10 May 2005
Local time: GMT +4
Approx noon temp: 30C
Weather: Sunny with a few scattered, light clouds

Just before I left for this trip I got a mail from Steve James, an old mate who now lives in the UAE, saying that there had been a huge “fall” of migrants in the emirates, and that - with just an afternoon available - my best bet would probably be to get to one of the city parks. I plumped for Safa Park - a well-known Dubai migrant trap - and had a very memorable four hours before it got too dark to see and I ran out of energy.

City parks around the world can be extremely good - as “any fule kno” - and especially so in the Gulf where access to the best sites is often by permit only and requires hiring a car (which can be a nerve-wracking experience when one considers that, as a foreigner, you’re to blame for any accidents simply because if you hadn’t come to the country and got in the way of the local lunatics and their Porsches an accident couldn’t have happened - I kid you not).

Safa Park is a migrant trap because in a country that is mostly desert, the park is a fairly large expanse of watered lawns and trees. It’s not on the scale of city parks like New York’s Central Park or London’s Hyde Park, but given that until it was developed in 1975 there was nothing there but sand it’s quite an achievement. It was built to provide Dubai’s residents (women and children especially) with a place to go in the late afternoon and early evening rather than give migrant bids a staging area and potential food-supply of course, but it’s hard not to believe that the region’s birds haven’t benefitted to some extent (except those few that need sand, naturally enough…)

The park is open everyday from 08:00 until 23:00, well-known to every taxi driver in Dubai (I haven’t actually asked every taxi driver, but it’s a safe bet I reckon), and there is a small entrance fee (currently 3 Dirhams - about 0.50GBP/80 US cents). The park is only open to women and children on Tuesdays. Within the park is a patrolled area that looks fantastic for migrants (loads of trees), but is closed to men - if you’re a male, don’t try to wander in and plead innocence, it won’t work and you risk seriously offending local cultural sensibilities…

Having said that, I’ve had my own sensibilities offended with some depressing experiences in parks in the Middle East. I’ll never forget the frustration and anger I felt watching grinning kids catching Red-backed and Southern Grey Shrikes in spring traps and seeing a Bee-eater tethered to a long string and being “flown” like a kite in Kuwait many years ago, and I was worried that the same might be repeated here. However, not only were the birds practically undisturbed, unusually Safa Park even has a small area designated as a “Birds Sanctuary”: whether that means that any migrants or breeding birds are given any formal protection there I don’t know, but it must be a step forward.

Another plus was that there were no kids to be seen! In fact, when I got to the Park at 14:00 (I went in at the main gate off the Al Zahayed Road) I was the only person there. Not surprising
perhaps given that the temperature and the scorching sun, but with only a few hours available and migrants to be found what can you do…

And Steve was right - there were migrants everywhere. Most of them were Red-backed Shrikes (about 40) and Hoopoes (again, about 40), but having just spent the better part of three days at Portland Bird Observatory in the UK hoping to see just one of either I’m not complaining - to be honest I was both overwhelmed and - well - a little over-excited.

Male Red-backed Shrike

I spent most of the afternoon just wandering around in circles scanning the lawns looking at Hoopoes, Tree Pipits, three Whinchats, a female Northern Wheatear (of all the species of wheatear that occur in the Gulf the only one I could find was a Northern - darn it!), and a superb pair of thunbergi Yellow Wagtail (a race wintering in C and S Africa and breeding in NE Europe).

Tree Pipit

thunbergi Yellow Wagtail

I also spent a great time walking in the “Birds Sanctuary” area where there were Redstarts, Spotted Flycatchers, and Purple Sunbirds (and, incidentally, where about 12 Hoopoes were dustbathing shortly before dusk - for photos go to Hoopoes Gallery). It’s also where a pair of Shikra are nesting: not officially on the UAE list these are presumed to be escaped birds, which at the time I didn’t know unfortunately…oh well, can’t find a first every trip (or any trip actually)…

Shikra

Male (left) and female (right) Redstart

Another good area (on this occasion anyway) was a boating lake at the far end of the park from where I entered. The fence around the lake was a great vantage point for both Red-backed Shrikes and a single co-operative Lesser Grey Shrike that were making hunting sorties onto the lawns. Nearby trees held a stunning Masked Shrike - but not the expected Isabellines or Southern Greys - and a couple of rather colourful Indian Rollers.

Lesser Grey Shrike

Male Masked Shrike

Indian Roller

The flower borders around the edge of this fence were frequented by a Sedge Warbler and a number of different subspecies of Willow Warblers. Most of the birds already mentioned were pretty straightforward to identify - but the WARBLERS: stone me, they’re a different matter. An Olivaceous Warbler flitting through an acacia-type of tree was not a problem, but how could I be sure that the Reed Warbler was a fuscus - and as for the Willow Warblers they were altogether more difficult.

The problems start when a mix of different subspecies (which don’t occur in the UK except perhaps rarely) are feeding within a couple of hundred metres of each other, and I’m grateful to Steve James for clarifying certain ID questions I had about them in an answer which I’ve abridged just below…

“Your Reed Warbler photo certainly shows a fuscus ‘eastern’ Reed Warbler, no problem about the ID. The warm, slightly rufous rump shows well. The eastern race is slightly darker on the upperparts than the birds in western Europe & your pic shows this well. Reed Warbler is an uncommon migrant & breeder (rare) here in the UAE.

Willow Warblers are a little trickier. As you know there are 3 races, which are reasonably well defined:

• trochilus the common form in western Europe, winters exclusively in Africa.
• acredula (sometimes called northern Willow Warbler) goes a long way east and is rare & regular in UK - in comparison with trochilus it looks large, bulky & greyer all over. It winters commonly in Africa, right down to southern Africa, but alsowinters in India. Presumably these Indian birds originate from theeastern edge of this races range. This race occurs in deciduous woodland just below the boreal belt in the north.
• yakutensis overlaps with acredula in the eastern breeding range, but is usually found slightly further south. It is smaller billed & often shows some streaking on the throat & upper breast. It occurs in Africa & India in winter.

I am not sure if trochilus occurs in the UAE . I have never seen one in spring looking like a bird you would see at eg Portland, ie very green & yellow! Of course, in autumn all the juvs are green & yellow making racial separation downright tricky, if not impossible in most cases, without being measured in the hand. We definitely get acredula and yakutensis here but there seems to be a cline in both size & plumage features.

The photo you mailed me titled “Willow/Chiff” is definitely not a Chiffchaff. I would say it is yakutensis, because of the small size & bill, streaking on the throat & slight streaking on upperbreast & generally dowdy appearance. It is nothing like a trochilus that you are used to seeing in spring. Your other picture shows a definite acredula. Look at the very greyish cast to the upperparts & I bet it was bigger than the other bird.

Regarding leg colour acredula & yakutensis quite commonly show reasonably dark legs, only rarely shown by trochilus in western Europe. Also the light is tricky here: it is so strong that leg colour may appear to change!”

Now that’s what I call helpful. In turn I can post some of the photographs I took to illustrate Steve’s comments - first the fuscus Reed Warbler, then a variety of Willows including a bird I photographed at Portland Bird Observatory in the UK.

fuscus (eastern) Reed Warbler

trochilus Willow Warbler, Portland Bird Observatory, UK, 02 May 2005

trochilus Willow Warbler, Portland Bird Observatory, UK, 02 May 2005

acredula Willow Warbler

acredula Willow Warbler

yakutensis Willow Warbler

yakutensis Willow Warbler

yakutensis Willow Warbler - a second, brighter individual

So, a really good afternoon’s birding in a slightly unusual place. It’s worth adding too that as the heat of the day wore off the Park did get quite full - it’s very popular with sporty-types playing football for instance - and it became much more difficult to get good vews of the shyer birds and almost impossible to point a camera anywhere without getting from very hard stares from the locals who thought perhaps I was taking photographs of them. I wasn’t, of course, but in the Gulf you really don’t want to take the risk of getting into an argument through a misunderstanding…

Just to finish off then, a few last photos of some common or intoduced species that - frankly - I’m only prepared to use a small amount of our precious bandwidth on…

(from top) Pied Myna, Common Myna, House Crow, Red-vented Bulbul

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:

Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax 1; Mallard Anas platyrhynchos 20+; Shikra Accipiter badius 1; Grey Francolin Francolinus pondicerianus 5-6; Moorhen Gallinula chloropus 1; Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus 2; Red-wattled Lapwing Hoplopterus indicus 2; Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos 1; Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus 4; Collared Dove Streptopelia decaocto 20+; Laughing Dove Streptopelia senegalensis 30+; Ring-necked Parakeet Psittacula krameri c)20; Pallid Swift Apus pallida 2; Bee-eater Merops apiaster 1; Indian Roller Coracias benghalensis 2; Hoopoe Upupa epops c)40; Crested Lark Galerida cristata 10 (outside the park); Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica 3; Tree Pipit Anthus trivialis 4-5; Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava thunbergi 2; Red-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus cafer 10; Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus 3-4; Whinchat Saxicola rubetra 3; Northern Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe 1f; Graceful Warbler Prinia gracilis 3; Sedge Warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenus 2; Reed Warbler Acrocephalus (scirpaceus) fuscus 1; Eastern Olivaceous Warbler Hippolais pallida 1; Willow Warbler Phylloscopus trochilus 6-10; Spotted Flycatcher Muscicapa striata 4; Purple Sunbird Nectarinia asiatica 6-8; Golden Oriole Oriolus oriolus 1m; Red-backed Shrike Lanius collurio c)40; Lesser Grey Shrike Lanius minor 1; Masked Shrike Lanius nubicus 1; House Crow Corvus splendens 150+; Pied Mynah Sturnus contra 4-5; Common Mynah Acridotheres tristis 10+; House Sparrow Passer domesticus 10+

All photographs © Charlie Moores