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Birds found
on UAE's Coasts and Mudflats
 The
Arabian Gulf and its shallow saline lagoons and extensive mudflats serve
as important winter feeding grounds for millions of Arctic and central
Asian migrant shorebirds. One hundred and twenty six thousand wetland
birds were counted in January during the 1995 Asian Waterfowl Census,
including 41,000 wildfowl, 42,000 waders, 38,000 gulls and 4,200 terns,
so it is worthwhile spending some time watching the coasts and lagoons.
The sheltered tidal lagoon at Khor Dubai can hold about 12,000 birds
at any one time during the winter season, including hundreds of the
much sought-after species
broad-billed sandpiper and lesser
sand plover.
This site has been declared a Wildlife Sanctuary by Dubai's Crown Prince,
General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, whose interest in the
high numbers of greater
flamingos Phoenicopterus ruber occurring
throughout the year encouraged him to build a breeding island in the
centre of the lagoon. Other species of interest here are spotted
eagle Aquila clanga (late October
to March only), greater
sand plover and Pacific
golden plover Pluvialis fulva (September
to April).
 Khor
al Beidah, at Umm al Quwain is the most accessible site to see crab
plover in winter, when over 300 birds are
present at their high tide roost. Great knot is regular here too. One
of the world's largest colonies of Socotra
cormorants nests nearby in late autumn and
there are often flocks of several thousand flying offshore, visible
from the coastline. About 100 kms north-east of Dubai is Al Jazeerah
Khor, another network of lagoons. It is a good place to see terek
sandpiperXenus cinereus , while flocks
of slender-billed gull
Larus genei and Saunders'
little tern Sterna saundersi in winter,
best viewed from the high dunes which guard the bay. These scrub-covered
dunes usually host several species of Sylvia warbler in winter and spring,
including desert, orphean S.orpheus and Ménétries'
warblerS.mystacea and 'Siberian'
lesser whitethroat Sylvia curruca (blythi) .
Khor Kalba, about 12 kms south of Fujairah town, facing the Gulf of
Oman, is by far the most interesting site on the country's east coast.
Its unique stands of black mangrove Avicennia marina , are home
of the white-collared
kingfisher, generally rare and localised
in Arabia and here belonging to the distinctive race kalbaensis
, named after the site which shelters it. Socotra cormorant, sooty
gull,
bridled tern,
swift ternSterna bergii, lesser crested tern, white-cheeked
tern, pomarine
skua Stercorarius pomarinus and Arctic
skua Stercorarius parasiticus are
seasonally common. Less common, Audubon's (Persian) shearwater Puffinus
lherminieri (persicus ) and Wilson's storm-petrel Oceanites
oceanites are sometimes visible from the shoreline.
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