Ah, Wimpey Pits, a real tragedy. Let me tell you the story, are you sitting comfortably? then I'll begin.
Years ago, when Dubai's roads were first being built, the company Wimpey Construction had one of the contracts. They sourced a lot of the material locally, some 10km out into the desert, and left behind a bloody big hole. Some years later a sewage treatment plant was built nearby, on a slight rise. Now, most of Dubai's water comes from desalination plants. You'd think that once you'd gone to the expense of desalinating water for human consumption (the second most expensive industrial process currently undertaken on a large scale I believe), you'd just clean up the sewage and recycle wouldn't you? Well, not in Dubai. The idea of reusing sewage water seems to give the locals the willies, so they only use it for irrigation, and the rest they dump. "Oh look, there's a handy hole, lets put it in Wimpey Pits". By 1999 birds had started wintering in some numbers, with quite a few breeding in the adjacent reedbeds. A few of the highlights:
Black-necked Grebe ~ 100+ most winters
Heron spp ~ Little Bittern most years, ditto with Squacco Heron, all other WP Herons regular (including W Reef Heron & Little Green Heron). Intermediate Egret about 2km away at Dubai Pivot Fields 2 years ago.
Ducks ~ Just about every WP species represented, many in some numbers. (Including 2 Marbled Teal last year)
Geese ~ Greylag and White-Fronts most years recently
Swans ~ Mute and Whoopers this year
Raptors ~ 4 spp Harriers recorded, as well as GS Eagle, LL Buzzard.
Waders ~ White-tailed Plover (~15 breeding pairs), Most WP species recorded including rarities such as Pec Sand, Little & Collared Pratincole, Caspian Plover, European Golden Plover, Jack Snipe, Pintail Snipe.
Gulls & Terns ~ Regular flocks of Whiskered & WW Black Tern, as well as occasional GBH Gulls, Bridled Tern, Saunders Tern.
Rails ~ Spotted Crake annual (up to 4 together some years), Baillon's Crake, Purple Gallinule, WB Waterhen, Red-knobbed Coot have all been seen in recent years.
Others ~ Demoiselle Crane, Great Reed Warbler (annual), Hume's Lesser Whitethroat, Bluethroat (including magna), Menetries Warbler (regular), Moustached Warbler, Little Swift, Pacific Swift, etc etc.
Naturally, with such a magnificent resource developing on their doorstep the Dubai authorities looked no further when it came time to plan the expansion of the city. "I know, we'll fill in that unsightly lush green oasis just outside town, and plonk f******g China Town on top!". I was, and to some extent remain, speechless. If I think about it too hard I know I'll belt somebody, so I'll just shut up now.
