Although currently a shadow of it's former glorious self, it seemed fitting that my last day's birding in the UAE (see Bye from Dubai...) should be spent at my former favourite haunt of Wamm Farms. The "Old Girl" didn't let me down, producing a fine selection of spring migrants as a grand send off. Full checklist here: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S53620494

As I’m sure many are aware by now, I’m sadly leaving the UAE on 15th March and returning (eventually) to the UK after over 9 years here. When I arrived, I wasn’t expecting to stay longer than 4 weeks and my ambitions were limited to seeing 20 or so potential lifers in that period. What I found (in addition to several new birds) was an exciting, vibrant and interesting country with a friendly and welcoming birding community. Never, not for a single minute, did I dream that this decidedly average birder would nearly achieve the feat of seeing 400 species in the country. Nor did I expect to be part of the exciting new frontier of UAE pelagic birding, to contribute to papers in ornithological journals, nor even to find one, never mind several, new birds for the country. All of these achievements due, in some way or other, to the people I have met and friends I have made who have helped me develop my birding skills, influenced my interests and ways of thinking – or just simply found me a bird. To all of you, thank you! I leave with many amazing memories; way too many to list here, though I hope this abridged trip down memory lane brings back some happy moments for you too. Apologies if I dredge up any traumatic dips…. • July 2009 - my first life bird ticked in the UAE (Grey Francolin (!), Dubai Pivot Fields). • August 2009 - my first UAE twitch – a Masked Booby at Kalba. • December 2009 - finding my first rare bird in the form of a Little Swift at Dubai Pivot Fields. • January 2010 – my first trip to Sila’a with Oscar, Simon & Graham Talbot. The first outing of the Fantastic Four unearthed a Redwing in the workers’ plantation! • January 2010 - camping with the same guys in Musandam the following weekend for Eversmann’s Redstart. Driving up to the Sayh plateau seemed an amazing adventure to the top of the world. • January 2010 – twitching Oscar’s Wilson’s Phalarope at Al Wathba Lake. Still the UAE’s biggest ever twitch – I think more than 10 birders turned up! • January 2010 – dashing down to AD to borrow Oscar’s kayak for a crazy solo twitch across to Lulu Island for Hypocolius. Jan 2010 was truly a landmark month; the time when I finally felt part of the UAE birding community and the start of some great friendships. • June 2010 – the first ever Kalba pelagic. Arranged by Graham and the first meeting with our now legendary skipper, Abdulla. Our crew of just 6 found a Flesh-footed Shearwater on our maiden voyage and started a trail of deep-sea discovery. • December 2010 –helping a couple of stranded Swedish birders see Hypocolius at Sila’a during National Day weekend whilst the Fantastic Three (as in Four minus one…) went on a mega rampage during the camping trip I’d dropped out of. And then spending the rest of the weekend chasing their finds. Whilst I managed to get the male Eversmann’s on Delma during the short time between ferries and the Taiga Flycatcher following a mad dash back to Sila’a off the ferry, it took a couple of years before I was to banish the heartache of Red-billed Tropicbird. The mental scars still haven’t fully healed, even now…. • January 2011 – Oscar & I find the first Cretzschmar’s Bunting for the country at Al Ankah. My first “first”! • October 2012 – successfully twitching a Himalayan Vulture in the DDCR and finding a record number of Lappet-faced Vultures (47) and the country’s first Cinereous Vulture the same morning. We followed up with Eurasian Griffons the following weekend during an unprecedented influx of vultures. • December 2012 – the Mesopotamian Crow twitch to Siniya Island that nearly ended in disappointment until we found the bird on the way back. We were to find the same bird at Khor al Beida the following month! • March 2013 – Graham & I track down the Great Stone-curlew at Khor Qirqishan. Cue high-fives, huge smug grins and a celebratory cup of tea… • October 2013 – finding the first Pheasant-tailed Jacana at Wamm, coupled with a Calandra Lark a few minutes later. • October 2014 – my first “Arabian first” as a mystery warbler with two wing bars at Mamzar turns out to be the first record of Large-billed Leaf Warbler on the peninsula. I was already on a high after picking up my first Green Warbler 20 minutes earlier! • October 2015 – finding the UAE’s first Collared Flycatcher at Mamzar – even if I stuffed up the ID at the first attempt... • March 2016 – after 3 years of fieldwork with Oscar and many kilometres walked in 30+ degree heat, finally discovering the first ever Egyptian Nightjar nest in the UAE and proving beyond doubt the species as a breeding resident. • November 2016 – twitching Peter’s amazing find of White-capped Bunting. Not forgetting the bizarre first failed attempt of the “ornithological survey” team arranged to look for it! • December 2016 – Jacky’s Little Bustard at Wamm and its amazing ability to hide in as little as 3” of grass. • November 2017 – finding and sound recording an odd pipit at Hamraniyah, eventually confirmed as Paddyfield Pipit by Oscar & Simon; the first recorded in Arabia. • May 2018 – the thrilling deep sea high-speed pursuit that led to the first live record of Leach’s Petrel in the UAE. • December 2018 – my last UAE tick (#396 on current taxonomy) and the finding of a (very, very distant) Great Crested Grebe in the far reaches of Dubai Creek that will be remembered more for the feat of finding it without the aid of the Hubble telescope than for the views themselves! I hope to return periodically, keeping in touch via this forum and continuing my role on the EBRC committee. This is more “See you later” than “Goodbye”….

Louise & I spent the weekend exploring the Liwa area this weekend and managed to enjoy some early spring migrants as well as the stunning dunes. Bird diversity was pretty low, but things picked up when we managed to find areas of short grass, including roadside verges. Stopping to check the verges & park at Madinat Zayed produced Song Thrush, Yellow Wagtail, Black Redstart and this stunning female Blue Rock Thrush.

Found this on my first visit to the park in a month. With yellowish lower mandible and greeny-olive upperparts, this looks better for Yellow-browed; unfortunately it called only once - and sounded more like a Hume's. It also responded to Hume's playback...

Called in for my first visit to the newly reopened Lagoon Hide at RAKWS around midday today more out of curiosity than expectation. I'd heard the light can make it very difficult to see things well and birds can often be distant from this hide - and so it was to prove... After about 15 minutes of disappointing looks at distant, milky waders, I panned left into the bay and immediately noticed what looked like an hunched juvenile Cormorant way in the distance. Dark upperparts and very white underneath, but too white. Gleaming white. It changed angle and the penny dropped - Great-crested Grebe. Common enough back in the UK, but very rare here (12 previous records, with the last, in 2004, being a corpse) and long overdue. It took ages to be certain that this WAS a grebe - not only was the heat haze causing distortion, but the bird was over 1.5km away! Tommy scrambled with his two apprentices and joined Louise & I in the hide, by which time I was sure I'd seen a pink bill during one of its brief moments of activity. Stewart soon followed and, after adding the distant white dot to his list, suggested that the bird might be closer from elsewhere on the creek. This was a great idea and we managed to catch the bird swimming (though still a good 1km distant) from the new creekside walkway at Al Jadaf. Views still weren't great though....

Simon & I teamed up for a 2-day camping trip to Sila & Delma with hopes high for the almost traditional unearthing of hidden gems during National Day weekend. Although bird numbers were disappointingly low, we did manage to extract some pretty decent finds, including a gem of unbelievable beauty from a very unexpected quarter.... Sila was extremely slow to catch fire, with a heavy dew dampening activity for the first hour or two after the fog lifted and it wasn't until we hit the harbour marsh that things picked up. Whilst getting our kit sorted for the usually-dreaded yomp around the marsh, we first picked up a tree full of Corn Buntings before scanning right to reveal a Pied Kingfisher some 200m away perched high above a tiny farm pool. Not far in to the farm, we picked up a couple of Bluethroats and a superbly showy Caspian Stonechat. At the back of the marsh we kicked out a couple of juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons, only the 4th record for the species at Sila. Not much else to get excited about for the rest of the morning, though a Common Quail, flushed from at our feet in the park, eventually showed itself in the open (at least for me). As we were leaving, we also had great views of a Common Starling, another species rarely recorded at Sila. Heading to catch the early evening ferry at Jebel Dhanna, we decided to kill some time by checking out the gardens at the Danat & Al Dhafra hotels. They initially appeared to hold the usual multitude of bulbuls & sparrows until my bins fell on a strange, apparently black & white bird that looked like a funny Hume's Wheatear feeding with sparrows in deep shade. Alerting Simon with an expletive-laden exclamation, it soon dawned what we were looking at as patches of purple revealed themselves as the bird changed angles. A Violet-backed (aka Amethyst) Starling! After feeding heavily on fallen dates, it flew into nearby palms before flying off westwards. Further investigation & research is required to determine if the bird is likely of wild origin, though there is one previous record of the species in the UAE from 2000. The generally quiet theme continued today on Delma, with very little of note, though we did succeed in locating at least half a dozen Hypocolius deep in a thick tangled tree, so deep that we could only estimate their number by their calls, with obscured views occasionally. Most of the action was centred on the many roundabouts, most of which held varying numbers of Water & Meadow Pipits, European Stonechats, Steppe Grey Shrikes, Skylarks and Corn Buntings. The park held a very late Red-backed Shrike, whilst the water treatment plant chipped in with both Masked Shrike and Red-breasted Flycatcher, with Curlew Sandpiper on the beds.