Flamingos are like airplane passengers, they stop over in Dubai before returning to their traditional breeding grounds in Iran.
Over half the flamingo population, around 1,500 birds remain in Dubai over the summer. It is hoped that they can be encouraged to breed in the 620-hectare sanctuary which includes mud flats and mangrove lagoons.
Flamingos can be found in 2 locations in Dubai. Above at the Ras Al Khor Nature Reserve and can be viewed from 2 different hides.
Flamingo hide, off Oud Metha, and Mangrove hide, off Ras Al Khor Road, are open from 9am to 4pm for individuals or family groups.
And below at Al Qudra lakes, located in Seih Al Salam desert.
Al Qudra is a popular spot for camping and for dog walkers also.
As bizarre as it sounds to find Flamingos in the desert, finding a black swan, wandering and minding his own business was a bit of a surprise, especially as he was quite some distance from the other birds and the lakes.
Winter in Dubai is similar to summer in the UK except for the sand storms. It's summer now at time of posting and way too hot to be going out into the desert right now, I'm just about managing to walk Bob at 5am and again at 9pm.
Driving into the desert through a sandstorm, that cleared up about 30km inland.
My mother was visiting in December and we wanted to share with her the places we go on a regular basis as well as the usual tourist destinations, one expects to visit in Dubai.
She tried to climb a sand dune or two, but wasn't defeated, nor did she do it gracefully. She's 72 you know.
We saw cranes and a variety of other birds as well as in the distance a new lake that was home to quite a few flamingos, which took us by surprise.
Bob as usual loved his run out and swim in the lakes.
We visit the lakes in the desert every weekend when the weather is cool enough and I've started taking Bob out on a Tuesday morning, since I've stopped working, taking my camera, laptop and a picnic to spend a few hours in peace and quiet, writing up blog posts. In February and March we had rain so waterproofs and warm clothing were required.
There are numerous plants out in the desert, whilst there is a lot of water and irrigation systems in place, I can't wait to see what else springs into life after the recent rainfall and spend some time identifying the different plants that grow naturally out in the desert.
Bob is an intelligent dog, he knows when it's Friday morning, he recognises the fact that Peter and I are both at home, it's daylight and he knows the routine, recognises my beach flip flops and gets excited the moment the Bob bag comes out from behind the door and the car blanket he sits on is collected.
He loves swimming in the lakes and playing fetch with his ball and running off lead, but he hates his bath that follows his walk every week.
Every week without fail, I have to coax him round to the hosepipe, as soon as we get home, he knows he isn't allowed in the house until after his bath and he'll sit by the back door that we leave open and doesn't attempt to go in the house while I gather up the shampoo and his towel.
He thinks if he hides under the washing I won't bath him, but as usual, week in and week out, he is wrong.
Since I've returned to work, full time, Bob gets let out at 5.15am when I get up and is fed, he then returns to his bed while I go to work and when Peter gets ready to go to work, Bob takes himself outside to his kennel as he knows he is going to be shut out of the house during the day.
Bob is either on the doorstep with the cat at 4.15pm when I get home or pokes his head through the gap in the wall to say hi, when I pull up in the car.
He knows it's then food time, followed by a walk. At 9pm he takes himself off to bed and waits for his dental chew.
Saturdays confuse him, we get up later, on occasion Bob has had to hammer the bedroom door down to get our attention as he wants to go out for a wee and starts getting agitated around sunset, looking longingly at the kitchen door where his dog lead is hanging up, ready for his nightly walk.
Does your dog recognise your routine? Does he know when it's food, walk or bath time?
Well I'm back in Dubai after a trip to the UK, but only for 3 weeks then I'm off to South Africa to work with two volunteer projects with vulnerable children for 5 weeks.
I can't believe the difference in the weather, in Dubai, in the 3 weeks we were away. Although temps are still in the mid to high 30's it is noticeably different and the cold water tap actually doesn't run as hot and I was able to bathe the dog after our trip to the lakes in the desert today from the hose pipe rather than having to cool water down in buckets in the shade.
Before we left Dubai we were moved on from our usual Friday morning watering hole where we met weekly to socialise the dogs and ourselves as it was private property. We didn't manage getting up in time on Friday to meet the usual crowd at the new destination, but did manage it yesterday. The other people there weren't in a group and although friendly when we said hello as we walked past you could tell they weren't there for socialising, so we walked around the new lake, which is something we wouldn't have been able to do 3 weeks ago in the heat and humidity.
This part of the desert is covered with trees, the lakes are much bigger and the water is pumped through filters to keep them clean, there is an abundance of wildlife and in the centre of the picture although not very clear is a crane that was circling around (I must remember to take my grown up camera with me next week as well as my iPhone)
I was rather disappointed to find 3 dog poo bags that people had obviously gone to the trouble of cleaning up after their dog then just dumped them by the trees, the cycle centre is less than 2 kms away and has bins. There was also a lot of rubbish, plastic cups, drink bottles and food waste and wrappers, but I'm assuming this has been left behind by people celebrating Eid as there was also lots of ash piles from bonfires which I very much doubt were lit by the dog walkers so early in the morning. Teams of workers were out picking up the litter and thanked me for the carrier bag full of rubbish I gave them that I'd collected as we walked around the lake.
It's good to be back at the lakes and lovely to have both the cat and dog home after their holiday to the cattery and kennels while we were away and it doesn't appear that their adventure has caused them any issues.
Well last weeks homemade dog biscuits were a success and went down very well with the Friday morning group meet up at the lakes in the desert.
Bob has only recently learnt to fetch a ball, when we lived in South Africa Bob didn't socialise with other dogs on a regular basis, but he did have many more walks than he does now in Dubai, mainly due to the heat and the tarmac being too hot for his paws.
Bob was a rescue and had been badly treated, he was skin and bones when we first brought him home, but very trusting and loving. The first time we picked up a stick to throw for him, he yelped and ran, he'd obviously been hit. He loved chasing after a ball, but that was it, he never brought it back.
Bob had two favourite toys, a rope and a rugby ball, sadly when we relocated the gardener thought these were rubbish and threw them in the bin, I recovered the rope but Bob was a little lost without his ball, various attempts at replacing it haven't been successful.
We found a lovely group of people who meet up early on a Friday as the man made lakes 60 kms out in the desert, Bob has never been a fan of water, but with his desire to play with the other dogs he's learnt to embrace it, but not the deep bits and has discovered a passion for tennis balls and not only runs after it, but will bring it back and drop at the feet of anyone who asks him for it.
As he's not a fan of swimming he gets upset if his ball is out of his reach, but has two doggie friends who will retrieve the ball for him. Both Buddy and Del Boy (named due to only have 3 legs) will swim out and drop the ball back with Bob.
Poor Buddy had his own ball this week and kept fetching it and bringing it back to Bob, but Bob wasn't interested so Buddy just sat there looking a little confused.
Bob had to have his annual shots this week and protection against kennel cough ready for his 'Bobaday' next month, interesting fact that the kennel cough must be given between 2 -3 weeks prior to kennelling. He's not been very well, 24 hours after the injection I was giving Bob a bath and he yelped, I had no idea as to why. When I came to dry him with a towel, Bob actually snapped at me, biting my hand, thankfully the towel took the brunt of the bite, Bob then whimpered and slunk off. I coaxed him back inside, where he spent the rest of the day on his sofa bed, late afternoon he allowed me near him to have a look at the injection site, but snapped at me again. He's been eating and drinking normally and I've been reassured this is a natural response to annual shots and not a reaction, so I'm just leaving him be now and he's chosen to follow me around from room to room.
I made some dog pulls this week, they were easy and cheap to make and Bob has been having some fun with them after his weekend of feeling sorry for himself.
Tennis ball
Old T shirt
Scissors
Knitting needle
Make a small hole in top and bottom of ball
Cut t shirt into strips
Use knitting needle to push 3 stripes of material though the ball
Knot at one end
Plait the 3 lengths and knot at the end
Play
This project took 5 mins to make and cost AED 3/52p per ball
The stray kittens are getting friendlier. The white one is just like her mother, who we haven't seen for a few weeks, she hisses at me, when I go near, but this week she let me stroke her when I fed her. The grey one wasn't quite as brave and although she would eat when I was nearby, any movement from me and she was off. The black kitten refused to come any where near me.
I don't feed the kittens on a regular basis, this is the first time I've seen them in day light. I have to go out at night to collect our cat, armed with a torch and a tin of biscuits to coax her back in and only if the kittens are around do I leave them some food. The other evening I was watering the garden and filling up the water trays we leave out for the stray cats and birds, when I saw the kittens so went inside to fetch them some food. Our cat, Pushkins, gets on well with the kittens, as in she accepts them and sat by me just watching them eat, before following me back inside.
I spent 3 weeks in Canada, which meant I left hubby with the cat and dog for 3 weeks.
Hubby was working everyday which meant the cat and dog were on their own in the house on their own from 7am till 5pm, Sunday till Thursday.
They bonded, this is a photo hubby sent me in the first week of the pair of them.
The cat hasn't had a good week, it started with a poorly eye, it must have been irritating her as she would come to me for it to be wiped. It cleared up in around 3 days and there seems to be no lasting effect.
It's also the middle of summer and during daylight hours it is far too hot to let them outside without supervision, so our once outdoor pets have now adapted to be indoors all day and they seem to be coping very well.
Pushkins sneaked out the door on Saturday when I put the shopping away, it was 2 hours later before I realised she wasn't in the house. I felt so guilty and I nearly passed out from the heat looking for her. The Cat suffered with heat exhaustion on friday. We keep her inside during the day but sometimes she sneaks out and has been outside for 2 hours she has been licking her self to keep cool. Cats sweat through their paws. She was too exhausted when I found her to walk and I've brought her back and she let me put her in a bowl of luke warm water to cool her down and I wrapped her in a damp towel. I've never seen a cat pant like this before. She made a full recovery and is still trying to sneak out in the midday sun.
We do of course take Bob out for walks every evening and do early morning trips to the lakes in the desert.
He is getting braver with the water now, up till now he's relied on another dog bringing his ball back to him as you can see from the first video he just won't go out of his depth.
This is Bob the day after in the desert, he seems to have overcome his fear very quickly.
They also like to spend early evenings on the doorstep, getting some fresh air.
Every time I see this stray I wonder how she is managing to live in this heat. There are mice in the garden I assume she eats and I leave water out for her and the birds, but I can't take her in, she's too wild.
