Tweeters:


Spring has sprung here and elsewhere on the planet, as I discovered on still another trip over to Eurasia recently. A layover at Dubai (United Arab Emirates, also known as UAE) was a welcome addition to the usual Russia and South Korea route. I had just 24 hours in UAE, but was able to detect 106 species. Symbolic of a very different bird fauna than I was accustomed to was the showy GREEN BEE-EATER, birds being present at several sites:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/14115261 at N05/25443434353/in/photostream/

Up near the Oman border, Wamm Farms were terrific, imagine a 6-wheatear, 6-pipit, 4 (5)-shrike day, with many other desert specialties:

<http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S28434750>
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S28434750

The Russian Far East near Vladivostok was just hinting at spring, but locals said migration had already been underway since about March 10, about two weeks early. One of the exciting possibilities in late March is cranes, such as these northbound WHITE-NAPED CRANES:


https://www.flickr.com/photos/14115261 at N05/25443543783/in/photostream


But more impressive at this site was an amazing 49 northbound eagles, of 4 species, with WHITE-TAILED predictably being most numerous:


http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S28549377


Scott Atkinson

Lake Stevens

mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com