72 : Isabelline Wheatear

Isabelline Wheatear - Oenanthe isabellina

This is the fourth Wheatear species to appear on my site. Probably a function of my being on a flyway for several different species as well as having some habitat attractive to certain specialists. This bird seems to me a male Isabelline from the quite dark feathers from the lores (just in front of front corner of the eye) extending behind the eye in the eye stripe.  There could be confusion with a femail Northern Wheatear in Winter Plumage but this bird was "different" in my view from a Northern Wheatear. Paler, perhaps bigger....and also someone with me told me it was an Isabelline and not a female Northern.

This birds over Winters in the Gulf and Egypt and migrates up to Turkey, the Stans, that type of area. It is a common  bird of the treeless steppe, high plateaux and grassy slopes. A  Mongol bird !

Much better views obtained on March 4th below from original views and the picture at the top added from a sneaking trip to Warsan its on March 10th.

Isabelline Wheatear - Oenanthe isabellina

Pivot Fields Dubai

First seen February 25 2012

28 : Slender-billed Gull

Slender-billed Gull - Larus genei

I snapped this local gull today at Rhas Al-Khor. Rhas Al-Khor means the head of the creek in arabic. The Dubai creek ends in a brackish wetland with mangroves and lots of standing water and saltflats. Its an important site for migrant and breeding birds with a large flock of flamingos most of the year round, herons, raptors and waders. During the migration season and the Winter the place can teem with birds. The municipality has provided two hides with leica scopes and binoculars. It is a pleasant place to sit for a hour or two to see what's about.

Slender-billed gull breeds in the Persian gulf. This bird was feeding near a treated water out-flow into the creek next to one of the hides. A popular spot for herons who run about in the shallows catching small fish. I think slender-billed gulls are proper fish eating gulls as well. I never get excited by gulls - its a combination of their identification difficulties and habits. I am so ambivalent about gulls I could barely be bothered to sort out the new gulls on arrival in the Middle-East. They are at least fairly easy to photograph ! Perhaps that will change.

Slender-billed Gull - Larus genei
Rhas Al-Khor, Dubai
4 June 2011

27 : White-tailed Plover

White-tailed Plover - Vanellus leucurus

I thought I'd post a local bird tonight. I snapped this today at the Pivot fields just outside of Dubai. These are a smart member of the lapwing family which breeds in warm lattitudes across the Middle East and further East. They feed on large insects and beetles and like all lapwings and plovers are a ground nesting bird. I could not see a partner for this bird but it did mob me and make a circular alarm flight so I am sure there was breeding activity nearby. Red-wattled Lapwing breed at the site so White-tailed Plover could as well.

Below hopefully a slighly better more recent picture -

White-tailed Plover - Vanellus leucurus
Pivot Fields, Dubai
4 June 2011

15 : Pallid Harrier

Pallid Harrier - Circus macrourus

These happy shots were taken by my brother in law at the Pivot Fields in Dubai. I am utilising the "with the photographer" rule today - they record my tick and I was talking to the photographer at the time - actually out on a trip with them. I am not going to use this rule to post pictures on mass twitches taken by complete strangers. Mick has a long lense and I do not and this was a long lense job !

Its a happy series of pictures because they told me it was a Pallid Harrier and not a Montague's Harrier. It comes down to very fine detail with some of these birds and perhaps without a picture I would still be "at sea" as to the identification. The face pattern has a dark cheek patch which contrasts with the light ruff-collar. On a "Monties" this contrast is not there. Luckily it shows up well in this photo.

The Pivot Fields is a big nursery basically where they sell plants and also grow turf commercially which is watered by those great big wheeled contraptions that trundle around whole fields. Things need a lot of watering in the desert. As there is so much water lying and spraying about the place is a haven for birds on migration, overwintering and right now (late May) there are many pairs of other birds breeding. So its an artificial oasis and magnet for the realatively few birders who are in Dubai.

Mick and I watched this bird for quite a long time quatering the scrubby overgrown margins of the site and then circling overhead

The face pattern is distinct on this photo as well. Also the colouration underneath is very orange which makes it a juvenile bird according to everything I have looked at.

This is a bird of the Steppe whose heartland is Kazakhstan and the vast Asian interior. I would hazzard a guess that as it was early April 2010 (whenever Easter was) this young bird was on its way back up the Gulf from whereever it had overwintered. Reading up there is a huge raptor passage up the Eastern edge of the Black Sea hemmed in by the Pontic Alps. On the other side of those mountains a similar movement up the edge of the Caspian Sea. This was where this bird was heading - back to its Summer breeding grounds on the Steppe. One of just a few thousand Pallid Harriers on the move then and taking advantage of the oasis of the Pivot Fields to refuel on the move.

They hunt small mammals, birds and some insects and reptiles. Truly wonderful - a true wanderer and beautiful.

If I am ever going to progress seriously with this task one day I will have to post a picture of a Montague's Harrier (and they are very similar) and make a call the other way. That will be a nice jigsaw puzzle to sort out and probably like this bird it will be the photos that save me. I think I am learning as much by looking at photos and books as I go along with this. At least I now know what a Montagues Harrier does not look like - thats a start !

Pallid Harrier - Circus Macourus
April 2010 - Pivot Fields, Dubai

2 : Common Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper - Tringa hypaleucos

Probably one of my favourite waders. I think they might be every travelling birders' friend. A touchstone.

I live in Dubai now. I have been here about 2 and a half years. Its not everybody's cup of tea but if you take the politics out of Dubai you are left with an awful lot of birds. I saw this Common Sandpiper overwintering in the man made harbour next to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. In amongst the luxury yachts perched on the concrete of the Jetty he reminded what great travellers birds are. Common Sandpipers seem to turn up everywhere next to water - and especially at migration time. They are quite confiding but if you get too close they will set off on a big semi circular flight to get about 30 or 40 yards ahead or behind you. They fly low over the water with stiff wingbeats and show a white bar along the top edge of the flight feathers. They have a fairly characteristic bob or flick of the tail and pick small insects and larvae from rocks on river edges and shorelines. So here he was a degree or two North of tropics - I'd just bought my Mum and Dad and family a pizza for lunch and we were walking it off along the jetty. Queue "family man" dancing up and down the walkway trying to get a snap of this bird.

When I came back to birding as an adult I started looking for a "patch" to call my own. I lived in South London and worked in the City so I started to regulary walk along a stretch of river from Thamesmeade to Erith. Over time and with the passing of the seasons you could start to predict when Common Sandpipers would turn up. But where were they going or coming from ?

They nest by running water and you find them (if you are British birder) in the sorts of places where you also find Grey Wagtails and Dippers. For about 4 years we lived in the North West and the Lake District was a couple of hours away. We took a cottage one Witsen (Late May) and not far from us was a typical upland small river. So here is a Common Sandpiper - back where he or she "belongs". My kids were paddling nearby and the sun was out. A real jam sandwich with white bread English day. My guess was that there was a nest nearby in amongst the shingle, rocks and low bushes on the shore as there was a lot of disapearing off and furtiveness. Again a one to one with a bird and finally an idea of where they all go.This was the first time I ever saw a Common Sandpiper next to an upland stream.

The bird overwintering in Dubai could now be next to some river in upland Iran or Georgia or the Turkish mountains.

Common Sandpiper - you always turn up (predictably) when I least expect it and you always have a travellers story to tell.

Common Sandpiper - Tringa Hypaleucos
May 2007 - Lake District/December 2010 Jumeirah Beach Hotel Dubai
75 Points