Dubai in February

We had a week's holiday in Dubai, to do sightseeing, but you have to do a bit of birding don't you !!!
Staying at the Sheraton Jumeirah Beach, one of the only hotels with some greenery, it was one of the first hotels built in Jumeirah Beach and is subsequently rather small compared to it's neighbours, only 9 stories, that's about 200 less than what's around it !!!
Still, it suited our purposes, was clean and tidy, and the food was good and plentiful, even if lager was £8 a pint.
Dubai is a fabulous place, skyscrapers like you've never seen, all shapes and sizes, and all brand new, there was nothing there but a village till 15 years ago. Now everything is the biggest or the best in the world.
We hired a car for 2 days to look for some further out sites, but more of that later.

A quick look round the hotel garden, we had House Crow, Hoopoe, and House Sparrow as well as the more exotics, Red Vented Bulbul, White Eared Bulbul, Common Myna and Indian Silverbill

 Hoopoe on the lawn

 Red vented Bulbuls trying out the loungers

 Indian Silverbill

 Whit Eared Bulbul which were quite tame

Common Myna were like starlings

Not bad for the first day, in the hotel garden, 3 lifers !! 

The next two days we took the 'Big Bus Tour' of the city to do some sightseeing, but keeping an eye out for what was about. I got Indian Roller and Red Wattled Lapwing on one roundabout and Black Francolin running out of the bushes alongside the bus !!

The highways are lined with palm trees and grass, taking 250 million gallons of water a day to keep green, the biggest desalination plants in the world !! 

The Jumeirah Palm is incredible and the Burg Al Arab spectacular, but at £880 a night, slightly out of our price bracket !! 

We gazed up at the Burg Kalifa and realised we'd up there on Tuesday, wow, it's very tall !!

Dubai and Emirates Malls have all the designer names and indoor ski slopes with black run skiing.

Part of the trip was a sail along the Dubai Creek where I add Steppe Gull, very like our Lesser Black Backs but lighter. Also Socotra Cormorant, like a cross between a Shag and a Cormorant.

Laughing and Collared Dove were common, as were White Wagtails in the city, Red Ringed Parakeets were about and any decent patch of water had Black Headed Gulls and Black Winged Stilts.

This was just off the bus and wandering about, what would we get when really tried with the car ????

That'll take another couple of posts !!