‘Wimpey Pits’, Dubai, UAE
16 January 2005.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a constitutional federation of seven emirates; Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah. The federation was formally established on 2 December 1971.

Dubai itself is a cosmopolitan society with an international lifestyle, yet with a culture deeply rooted in the Islamic traditions of Arabia. Since earliest times, Dubai has been a meeting place, bringing together the Bedouin of the desert interior with the pearl-diver, the merchant of the city with the sea-going fisherman.

Local time: GMT +4
Approx noon temp: 25C
Weather: Clear and Sunny with scattered, light cloud

There are several things worth knowing about Dubai:

1. When it’s raining and miserable in the UK, it will be warm and sunny in Dubai
2. When you’ve been working on a plane all night and are knackered, it will be warm and sunny in Dubai
3. When you think you’ve just about HAD ENOUGH, it will be warm and sunny in Dubai

Besides that, the birding is - sometimes - really good. And it’s warm and sunny…

It’s worth stressing all this, because I’d had less than an hour’s sleep by the time we arrived in Dubai at about 09:00 local time. Looking up at clear skies and perfect light there really didn’t seem time to waste though, and I’d been intrigued by reports on www.uaeinteract.com/nature/bird/twitch (a regularly updated “twitching” page on the UAE Interact website) which mentioned 2 Sociable Plovers (rapidly becoming one of the world’s most threatened shorebirds) on the “Dubai pivot fields” and a whole host of birds at the “Wimpey Pits” - two sites I hadn’t visited before…

Another thing worth knowing about Dubai? If you don’t know where an unmapped birding site is, don’t expect a taxi-driver - or his many friends that he calls up on his mobile - to know either. Mention birds in Dubai, and you’ll instantly be whisked to the Khor Dubai Bird Sanctuary: a great place, but not one where you can wander around. No, no matter how hard you protest, there are no other birds in Dubai, there are no other places to see birds in Dubai, and that’s that…

Fortunately I’d scribbled down a mobile number from the UAE website. Calling a stranger from a taxi cab in the middle of the desert isn’t my usual way of going about things, but I’m extremely grateful that a very patient and unperturbed Peter Hellyer was on the other end to give me directions. And then repeat them when I had to phone back because I hadn’t taken them down properly…maybe this “no sleep, I’m going birding” thing isn’t entirely sensible…

Despite Peter’s instructions I couldn’t find the Pivot Fields (so missed the Sociable Plovers, but did photograph a couple of obliging Little Green Bee-eaters while I looked), but I did find the Wimpey Pits. They weren’t entirely as I expected: yes, sand/gravel extraction pits, but, no, not situated in the middle of yet another of Dubai’s massive new developments (see below). The pits were just down out of sight from the tarmac road, and all the driver and I could see when he stopped the car was a faint ribbon of water surrounded by construction workers, buildings going up and rollers flattening the sand…The driver looked at me as if I’d already been in the sun too long, and almost refused to let me out of the cab. “There are no birds here”, he said almost pleadingly…

How wrong can you be? Once I’d tramped a couple of hundred metres over the sand I realised just how big the pits were - and how full of birds. In one corner were 5 Greater Flamingos, 3 Greylag Geese (the eastern race is a scarce visitor to the Emirates), and a few Great Cormorants, a mixed flock of ducks in the middle of the water included eight species, probably four White-winged (Black) Terns dipped and danced over patches of floating weed, and there were Black-necked and Little Grebes dotted everywhere.

White-winged (Black) Tern

On the muddy edges of the water were Black-winged Stilts, a few Little Stints, 2 Ruff and a Marsh Sandpiper. Patrolling the reedier margins of the pits were 4 Marsh Harriers (all juveniles/females, the males tending to winter further north), and a Spotted Eagle drifted in from somewhere and then drifted lazily away somewhere else.

Marsh Harrier

Ovehead a small group of Pallid Swifts were racing around. The eastern form, they looked remarkably scaly, and dark around the eyes. I managed to take some reasonable photos of them and some really excellent shots of empty sky where a Pallid Swift had just been…

When I wasn’t missing and cursing, I managed to get identifiable shots of a Little Swift too - a species which I didn’t know at the time is a a rarity with only around a dozen UAE records (the details of the sighting have been submitted to Emirates recorder Colin Richardson).

Pallid (upper) and Little Swift (lower)

Passserines were - as you’d expect - less plentiful, but still interesting. A couple of Graceful Warblers/Prinias trilled from the reeds. On the desert areas around the pits Crested Larks were relatively common, and - at dusk - a female Desert Wheatear appeared, flycatching off the Dubai equivalent of a “Mind the Bend” sign on a half-built roundabout. Most interestingly perhaps - and unexpectedly I thought, given what limited knowledge I had of the status of many of Dubai’s birds - were at least four Citrine Wagtails, one of them a rather lovely (in a strictly birdy sense) winter male.

Crested Lark (upper) and Citrine Wagtails (lower)

As the day wore on - and I wandered further around the pits - I disturbed more Crested Larks and a handful of Temminck’s Stints from the sand, and the numbers of swifts built up until there were about two hundred swirling around - great stuff. Amongst the swifts were low figures of Barn Swallows, a single Red-rumped Swallow (apparently a scarce bird in the UAE), and a single early Northern House Martin: the whole flock looking fantastic as a huge, red desert sun set behind it…

All in all, a great afternoon’s birding - capped when I almost stumbled into a group of 11 delicate and graceful White-tailed Plovers which were suddenly in front of me: too dark to photograph, but light enough to see them well…

Sadly though, the pits will probably not be so good for much longer. Dubai is undergoing rapid and unrestrained development, as it turns itself into a tourist capital and a shopping market on a par with the mind-numbingly gaudy Hong Kong Island. According to a dejected-sounding Peter Hellyer the pits will be “prettified” and remain as a feature in a new housing estate. Roll out the jet-skis then, and say goodbye to the birds…

Hey, the human race - dontcha just love it…

Access:
The easiest way to get to the Wimpey Pits (an unofficial name that taxi-drivers - at least my taxi-driver - won’t recognise) is to go down the Ras Al Khor road to the Dragon Mart (or China Mart, as the driver knew it as). At the far end of the mart there is a tarmac road to the right which leads to the water treatment plant. After about 1500m the road goes up a slight incline. On the left side of the road are three huge silver tanks, on the right - about 200m across the sand - are the gravel pits. Alternatively look for a huge building site with some water in the middle of it…

As an interesting footnote, Martin Cade of Portland Bird Observatory mailed me these two images of how the Pits looked when he was there in Feb 2003…maybe a “Spot the Difference” competiton right now would be a little easy?

Wimpey Pits, Feb 2003. Photos © Martin Cade

Little Green Bee-eater

 

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Left to right from top: Greylag Geese, Black-necked Grebes, Citrine Wagtail, Glossy Ibises, Graceful Warbler, Black-winged Stilts (with Black-headed Gull, Common Teal, and Pintail)

Trip List (note, numbers are in most cases approximate):

English and scientific names mainly from “Collins Bird Guide”, Mullarney K. and L. Svensson et al, Collins, 1999:
Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis 100+; Black-necked Grebe Podiceps nigricollis 37; Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo 6; Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis 100; Western Reef Heron Egretta gularis 1; Little Egret Egretta garzetta, 10; Grey Heron Ardea cinerea 10; Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus 3; Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber 5; Greylag Goose Anser anser 3; Wigeon Anas penelope 30 - 40; Gadwall Anas strepera 4; Common Teal Anas crecca 100+; Mallard Anas platyrhynchos 30+; Pintail Anas acuta >10; Shoveler Anas clypeata 30+; Pochard Aythya ferina 100+; Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula; 20+; Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus 4; Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga 1; Grey Francolin Francolinus pondicerianus 10; Moorhen Gallinula chloropus 10+; Coot Fulica atra 50+; Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus 20; Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus 1; Red-wattled Lapwing Hoplopterus indicus 10; White-tailed Plover Chettusia leucera 11; Little Stint Calidris minuta 10; Temminck’s Stint Calidris temminckii 2; Ruff Philomachus pugnax 2; Marsh Sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis 1; Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos 1; Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus 4 - 5; White-winged Black Tern Chlidonias leucopterus 4; Collared Dove Streptopelia decaocto 20+; Laughing Dove Streptopelia senegalensis 30+; Pallid Swift Apus pallida 100+; Little Swift Apus affinis 1; Little Green Bee-eater Merops orientalis cyanophrys 4; Crested Lark Galerida cristata 10; Sand Martin Riparia riparia >10; Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica 3 - 4; Red-rumped Swallow Hirundo daurica 1; House Martin Delichon urbicum 1; Richard’s Pipit Anthus noveaeseelandiae 1; Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava 2; Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola 4; White Wagtail Motacilla alba 5 - 6; White-cheeked Bulbul Pycnonotus leucogenys 10; (Bluethroat 1 probable); Desert Wheatear Oenanthe deserti 1f; Graceful Warbler Prinia gracilis 2; (Clamorous Reed Warbler 1 probable); Purple Sunbird Nectarinia asiatica 3; Common Myna Acridotheres tristis 10+; House Sparrow Passer domesticus 10+

All photos © Charlie Moores