Red-throated Pipit
Doha, Qatar
Red-throated Pipit
Anthus cervinus
In fact as there was very little shallow water or exposed mud there were not many birds, except a few locally-breeding
Kentish Plover
and two rather stunning migrant breeding-plumaged
Red-throated Pipits
(far easier to identify than an autumn bird of course!). Somewhat surprisingly there were no hirundines or swifts over the water at all either.
However alongside one edge of this water we eventually stumbled upon a series of shallow, muddy creeks several hundred metres long which immediately looked to be much better birding habitat. Evidently the local hunters agreed, as the path was littered with spent shotgun cartridges - which may explain why such a large body of water in a desert was virtually empty of birds of course…
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