Broad-billed Sandpiper - Sabkhat Al Fasl

An early morning trip yesterday to Sabkhat Al Fasl to try out my new camera and lens proved fairly frustrating. As it was a Friday the local Pilipino population were present in large numbers catching the Tilapia fish in nets. They work in teams of five or six people and wade into the water to set the nets. As a result they scare away the birds and make birding very difficult. This combined with cloudy sky and numerous hunters present made it even more difficult and my lack of understanding of how to manoeuvre and set the lens up quickly made my attempts at photography fairly unsuccessful. As the day progressed I got more familiar with the lens and how to use it and the sun came out. The Pilipino fisherman started to leave as the temperature rose and although the birds became less active a few were suitable for trying my luck with. The flooded sabkha area which is almost dry due to the hot summer held a good number of waders with the majority being Dunlins and Little Stints. A few Broad-billed Sandpipers were about and one was quite confiding and allowed me to get reasonably close. The photographs obtained are much better than anything I have done before but I am still learning and, hopefully, will get better as time goes on. I need lots more practice until I can get close to the standard of the good bird photographers like Mike Barth and Yoav Perlman but with time I should get there.

Broad-billed Sandpiper



Broad-billed Sandpiper



Broad-billed Sandpiper