February continues apace with another life tick in the
glorious form of a Pharaoh Eagle-Owl. Actually, 2 if you don’t mind.
The eBird invigilator for Dubai, Tommy Pederson (he of
www.uaebirding.com fame), took me to a
reliable spot to the south of the city, close to the Green Community. The first
owl flushed before we saw it, but a second allowed me to take a couple of
shots. One step closer and she (might have been he. It felt like a she, though
I have no way of knowing) flushed too.
As we moved further along, the birds flushed again. Tommy felt that they were much warier than he had
seen them before, so we backed out and left them alone.
Tommy dropped me at Safa Park for an evening hour with the common park birds of Dubai. Hoopoes featured of course as they
picked through the lawns and I nearly got the Indian Roller shot that I have been longing for since I first set
eyes on one in flight.
The park is undergoing a lot of work. Whether this
work will make the park better, or the city bigger was unclear, but the northern
edge and the east end have been dug over and fenced off. One of the fenced bodies
of water has been drained and only very few ducks remained. One curious
individual was a Mandarin Duck. Did
there used to be an exotic collection there?
Safa Park is within easy reach of Downtown
Dubai and about 10 mins in a cab from the Emirates Mall on Sheik Zayed Road,
the main drag through downtown. In the perimeter railings, there are 4 gates
which open 08.00 ‘til 23.00 (currently, the gate halfway along the north edge
and the gate at the east end are not useable). There is a 3 Dirham entry fee. On Tuesdays,
the park is restricted to ladies and children only. A fenced and hedged section
at the west end of the park is reserved full-time for ladies and children.
For a more detailed description of the park visit the
dedicated Middle East Page, where there are four posts with bird lists.
Bird list for Safa Park, Feb ‘15;
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