A date with the desert-loving waders
Only a fortnight ago, I was exploring the vast charlands opposite Rajshahi Town in Bangladesh, formed by the mighty Padma River. Standing on those sandy islands, I was often reminded of the deserts of Dubai rather than a monsoon-rich subtropical country. The shifting dunes, sparse vegetation and open horizons looked strangely similar to Arabian landscapes.
Yet the differences are profound.
In Bangladesh, charlands are temporary creations of rivers that are being shaped, eroded and reborn every season. In Dubai, however, the desert stretches are ancient and enduring. These are interrupted only by gently shifting dunes and vast sabkha landscapes. The Arabic word sabkha refers to flat, saline desert terrain lying between coastal areas and dune country — landscapes marked by salt crusts, mudflats and high-salinity groundwater.
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Interestingly, many wetlands in the UAE occur within these sabkha zones.
When Rain Awakens the Desert
Earlier this year, the UAE experienced unusually heavy rainfall due to a passing global weather phenomenon. Temporary wetlands formed across several desert depressions and sabkha basins. Some of these appeared within a sheltered mosaic of dunes, valleys and sabkha habitats spread across nearly four square kilometres of area I have known intimately for over a decade.
I arrived in Dubai shortly after midnight on 3 May. By 6am the next morning, I was already out in the field, returning to one of my favourite birding destinations of the past several decades: Mushrif National Park, located within Dubai city limits and only a few kilometres from my daughter's residence.
The morning began auspiciously. A free-ranging male peafowl greeted me near the entrance, dancing gracefully in the soft dawn light.
But my real mission was far more unusual.
The Mystery of the Drongos of Dubai
For several years, a pair of Black Drongo has been visiting Mushrif Park during spring and early summer to breed which is an occurrence that remains something of a biological mystery.
The Black Drongo is naturally distributed from southern Pakistan eastward through the Indian subcontinent to Indonesia. Officially, the species is not known to occur west of Pakistan except as a rare vagrant. Yet since 2020, a pair has apparently been breeding regularly inside Mushrif Park.
No birder in the UAE has yet conclusively documented their nest.
That morning, tracing the nesting site became my principal objective. After nearly two frustrating hours of searching and conversations with park staff, I was preparing to leave without success. Then, just before reaching the exit gate, I noticed a drongo swooping elegantly through the air, catching winged insects above a parking area lined with magnificent old clumps of Ghaf trees — Prosopis cineraria that is one of the most iconic native trees of the Arabian desert.
Following the bird carefully, I was finally led to the nesting site.
The pair appeared to be reusing an old nest or rebuilding on a previous nesting platform nearly 20 feet above the ground. From their behaviour, I strongly suspected that incubation had already begun. The nest itself was impossible to inspect from below.
Between 2021 and 2024, I had even hired a crane to access earlier nests for egg measurements and ringing of chicks — a rare experience in the middle of Dubai City.
My first mission of the day had finally succeeded.
Where the Desert Turns Green
Later that morning, I drove toward the desert landscapes of Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve, some 75 km from the Mirdip area of Dubai. I was astonished to find several areas stillholding accumulated rainwater, forming temporary wetlands fringed with semi-aquatic vegetation.
For breeding wetland birds, these conditions are ideal.
In the scorching desert environment, shallow water and moist soil help cool eggs and chicks exposed to intense heat. These ephemeral wetlands become nurseries for desert-adapted waders.
My ultimate destination, however, was one of my favourite wildlife sites in the UAE — the Pivot Fields of Al Marmoom. This is an EBIRD hotspot.
The Miracle of the Pivot Fields
The Pivot Fields cover roughly 4.1 square kilometres of desert country surrounded by dunes rising six to seven metres high. Throughout the year, fodder grasses are cultivated here under massive pivot irrigation systems.
The water sustaining these green fields comes from treated sewage water from Dubai city — an extraordinary example of resource recycling in an arid country.
Daily irrigation creates permanently moist depressions and shallow wetlands around the lower parts of the fields. Two reservoirs further enhance water retention.
These conditions support immense populations of insects: grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, dragonflies, damselflies, bees and wasps. In turn, they attract birds in extraordinary numbers.Seeds, insects, worms, fish and aquatic invertebrates provide abundant food for resident and migratory birds alike. The result is an oasis of life in the middle of the desert.
Symphony of the Waders
As soon as I reached the first pivot field, about two kilometres from the main road, the air came alive with the calls of Collared Pratincole.
They circled high overhead, gracefully hunting insects alongside swallows and swifts. Their calls immediately reminded me of the Small Pratincole of Bangladesh's Padma charlands. The similarities in their breeding calls, courtship songs and alarm notes were striking.
Here in the UAE, the Collared Pratincole is a breeding migrant. In Bangladesh, the Small Pratincole is a resident species. Interestingly, Small Pratincole is only a rare vagrant in the UAE, while the Collared Pratincole has been recorded only occasionally in Bangladesh's riverine charlands.
The parallels between these two distant landscapes — the Padma charlands and the Dubai desert wetlands — felt deeply moving.
Ground Nesters of the Desert
The Pivot Fields are private areas not accessible to the general public. Owing to my earlier work with local conservation authorities and civic institutions in Dubai, I still enjoy access to these remarkable habitats.
Using a four-wheel-drive vehicle, I explored deeper sections of the pivots where barren sandy patches remained uncultivated due to salinity, flooding or excessive sand accumulation.
These open areas are favoured nesting grounds for species such as Red-wattled Lapwing (Lal- lotika Hot-ti-ti), Black-winged Stilt (Lal-pa Dhenga), Kentish Plover (Kentisher Jiria). Little Ringed Plover (Chhoto Jiria) and Pin-tailed Sandgrouse. Sandgrouse does not a Bangla name as it is not
present in our country.
Most of these birds are ground nesters. Rather than constructing elaborate nests, they simply scrape shallow depressions into the soil, sometimes decorating them with pebbles, salt flakes, dried mud or fragments of debris. Stilts often build slightly more elevated nests using dry grass, roots and feathers.
Of the eighteen pivot fields I explored, fourteen were accessible. Four contained active nests of pratincoles, lapwings and plovers, while two supported nesting stilts. Many other birds were already selecting territories and preparing nest sites.
Everywhere, the air vibrated with breeding calls.
Life Flourishing at 43 Degrees
Despite temperatures hovering around 43°C, the Pivot Fields were bursting with life.
Birds not engaged in nesting were busy hawking insects from the air or foraging across the wet ground. The desert seemed transformed into a living orchestra of wings and calls.
An additional reward came in the form of migratory waders gathered around the reservoirs and wetlands. I encountered flocks of Red-necked Phalaropes, Spotted Redshanks, Little and Temminck's Stints, Sandpipers, Ruff, some ducks and large numbers of swallows and swifts.
The richness of life was overwhelming.
Desert Giants and Flamingo Lakes
The day offered more than birds alone.
I encountered the Arabian Peninsula's iconic desert mammals:
•Arabian Oryx
•Sand Gazelle
•Arabian Gazelle
Among reptiles, I was delighted to observe a large spiny-tailed lizard — locally known as Dhab or Shanda in Bangladesh. It is the Spiny-tailed Lizard basking in the desert heat before feeding on still green looking desert plants as it is a pure vegetarian.
Inside the Al Marmoom Reserve, I also visited a heronry containing more than 150 nests of Western Cattle Egret along with several nests of Little Egret built on Arabian gum trees surrounding an island in the Houbara Breeding Forest Lake. They started first breeding during the beginning of covid when virtually the desert was devoid of people
And then came the final spectacle.
Nearly 500 Greater Flamingo stood feeding in shimmering desert waters enriched by treated freshwater inflows. When the flock suddenly took flight, the sky filled with sweeping pink formations reflected against the desert lakes.
Their flight was breathtaking.
It was the perfect ending to a remarkable reunion with the living deserts of Dubai where landscapes vastly different from the riverine charlands of Bangladesh, yet connected through birds, migration and the enduring resilience of nature.
