Birdwatching on 10/10/2018

Today I went to Doha for waders, in the morning the weather was hot but bearable and later at midday it became extremely hot and reached 43° Celsius. I spent some time looking at plants and photographing them testing an old lens of mine with a different camera. Little Tern numbers were very high 388 birds, the ever highest daily count so far!

Highlights of today:

23 Lesser Sand Plover, 388 Little Terns, Asian Desert Warbler, the first for to me for this autumn, and 80 Crab-Plovers.

Lesser Sand Plover Anarhynchus atrifrons
Lesser Sand Plover Anarhynchus atrifrons, surrounded by dunlins. 
Lesser Sand Plover Anarhynchus atrifrons
Two Lesser Sand Plovers Anarhynchus atrifrons with dunlins.
Lesser Sand Plover Anarhynchus atrifrons
Lesser Sand Plover Anarhynchus atrifrons with Kentish Plover behind.
Greater Sand Plover Anarhynchus leschenaultii
Greater Sand Plover Anarhynchus leschenaultii

The birds seen at each site are below:

Doha Spit:

Common Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula) 15, Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata) 1, Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica) 2, Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) 15, Dunlin (Calidris alpina) 56, Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia) 9, Slender-billed Gull (Chroicocephalus genei) 36, Heuglin’s Gull (Larus fuscus heuglini) 3, Steppe Gull (Larus fuscus barabensis) 43, Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia) 18, Sandwich Tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis) 8, Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) 1, Indian Reef Heron (Egretta gularis schistacea) 12.

Doha Reserve:

Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) 8, Lesser Sand Plover (Charadrius mongolus) 23, Greater Sand Plover (Charadrius leschenaultii) 26, Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) 27, Common Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula) 102, Broad-billed Sandpiper (Calidris falcinellus) 5, Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) 4, Sanderling (Calidris alba) 1, Dunlin (Calidris alpina) 400, Little Stint (Calidris minuta) 3, Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus) 1, Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia) 3, Common Redshank (Tringa totanus) 50, Crab-Plover (Dromas ardeola) 80, Slender-billed Gull (Chroicocephalus genei) 260, Heuglin’s Gull (Larus fuscus heuglini) 35, Little Tern (Sternula albifrons) 388, Gull-billed Tern (Gelochelidon nilotica) 4, Continental Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax sinensis) 4, Asian Desert Warbler (Sylvia nana) 1, Isabelline Wheatear (Oenanthe isabellina) 2.

A niceGlasswort Salicornia europaea
A nice growth of Glasswort Salicornia europaea