Doves warm up to the sun

I was driving on the Dubai-Al Ain road in the afternoon last weekend. Just before Lisaili village, about 50km from Dubai, my attention was drawn to the roadside overhead power lines. I saw hundreds of birds on the wires.

As I focused my telescopic lens, I saw line after line of Eurasian collared doves, formerly known as ringed doves, perched on the power cables. I could see them as far as my eyes could strain. They must have numbered above 3,000.

The cables passed between the highway and the vast ground of the endurance racing track.

At first I could not guess why there was such a large congregation of birds at about 3pm. The birds seemed relaxed; some kept their wings spread out for drying/sunning and a few flew below and started picking up food from the ground.

Earlier, I had seen the ringed doves gathering grass seeds from the Rhodes grass field, near International City and the Al Aweer sewage treatment plant, and also on the Ghaf trees at Mushrif Park during winter evenings to sun before dusk. But I had never seen such a large congregation in the late afternoon. I guessed the doves perched on the cables to receive the full blast of the sun as it set in the west.

In the UAE, we do not expect to see large congregations of birds, barring the ones migrating through or living in our coastal areas. So, this was indeed a memorable sight.