant experience) and to a building site and military area.
By my third Friday I was in touch with some local birders, and Ted Burkett, an expat American working at Khalifa University, offered to take me out in the afternoon heat (Friday is a half-day) to a spot called Ajban Farms, somewhere I had noticed produces some decent ebird lists. This is an area of small ponds and allotments and a place where Abu Dhabi birders go fairly regularly, because anywhere with water and vegetation in the desert can be a magnet for resident and migrant species alike.
We first checked a few ponds, finding a few waders: Little Stint, Temminck’s Stint, Kentish Plover, Little Ringed Plover, Ruff, Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Common Snipe, Common Greenshank. The best bird for me in this area was a Desert Wheatear. We drove a bit further into the desert to a bleak site with a small shallow gorge where Pharoah Eagle-owl are known to breed. Ted said they are sometimes out in the open during the day, but more often can be found in one of the larger holes on the far side of the gorge. We checked these methodically and fabulously in one of them I found two huge yellow eyes staring straight back at me. The elation of finding a Pharoah Eagle-owl (not a lifer – see Morocco 2012, but definitely an A-lister) rapidly turned to horror when my camera refused to focus. In the heat, and bright sunshine, and panic of the situation, I could not work out what was going on. In retrospect I realised this was dense condensation on various of the lens surfaces because I had taken the camera straight from 22deg in the air-conditioned car to >40deg outside. By the time we were heading home the camera was working again, but I did not use it all afternoon. ebird list 1; ebird list 2
At the farms we noted a tidy list of 30 or so species which included Great Grey Shrike, lifer Turkestan Shrike (on ebird lists as Red-tailed Shrike) and Purple Heron, then we checked another PhEO site (no luck) and the nearby Egyptian Nightjar roosts where we came across 3-4 birds. This was another bird that I was keen to see, even though I had also seen one in Morocco in 2012.
The next morning, at 5am I was waiting at Etihad Plaza for my pickup for another rendezvous with Ted. He and British ex-pat Simon Lloyd had offered to take me on another sortie to some further-afield sites. Even though it was still dark, it was high 30s already, and the intense humidity had me sweating like a bastard, and even struggling to get air in my lungs. By the time Ted and Simon arrived, I was drenched and ready to jump into the aircon of the car, where we would all stay for much of the day. This time we headed into Dubai (Emirate, not city) to Al Qudra Lakes where Simon had been able to secure a survey permit to visit some pivot fields that normally have no public access. From dawn until around 10.30 we drove the perimeters of the huge circular irrigated fields (the pivots) and noted a bunch of nice birds including lifers Isabelline Wheatear and Namaqua Dove. Other highlights included Turkestan Shrike, Pied Wheatear, White-tailed Lapwing, Black-crowned Sparrow-lark and several Yellow Wagtail. ebird list
Al Qudra is a bit of an open zoo where various creatures have been released. It was still nice, though, to see this Arabian Oryx well, even if it is “plastic”.
A brief diversion on our way back to the Expo Lakes, artificial lakes created for World Expo of 2020. Simon picked up a distant large raptor cruising towards us. Even at range we could see the broad, scruffy wings and short tail and by the time it cruised almost overhead, it was clearly one of the small number of resident Lappet-faced Vultures, a great lifer to end the day’s birding on. ebird list
The following Friday was a public holiday for the Prophet’s Birthday. Ted and Simon were going to look for migrants in the gardens on the Abu Dhabi corniche, but that was a long taxi ride away so I hadn’t planned on birding at all. But after having a rare lie in and dithering a bit, I realised that I was faced with a very limited choice: twiddling my thumbs in the hotel room versus birding by bike. Craving the outdoors, unable to face yet more time in the confines of my hotel, I decided on the latter. Because of my equivocation I was a bit late starting, and it was already hot (you might have picked up a theme here…). I rode slowly around Yas again, exploring Yas Gateway Park, and heading to the northern mangroves. The park itself is very manicured, but the combination of grass and sprinklers is attractive to birds in the desert, as I have already noted! As I sat recovering from the heat under a shady tree I managed to find a pair of Tree Pipits, and a (migrant) European Roller swooping from nearby light-poles. However once again I failed again to find the “northern mangroves”, this time shoo-ed away from the area I though most likely, by an officious security guide who warned me the military might confiscate my camera because I had it pointed through the wire-mesh fence. Sigh.
On Sunday, now armed with gen from the UAE Birding WhatsApp group (thanks Nikos!) I finally found my way to the northern mangroves, this time by taxi (although most things in Abu Dhabi are expensive, taxis are one of the few things that are considerably cheaper than in Australia). The cab driver was incredulous when we pulled up next to the boarded up building site, and even alarmed that I intended to get out in 45 deg heat in the spot several km from anywhere. I got out in any case, and walked along an access track until I found a gap in the fence, across the rough area that is apparently a temporary carpark for kite-surfers, and found my way to the “beach”. It was nearly high tide, and I could bear the heat for no longer than half an hour, but in that time I observed a nice array of waders (Eurasian Oystercatcher, Greater and Lesser Sandplover, Kentish Plover, Terek Sandpiper) and terns (Gull-billed, Little and Caspian), adding a few species to my UAE list.
The follow weekend Ted again kindly suggested a sortie, this time west of Abu Dhabi with another local, Dez. Another early start, and another hot day, though mercifully not like the one previously when it was already uncomfortable at 5am. About 30min SW of Abu Dhabi we navigated our way along roads apparently leading nowhere through sandy, flat, featureless terrain, ending at Hameen Beach, a coastal stretch that is not at first sight very attractive, but does hold a certain isolated wild beauty. It is a popular fishing spot, but also great for migratory waders. The fishermen were out in force, their cars dotted along the straight stretch of breach as far as the eye could see.
Also out in force were local fishers of a different genus, after the same fare: a pair of Ospreys was hanging around at the eastern part of the beach we would see at least 5 of this gorgeous world-wide bird today.
Distantly, in the mangroves and flats on the long island across from the beach we could make out a few Greater Flamingo, Black-winged Stilts and 100s of Bar-tailed Godwits. Closer to us on the shoreline Sanderlings raced backwards and forwards, along with the other smaller waders such as Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover, Little Stint, Ruddy Turnstone, Terek Sandpiper and both Lesser and Greater Sand-plover.
As we drove further along the beach we could hear the a faint roar and then realised that this was coming from the incoming tide rushing over a bank about 100m away, creating a wide shallow waterfall, several hundred metres long. Grey Herons, and Western Reef Egrets patrolled the bank, fish rushing over with tide, easy pickings for these tall, elegant fishers. Five fabulous Crab-plovers joined them, while beyond them on the horizon an expanse of several hundred Greater Flamingo added to the small number we’d seen earlier.
And that was almost it for my birding in my first stint in Abu Dhabi. Two days later Nikki arrived from Adelaide so she too could check out the place and see where I was living. Although I effectively stopped birding while she was with me, I did, in fact have some notable sightings. At the Louvre as we exited the cafe, I noted a flock of around 30 terns on one of the concrete “islands”, later identifying these from my phone photos (and partly by process of elimination), as lifer White-cheeked Terns.
Then on our penultimate day, I was rather surprised Nikki suggested that we walk along the boardwalk at Jubail Mangroves. It was hot and bordering on unpleasant, and not the pleasant nature stroll I think she had in mind. But we saw crabs and egrets on the mudflats, and I even added two new birds for my UAE list: Common Kingfisher and Striated Heron, taking me to more than 100 species for the month – 101 to be precise, comprising 9 lifers and 45 UAE ticks. I will return in mid-November. I imagine the weather will be better for birding, even if migration is largely over for 2023.
