and this was the view from my very dusty hotel window on the 29th floor of the Conrad….construction cranes are every where and the city is booming….

sunrise over ras al khor wetland sanctuary with the city of Dubai as a backdrop and the World’s tallest building the Burj Khalifa arrowing skyward in the dawn light

first birds sitting on the fence outside the main entrance at the Mangrove Hide…the white cheeked bulbul

white cheeked bulbul displaying

The entrance to the mangrove hide….open at 7am…

fenced walkway to the hide, I guess to avoid spooking the birds..

well laid out hide if a bit small…

view from the mangrove hide with birds a fair distance away…

flamingos in flight with the ‘picture frame’ building in the background…

A grey heron welcomed us

As did an egret

and then a flamingo appeared with a pair of spoonbills just behind

Kentish plover

terns

Glossy Ibises

The Conrad Hotel where I was staying….visible from Ras Al Khor! With a raptor in the foreground

Probable greater spotted eagle

greater cormorant

an egret and a cormorant at loggerheads..

Western reef heron

…then the flamingos started getting active…here a bright pink one…

Some are minimally pink

and some are frankly a dull grey

here a more colourful one taking flight

warbler…

and on our way out of the mangrove hide, I saw a couple of little chicken like birds hopping on the ground…a grey francolin

moving on to the flamingo hide about a km away…

hundreds of flamingos

the flamingos were flying about

brilliantly red wings

fluffing tail feathers

Pink legs, pink beaks

eurasian curlew mixing it with the flamingos

Eurasian curlew

white wagtail

Mynahs

dubai is a colourful place…here spices in the spice souk

gold in the gold souk