Abu Dhabi at the end of the trip

Late Saturday afternoon, Andrew Bailey took me briefly to two local spots in Abu Dhabi to finish off my weekend trip.

One was the walkway across from the eastern Mangroves. There were birds to be added to my new UAE list here. One of these was a seemingly tame whimbrel standing just below us on the walkway.

whimbrel 1

However Andrew pointed out that because the concrete bunding was so steep the birds at the water's edge often can't see you so the bird might not have been particularly tame.

whimbrel 2

Most of the birding action though was not on the walkway but on the far side of the water channel in the mangroves. Ruddy turnstone and grey plover were late adds to the list.

ruddy turnstone

I also managed much better views of Egyptian goose as a pair landed opposite us. Strangely it was the only place I observed a western reef heron. A Caspian tern flew down the channel making the tenth type of tern observed on the trip.

male common redstart

Just before the visit to the eastern mangroves we spent a while in Mushrif Palace Gardens. This is essentially a very large cluster of high trees with some but not an ideal amount of ground cover too. 

The tranquility of the place was almost immediately disturbed by the loud squawks of Alexandrine parakeet. However when peace was restored, we found some good birds. We counted five common redstart scattered around the woods.

female common redstart

The only blackcap of the trip was a male seen drinking water under a bush.

Rufous bush robin

One of the last birds seen in Mushrif Palace Gardens was a rufous bush robin. Ironically it was one of the first birds seen at Wamm farms at the beginning of the weekend trip. I am not sure we saw it in between.

I am extremely grateful for Andrew as host. He certainly knows his area and his birds. I intend to visit UAE again. 

There is one more blog to come on the UAE trip mostly concerning terns but I still don't know when it will be published as some of the terns are still not fully identified.

However I have got some quite exciting blogs from Salalah lined up.

Below is the full list of  93 species seen over the weekend in UAE with the first location seen.

Species	Location
Egyptian Goose	Zakher Lake
Eurasian Wigeon	Zakher Lake
Grey Francolin	Sharjah University City
Sand Partridge	Wadi Tarabat
Little Grebe	Zakher Lake
Greater Flamingo	Zakher Lake
Great Cormorant	Dibba port
Socotra Cormorant	Fujairah Port Beach
Grey Heron	Khor Kalba (Alqurm Protected Area)
Great Egret	Zakher Lake
Western Reef-Heron	Eastern Mangrove Lagoon NP
Cattle Egret	Wamm Farms
Squacco Heron	Zakher Lake
Striated Heron	Khor Kalba (Alqurm Protected Area)
Glossy Ibis	Fujairah water ditch
Osprey	Wamm Farms
Egyptian Vulture	Wadi Tarabat
Common Moorhen	Fujairah water ditch
Eurasian Coot	Zakher Lake
Black-winged Stilt	Zakher Lake
Grey Plover	Eastern Mangrove Lagoon NP
Red-wattled Lapwing	Wamm Farms
Kentish Plover	Zakher Lake
Common Ringed Plover	Zakher Lake
Common Sandpiper	Zakher Lake
Green Sandpiper	Wamm Farms
Spotted Redshank	Zakher Lake
Common Greenshank	Eastern Mangrove Lagoon NP
Whimbrel	Eastern Mangrove Lagoon NP
Ruddy Turnstone	Eastern Mangrove Lagoon NP
Sanderling	Fujairah Port Beach
Little Stint	Zakher Lake
Common Snipe	Wamm Farms
Slender-billed Gull	Fujairah Port Beach
Sooty Gull	Fujairah Port Beach
Caspian Gull	Dibba port
Saunders's Tern	Fujairah Port Beach
Caspian Tern	Eastern Mangrove Lagoon NP
Whiskered Tern	Fujairah Port Beach
Roseate Tern	Fujairah Port Beach
Common Tern	Fujairah Port Beach
White-cheeked Tern	Fujairah Port Beach
Great Crested Tern	Dibba port
Sandwich Tern	Fujairah Port Beach
Lesser Crested Tern	Dibba port
Rock Dove	Wamm Farms
European Turtle-Dove	Wamm Farms
Eurasian Collared-Dove	Wamm Farms
Laughing Dove	Wamm Farms
Common Swift	Wamm Farms
Pallid Swift	Wamm Farms
Little Green Bee-eater	Kalba Bird of Prey Centre
Blue-cheeked Bee-eater	Wamm Farms
European Bee-eater	Kalba Bird of Prey Centre
European Roller	Wamm Farms
Indian Roller	Wamm Farms
Eurasian Hoopoe	Wamm Farms
Lesser Kestrel	Wamm Farms
Common Kestrel	Wamm Farms
Alexandrine Parakeet	Mushrif Palace Gardens
Ring-necked Parakeet	Sharjah University City
Turkestan Shrike	Wamm Farms
Daurian Shrike	Wamm Farms
House Crow	Wamm Farms
Desert Lark	Wadi Tarabat
Crested Lark	Wamm Farms
Sand Martin	Wamm Farms
Pale Crag Martin	Wamm Farms
Barn Swallow	Wamm Farms
Red-vented Bulbul	Sharjah University City
White-spectacled Bulbul	Kalba Bird of Prey Centre
White-eared Bulbul	Wamm Farms
Eastern Olivaceous Warbler	Wamm Farms
Upcher's Warbler	Wamm Farms
Clamorous Reed-Warbler	Zakher Lake
Graceful Prinia	Wamm Farms
Blackcap	Mushrif Palace Gardens
Spotted Flycatcher	Kalba Bird of Prey Centre
Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robin	Wamm Farms
Redstart	Jebel Hafit
Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush	Jebel Hafit
Whinchat	Wamm Farms
Hume's Wheatear	Wadi Tarabat
Northern Wheatear	Wamm Farms
Bank Myna	Wamm Farms
Common Myna	Wamm Farms
Asian Pied Starling	Sharjah University City
Superb Starling	Sharjah University City
Purple Sunbird	Wamm Farms
Striolated Bunting	Wadi Tarabat
Trumpeter Finch	Wadi Tarabat
House Sparrow	Wamm Farms
Indian Silverbill	Sharjah University City