Hi From Oregon

[TerryDarc]

Hello All Dubai Naturalists,

My name is Terry and my wife and I are from Oregon on the west coast of the USA - between California and Washington on the pacific coast. Great place for birds, geology and my favorite subject, insects.

We love to travel and have spent a fair amount of time in Central and South America. Now that's a place for enjoying the beauty of nature! My sub-special interest is the Amazon rain forest. Really, if you haven't gone, go to Ecuador or Peru or even Colombia and you owe it to yourself to check out both the Amazon basin as well as the Galapagos. Absolutely wonderful! While you're there, spend some time on the Pacific slope which is quite different in species and terrific place for nature watching.

Fabulous, fabulous birding on both sides of the Andes. Send me a PM and I can recommend a couple specific ideas on those. My Blog from South America (http://www.terrydarc.wordpress.com).

But, to the topic of the day: my wife Chiyemi and I are going to Africa for our 40th wedding anniversary caravan safari of 42 days - never been- and will be passing through Dubai on Emirates air. We'll be there full days Monday, Oct. 12 and Tues. Oct. 13.

Here's how you can help: recommend a nature tour company or areas and times of day where we could visit for insects, nature in general, and, of course, birds. Personal admission: I'm more of an insecter/arthropoder than a birder but I enjoy the feathered feeders-on-insects a great deal.

If anyone is free and would like to go out either of those days, that would be fantastic - we could pay for taxi, for expenses or whatever you need.

This is a once in a lifetime trip for both of us and I really hope to meet some of you and am looking forward to the completely different environment of Dubai.
=Terry Doyle=
=Ashland, OR=

ps. This is a great bulletin board and all the contributors should be justly proud, esp. the pictures - wonderful!

[Sandman]

Hi Terry (& Chiyemi).

Oregon; have birded a fair bit in your state - excellent stuff.
Galapagos; done.
Off to Minas Gerais on a 12 day photosafari when you are visiting Dubai (7-19 Oct); otherwise I might have been your pilot on one of your legs (as long as it is on a B-777) :)

Hopefully some of the other chaps might be around; no nature tour companies around I'm afraid.

Glad you like our Forum.
Insects & stuff found here (http://www.uaebirding.com/uaephotos.html)

[reimerb]

Be sure to check out the Emirates Natural History Group (http://www.enhg.org) site. You can download a pdf copy of Insects of Eastern Arabia and there are a lot of insect articles in our journal, Tribulus. Unfortunately, those are working days so it will be tough for someone to get away to show you around. Which insect orders are you interested in?

[TerryDarc]

Well, I'm still hoping someone can recommend a way to see some of the natural sites in Dubai: places, times of day, etc. :confused:

Sandman,
I've seen your some of your gorgeous photography including the new "lifer", a beautiful Stonechat. Was wondering if you might be the one to fly us to Dubai but I guess not. We'll be back through Dubai, but just passing through Dec. 5, so you might still be at the com. Thanks.

Reimerb,
Thanks for the tip on the ENHG website. I will devote more attention to it in a bit and hope that someone on UAEBirding will have an idea about how to take a brief look at nature Dubai style.

As far as what orders of insecta I favor, I'm not partial: leps are fine but not the end of the discussion, as are beetles, dipterans, odonates, hymenoptera. Generally, it's gotta be big enough to see and, I hope, take pictures of.

Speaking of pictures, you can check out the link in my OP and the ever growing Flickr folders (http://www.flickr.com/photos/35742767@N04/sets/). They're not in Tommy Peterson's league but I hope entertaining.

-Terry-