Arabian Adventure 26 - Finale

After another fruitless drive around the Resthouse we set off North. It's now Thursday 22nd. It was windy, VERY windy! It was whipping the sand up, making driving difficult in poor visibility. It was a Norther and Rob was driving straight into it. It was unrelenting and lasted a good couple of hours until we started to reach civilization again. We didn't see any Birds! A quiet evening at our Air B&B followed by a leisurely start Friday morning as we headed for the Border. Again it didn't go smoothly but we eventually made it through to Fujairah, Khor Kalba to be precise.

It took me back to December 2018 when I came here with Louise for a few days. We had a great time visiting various Sites along the East Coast. We had lunch by the Bridge and afterwards made our way towards it. Things had changed. There was now a booth were you could buy tickets to go over the bridge to the new Visitors Centre. We had to wait until 2pm so we had a look along the inlet...

Nothing was seen so we bought our tickets and started towards the Bridge. There were trams to take you across to the Centre but I suggested to Rob that it might be worth having a look from the middle of the Bridge as this was were I saw the Bird we were hoping for 8 years ago...

Can you guess, bearing in mind Robert's favorite Bird? We started to scan and I soon picked up a distant bird on a post...

"our Kingfisher"

Trams came and went regularly so no rush to get on one although there was no shade on the Bridge (we had our hats on). I concentrated on the West bank where I'd scored previously. I was conscious of time, as we had still to drive an hour back to Dubai and I wanted to have a look around the rest of the Reserve and the new Visitor Centre. As reported the last couple of days had been travel so I was hoping for some decent stuff here. Then...BINGO...

Chuffed to find it for him, in exactly the same area I'd seen it previously! Would it come closer?

Yes...

The (Arabian) Collared Kingfisher is an endangered Sub-species with an extremely restricted range. Namely UAE and  Oman around Filim. The Mangroves in this area are perfect for this Bird and are thankfully protected...

Having had our fill, we took the Tram to the Visitors Centre. Very impressive...

We had an hour looking around the area but saw little in the heat of the afternoon...

...before having a Coffee..in a Cafe with a view...

Birds were still available though. In fact we saw more form the Cafe than the Tram!

Indian Roller...

Red-tailed Shrike (Turkestan)...

Little Green Bee-eater...

On the way out we saw Pacific Golden Plover...

...plus Turnstone, Red-wattled Lapwing and Oystercatcher.

Last day tomorrow...