Qatar

For birdwatchers, Qatar is the ‘Portland Bill’ or ‘Flamborough Head’ of the Arabian Gulf.

This relatively unbirded country juts out more than 100 miles into the Gulf from the Arabian landmass. Pointing northwards across the sea towards Iran, the Qatar Peninsula forms the middle corridor of the great Arabian Flyway for migrating wildlife. To Qatar’s south and west are the deserts of Arabia; to its east are the United Arab Emirates and the Asian Continent beyond.

Qatar’s interior landscape of jebel desert hosts a typical diversity of xerocoles, albeit in ever decreasing abundance. Natural coastal habitats of fine sand beaches, expansive salt mudflats and mangroves are augmented by man-made habitats such as grey-water lagoons, irrigated farmlands, date palm plantations and grassed rural parklands. Together, these habitats are a powerful magnet to migrating birds on their journies across the arid Peninsula – from herons to waders, birds of prey and passerines. The great majority of these hemispherical wanderers head north and east in the spring towards their Asian and Arctic summer breeding grounds. Autumn brings return passage; though because many species use different spring and autumn routes to cross the Gulf, the mix of spring and autumn species is different. Many wildfowl, waders and a few birds of prey take up winter residence. When the rains come, nomadic desert species can arrive suddenly in large numbers, only to disappear just as quickly when the grass turns greener and the deserts bloom elsewhere.

I was privileged to spend two years wielding a Canon 7D Mk 1 in the desert, chasing the ‘Golden Hour’ in the good company of Qatari citizens and expats from all over the world.

Qatar galleries

Taxonomic order and nomenclature are based on Birds of the Middle East (Second Edition. Richard Porter and Simon Aspinall. Published by Christopher Helm 2010).