The other day a lady turned up with a snake-like creature well sealed in a clear plastic container. She was excited to know about this newly found ‘snake’.

I assured her it was nothing but a harmless lizard-like reptile.

There is a group of lizard-like reptiles called glass snake, glass lizard, limbless lizard, glass worm or amphisbaenid.

In the animal world parents are instinctively very protective of their eggs, chicks and babies.

Even our pet cats will aggressively defend their kittens if some unknown visitor in the house wants to handle the babies.

Recently I was on a birding trip to Safa Park, where two ponds have been declared bird sanctuaries – although more birds are found elsewhere in the park than in this area.

You are likely to get a shock if you see a lizard lying in an ambush position on your windshield.

Many people from the sub-continent are afraid of chipkili, or yellow-bellied house geckos – a type of lizard that is also common in our houses in Dubai.

Following a recent dust storm, I went to my car early in the morning and I could not believe my eyes.

A busy Dubai thoroughfare should be the last place you would expect to see a large bird like the Cattle Egret (bubulcus ibis).

But this large bird, a little over half a metre in length (a bird is measured from the tip of the bill to the tip of the tail), was seen a number of times during February along this road.

Often it was joined by a few more birds, especially around midday when there is a lull in the traffic flow.