UAE Trip Report - Day 1

As the UK’s birding envoy, as well as the weekly #BirdersTwitter broadcast, I am sometimes sent elsewhere to assist with matters. Birding is always the chosen medium, but the problems I face can be varied. Envoy visits to Essex have focussed on adult literacy and in Norfolk I represented the indigenous population, suffering so badly at the hands of second home owners. You know the sort - they walk dogs at Holkham Gap and shop in Waitrose.

More recently I was sent to Dubai to assist with their fledgling bird watching community, I was able to bond with the locals over a love of wildfowl, demonstrate the art of gentlemanly alcohol consumption and assist DDL on his patch. All very inspiring. Here is my, somewhat belated, after actions report following my visit to the United Arab Emirates at the end of January 2023.

Oryx - standard desert antelope

The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this report are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred, especially not DDL.

As envoy all travel arrangements were taken care of and I wafted about either side of the car journey and consumed beers like a gentleman at the airport. I was met in Dubai early morning by an eccentric cockney driver, who I made carry my bags and immediately take me out birding. It’s important that I fully understand the depth of the issue before I can start making amends. Standard envoy stuff really.

This is where things start to really kick off.

There is a man who lives in the desert. He dines on sand. He sleeps on sand and he knows the desert well. Better than you ever will. He also has a specially modified 4 x 4 which glides over the desert like an Oryx. His human name is Gary Burns. That’s Mr. Gary Burns to you - aka @Desertwildlifeme_

Left to right; driver, Jonny R, Gary Burns aka @Desertwildlifeme_

Straight off the plane, precious little sleep, still in long trousers and t-shirt and without any suncream on; I was whisked away, deep into the desert and with a mind-bending selection of birds.

In Gary's desert mobile - note that Gary let the driver sit in the back instead of waiting for us in the midday heat. That's the sort of gentleman he is.

For context, I’d happily watched Brambling on my bike-birding patch the day before - now I was Al Marmoom DCR and Al Qudra Pivots getting eyes full of:

Grey Francolin

Laughing Dove

Namaqua Dove

Pin-tailed Sandgrouse

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse

Spotted Sandgrouse

Sand Sandgrouse

Lappet-faced Vulture

Greater Spotted Eagle

Imperial Eagle

Bonelli’s Eagle

Indian Roller

Brown-necked Raven

Greater Hoopoe-Lark

Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark

Bimaculated Lark

Asian Dessert Warbler; and

Desert Wheatear.

It was all a bit much really.

Grey Francolin

Laughing Dove

Namaqua Dove

Pin-tailed Sandgrouse

Spotted Sandgrouse

Lappet-faced Vulture

Greater Spotted Eagle

Imperial Eagle

Indian Roller (and Cattle Egret friend - imagine the hybrids)

Greater Hoopoe-Lark

Black-crowned Sparrow-Lark

Asian Dessert Warbler

Desert Wheatear

On top of that we had the Middle Eastern ‘lilith’ race of Little Owl - which was probably the coolest thing I have ever seen:

Little Owls - Cyprus and Middle East race 'lilith' aka desert ghost owl aka shit off awesome

Big shoutout Desert Master Gary and be sure to follow him on the socials at @Desertwildlifeme_

At this point I was starting to suspect my driver might actually be DDL from the infamous #BirdersTwitter collective. I didn't want to seem rude or anything, so started mentioning Eastenders and doing cockney rhyming slang, to keep him relaxed.

All photographs © Jonny Rankin unless stolen - then they were taken by someone else.