A Woodcock in the Park

Safa Park is famous for some rare migratory birds that appear just once in 20 years.

The only public park in Dubai to have several ponds (treated sewage and seepage water in the 1970s and '80s), Safa Park was considered a bird sanctuary by the Dubai Municipality. During the early 1990s, a modified pond came up, which is still called a bird sanctuary.

Migratory birds like ducks, herons, gulls and small waders flock to this pond. Once geese were also seen there.

Last December, I visited a restaurant inside the park. Behind the restaurant there were small plots covered with flowering plants and an ornamental variety of the sweet potato plant.

A migratory bird, bluethroat, besides several species of warblers and local sunbird, flocked the place. Suddenly, less than two metres from me, a large snipe-like bird broke through the potato plants.

It had nightjar-like plumage patterns and a long bill, which indicated that it was a Eurasian woodcock – the largest among the half a dozen snipes that pass through the Arabian Peninsula.

This woodcock is famous for making non-stop flights from its winter quarters in northern and central Asia or Russia and Siberia to Arabia.

During the last 30 years, there have been perhaps only 10 instances of this woodcock being seen in the UAE.