Saturday 28th January:
Thanks for the comments/emojis guys.
Stayed fairly local to Abu Dhabi today as I had hopefully organised an early-ish check-in to another hotel to be within walking distance of this evening's venue. So I started early at the Eastern Lagoon Mangroves, parking at the free public parking just west of the Anantara Eastern Mangroves Resort and firstly walking east in front of the buildings before backtracking & hopping the car from parking area to parking area just off the main road and walking a bit in each direction and viewing from the platforms. Almost the first bird was a Striated Heron on the rocks that make up the man-made banks of the creek with a Common Sandpiper near-by. It was a little quiet but the edges of the mangroves and the wooden pilings held a few each of Great Cormorants, Great, Little & Reef Egrets, Black-headed & Slender-billed Gulls, Redshank, Greenshank and Whimbrel; a Pacific Golden Plover on a small area of exposed mud; a Marsh Harrier flew over the mangroves disturbing flocks of Common Myna; the resort and the small park at the eastern end had the usual selection of Collared & Laughing Doves, Feral Pigeon, Hoopoe, House Crow, House Sparrow, Sunbirds and White Wagtails.
I then headed inland to Al Wathba Wetland Reserve - an impressive sight / site in the desert as it is a large area of water and a scope is certainly required. I first set up under the shelter near the visitor area and then slowly wandered the longer path circuit stopping off for further scanning at the blinds/hides/viewpoints. It was the hottest day of my trip so far (more like what I had expected) so I thought it may be a bit quiet but there was definitely plenty around. In the water there were hundreds, if not thousands, of Flamingos, with hundreds of waders on the edge of the mud and on the sandbanks, including: Red-wattled Lapwing, Kentish Plover, Little Stint, Whimbrel, Common Sandpiper, Redshank, Greenshank and Black-winged Stilt - new for the trip were a few each of Common Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper and Wood Sandpiper plus a small, distant flock of Avocet. There were also significant number of ducks: a large flock of Teal on a sandbank, a few Mallard, a group of feeding Northern Shoveler and four Common Shelduck.
It was not all waders and waterfowl - on the path away from the water I flushed 2 Grey Francolin, there were Common Swift overhead and some low-flying Barn Swallows, a Green Bee-eater sallied out from the boundary fence and noisy White-eared Bulbuls called from the scrub A Black-winged Kite flew in low and forced another, previously unseen one, out of a tree on the neighbouring land and they flew around interacting together for a while before disappearing behind the trees. At the end of the site furthest from the entrance, I had a brief golden period which started with a tiny Namaqua Dove flitting low along the path in front of me and a Graceful Prinia calling from the top of bamboo stems. Then a small warbler few out of a bush and dived deep into the lower canopy of some dense scrub but with patience I got good views of a Desert Lesser Whitethroat *. On the walk back toward where the car was parked a shrike sat up obligingly and showed the warmer brown tones on the head of a Turkestan Shrike *.
With that it was time to head to my accommodation on Yas Island and this evening's highlight at Etihad Park. A much better class of hotel than I usually use and certainly beyond my normal price bracket - I've never experienced valet parking before and it was a little unnerving seeing someone drive off in my hire car!
Photo: The Eastern Mangroves with Abu Dhabi beyond.