Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary
January 28, 2009
Yesterday we visited the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary. This is a wetlands bird sanctuary located at the “head of the creek.” The Creek is actually more like a bay or inlet shaped like a J. (For a map that will show you what I mean click here. Notice the compass indicator on the map. It is nearly impossible to get a north oriented map of the city which why I keep thinking the sun is rising in the south.)
The inland end of the Creek has mangrove trees (more like bushes) and a lagoon like setting. The walkway out to the viewing station is covered in palm leaves to form a blind so the birds don’t see us coming.
Flamingos are the most common bird to be seen here. I apologize for the poor, poor quality of my pictures, but what do you expect from a super cheapo camera? The older flamingos had bright pink legs. Most of their feathers were pale pink, but the underside of their wings were bright pink and black. Very beautiful. They squawked a lot. Almost sounded like frogs. We also saw what were either Western Reef Herons or Great White Egrets (they are very similar), Plovers, and Grey Herons. Surprisingly, I didn’t see any ducks or sea gulls.
The picture below gives you some idea of just how close to the city this is. In fact, it sort of is in the city. I’m not sure if there are official city limits drawn (I kinda doubt it.)
Living the Travel Channel 
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