I doubt anybody would volunteer to pass through an area where the smell is so pungent and nauseating it causes headaches.

However, my love for birds and some semi-official duties related to monitoring bird flu takes me to the Dubai Municipality sewage treatment plant near International City.

The most horrible place in the plant is the vast field where the treated sewage lies – a semi-solid sludge which, when dry, turns into first-class organic fertiliser, locally called samad.

One of the long distance migratory birds that visits the UAE is the ruff (Philomachus pugnax).

Its natural range extends from northern Europe and Russia – mostly in the Arctic tundra.

But it migrates in great numbers to southern and western Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. We see ruffs around Dubai from July onwards, when we experience the hottest days of the year. One wonders how these – and other transiting birds – cope with the unbearable heat of the UAE summer.

One of the rarest plants in the UAE is the devil bean, also known as the rattlebox or rattlepod, and botanically known as Crotalaria retusa.

Its common name, rattlepod, comes from the rattling sound produced by the seeds, which get loosened inside the pod and rattle in the wind.

If you visit the Hajar mountains from spring to the end of summer you will find the air filled with incessant calls.

The greatest noise maker of our region is the Arabian cicada.

When leaving a perch its wing beats produce a single buzz, giving a clue that it is taking flight.

On a hot, humid day last month, as I was getting out of the office parking lot in Creek Park, I saw a large bird take flight with loud raucous calls.

It was a red-wattled lapwing, and it was trying to wet its belly and soak its breast feathers in a tiny puddle formed by the drip irrigation to carry the water to its eggs or newly-hatched chicks.

I followed the bird until I reached a sandy and barren piece of land strewn with some pebbles and trash. I surveyed the area through my 500mm tele-lens and found a lapwing lying flat on the ground within 15 metres of the car.