The UAE witnessed a good amount of rainfall in 1991-92, especially in the mountains.

The same year I had gone looking for plants and I was amazed to see the area along the Dubai-Muscat road covered with beautiful yellow flowers. None of the flowers or the thick fleshy leaves of those plants were eaten by the camels or goats though other vegetation had been heavily grazed by them.

Recently, on a rainy day, I had gone to Safa Park and Al Warsan Lake to see how the birds were coping with the downpour.

While the collared and laughing doves, common mynas, sparrows, bulbuls, Asian pied starlings, house crows, migratory wagtails, grey francolins, hoopoes, etc could not be spotted, I saw mallards and gulls happily playing in the water.

Most birds have a mechanism to protect their feathers from getting wet as their bodies are fitted with an oil gland. They can oil their feathers and make them nearly impervious to water.

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.