Sunday 6 October 2013

August UAE Round Up

A very brief round up for the UAE, as I was in Kenya for most of this month.
The morning was spent at the very hot and sweaty Fujairah National Dairy Farm: an early Common Swift; 80 Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters; a Lesser Grey; 2 Turkestan and a Woodchat Shrike, together with 6 Rose-coloured Starlings were the pick of the early returning migrants.

Woodchat Shrikes are quite rare in the 
autumn in the UAE.
 Is it because they come through early 
& observers are away in the summer?

A young Rose coloured Starling

An offshore trip on 10th off Kalba, was amazing for both the numbers and variety of species recorded. A really good day out.

Many Persian Shearwaters were in heavy moult 
& really scruffy looking!
A nearly bald one!

Huge flocks of Persian Shearwaters totalled 1,850 birds. 21 Wilson's Petrels; 2 Arctic and 2 (first summer) Long-tailed Skuas.
 17 Brown Noddy (including some recently fledged young birds); 3,500 Bridled Terns; 3 Sooty Terns and 25 early returning Red-necked Phalaropes.

Adult Brown Noddy.
.
Brown Noddy in the thick of the action!

A recently fledged Sooty Tern.

Red-necked Phalarope

1 comment: