A Royal Sanctuary

One evening when I was coming out of the British Council Library, at the end of Oud Mehta Road, I suddenly heard the chattering of parakeets. I saw them cross Maktoum Bridge and the Zabeel Flyover but did not know where they went after that.

The next evening, I took two of my colleagues and positioned one on the road leading towards the British Embassy and the other on the slope of Maktoum Bridge on the Deira side.

I climbed up the stairs in front of the British Council and stood on the side of the flyover where streams of cars were passing by.

Between 5.30pm and 6.30pm, I counted roughly 100 crows, more than 200 parakeets and more than 400 mynahs crossing the sky over Maktoum Bridge and diving into a compound belonging to the royal family. The compound had many trees.

My colleagues had counted nearly 1,000 crows, parakeets and mynahs.

A couple of days later, I went to Jebel Ali Village and to Al Ruwaiya along Al Ain Road and Khawaneej.

I noticed crows and parakeets from these places were heading towards Bur Dubai after 5pm in the winter and 6pm during summer.

This indicated the birds were headed for the big compound by Maktoum Bridge and spending the night there.

This palace was and is the largest roosting site for the birds of Dubai.