United Arab Emirates ~ Feb' 16

Flew from Heathrow to Dubai, 6th to the 13th February with the base being in Fujairah on the east coast.

The main targets were the larger gulls on Kalba Beach, in the afternoons when the fishermen pulled the nets up the beach, but there was two slight problems with this plan ...

#1 .. The fishermen weren't fishing !!

#2 .. No large gulls came to feed !!

So some previous sites from last year were tried again, along with some new ones with varying degrees of success ...

Wamm Farm, then tried new sites along the east coast down to Kalba.

Al Riffa in the north near the Oman border, down the west coast for the falling tide at Khor al-Beida.

Jebel Hafit and Green Mubazzarah.

The mountains from Kalba to Hatta, trying many tracks off the main roads and off the Huwaylat Road, best spot was Wadi al Helo ...

Common Myna ~ Green Mubazzarah

Common Myna ~ Green Mubazzarah

Red-wattled Lapwing ~ Green Mubazzarah

Lesser Crested Tern ~ Kalba Beach

Whiskered Tern ~ Kalba Beach

Swift Tern ~ Kalba Beach

Slender-billed Gull ~ Kalba Beach

Slender-billed Gull ~ Kalba Beach

Western Reef Egret ~ Kalba Beach

Sooty Gull ~ Kalba Beach

Sooty Gull ~ Kalba Beach

Whimbrel ~ Kalba Beach

Purple Sunbird ~ Wamm Farm

Desert Lark ~ Wadi al-Helo

Blue Rock Thrush ~ Wadi al-Helo

Isabelline Wheatear ~ Al Rams

Hooded Wheatear ~ Jebel Hafit

Hume's Wheatear ~ Wadi al-Helo

Hume's Wheatear ~ Wadi al-Helo

This next image was taken just after the sun dropped giving a soft light, its a big crop but its my ...

' Image of the Trip '

Hume's Wheatear ~ Wadi al-Helo

A good trip but finding targets to photograph sure was hard work ..