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First clean-up for me since I am back and I lucked out to get a place on the island trip to Um al Maradim (uhoh, there's even an entry on wiki :)). A tiny speck of land in the middle of nowhere, serving as a Coastguard post and can be visited only with a special permission. That doesn't stop a bunch of fishing boats from circling the island, there were at least 15 of them. The island is quite important for migrating birds as a stopover and for some birds as a breeding ground. This was the second clean-up on this island. Due to the currents (I guess) and the visiting boats, a lot of trash gets on the beaches with the tide. Including dead sheep, 7 of them. Dumped, most likely, by big animal transports who don't want to have sick or dead sheep aboard when they reach port. It's scary to think of all the trash floating in our oceans... We also found 3 dead birds. Two in a state of decay beyond ID-ing and 1 a possible Steppe Buzzard. We collected altogether 33 big black trash bags full of plastic bottles, Styrofoam, cans and other plastics, household stuff, fishing lines and hooks, kids balloons (I know why I don't like those things), ropes and half a rubber boat. There's also tires and a big pile of pallets that we couldn't remove. The Kuwait Dive team took us to the island. They helped burying some of the sheep above the tide line. The team of K's Path, including John the manager whom I met for the first time, was there and the girls did a good job organizing the whole trip. Thanks for doing this! A big thanks also to the chief (?) of the Coastguards who had a big, yummy Lunch prepped for us when we were finished with the clean-up :) To enjoy the photos, just click on them, or click on one and use the arrow below the photo to navigate (you gotta choose the pages) or just click on the slideshow. If you want to use any of the photos, just contact me. Birdcount: At the Marina 8 Cormorant 2 Slender-billed Gull 4 Black-headed Gull 3 White-eared Bulbul Um al-Maradim island 1 Northern Wheatear (1st wt) 3 Greater Sand Plover Plover 6 Kentish Plover 15 (Great) Cormorant (6 Juv.) - flying over 9+ House Sparrow 1 1st wt Caspian Gull (possibly more) 4 Black-headed Gull 1 White-eared Bulbul (voice)

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Again another successful beach clean-up at Sulaibikhat, for the third time at that long stretch of beach. One group of people (official trash picker - uppers?) must have been there the day before. There were about 18 plastic bags along the fence line. But no worries, there was still enough left for all of us. We had 4 new Volunteers, one even from Saudi Arabia :-) We collected around 16 bags and approx. 200kg of mainly plastic bottles. It seems that the numbers of birds are picking up already. I don't know if this is a sign of migration, or just summer visitors. We had: Reef Egret 28 (24 dark form & 4 white form) White-cheeked Tern 2 Caspian Tern 1 Little Tern 2 Cream-coloured Courser 2 Slender-billed Gull 3 Sanderling 5 Barn Swallow 3 Terek Sandpiper 4 Curlew Sandpiper 35 Greater Sand Plover 5 (1 oiled) Kentish Plover 3 Ruddy Turnstone 2 Curlew 1 White-eared Bulbul 2 Gull-billed Tern 1 Flamingos 310 Species Total: 17

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Back from the beach clean-up. Boy, the wind helped, but it was HOT. (120F/50C) We had 15 people/Volunteers, not bad. And collected around 250-300kg of trash, a lot of it will be recycled. We have been at Doha beach for the 3rd time now and got finally one nasty corner at the fence cleaned up (thanks, Andy and Robert). One more clean-up to go next weekend, then’s Ramadan break (not allowed to drink water in public => no clean-ups). Bird count for the day (some more will come tomorrow, when my head works again and I’ll be able to look at my books without my head spinning): 1 Cormorant 7 House Sparrows 1 Graceful Prinia (sound) 6 White-eared Bulbuls 4 Kentish Plover 1 Namaqua Dove (1 possible Curlew Sandpiper?) The tide was out very far & I didn’t get very close without getting stuck or chase them away

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We collected around 60kg of waste (which will be recycled) at the clean-up yesterday. We only had a few Volunteers, but we can call it a successful day. There's still more rubbish around, mainly small bottle caps and such - I call this beach now bottle-cap beach ;). There were still some birds around. Some are 1st year birds which come for the summer and some are breeding here in Kuwait. Greater Flamingos among them. The guy at the last few pics was an official trash picker-upper that came along to do his morning chores (I suppose) and who was obviously flustered at what happened :) The family in one of the shots thanked us whole heartedly and seemed a little embarrassed that we were doing this. Bird count: White-cheeked Tern (1st summer) - 5 House Sparrow - 26 Common Myna - 2 Greater Sand Plover (1st summer) - 4 Slender-billed Gull (1st summer) - 1 (Eastern) Reef Egret (dark form) - 3 Greater Flamingo - 29 Bar-tailed Godwit - 1 Kentish Plover - 3 Species Total: 9

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Saturday's beach clean-up - a collection of around 3oo kg of rubbish went to recycling instead of rotting at the beach. And that was only another small stretch of that area. The beach you see somewhere close to the end is the next one in line waiting for being cleaned, worse than the first two put together. :/ Bird count: (35) Slender-billed Gulls, (1) Grey Plover, (5) Caspian Tern, (4) Night Heron, (2) Gull billed Tern, (5) House Sparrow, (2 dark & 2 white) Reef Heron, (2) Collared Dove), (12 - 1 immature) Flamingos, (4) Little Tern, (2) Grey Heron), (10) Terek Sandpiper), (7) Kentish Plover, (1) Graceful Prinia, (5) Curlew (1) with shot wing feathers, (1) Black-headed Gull, (4) Cream-coloured Courser, (1) fem. Pied Wheatear

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After a break of one week (due to the weather our island trip had to be cancelled - twice), we were ready for another adventure. This week we went to Doha beach (one of them) near Entertainment city. 'We' is a group of Volunteers (11 this time) with two employees from K's Path. This was the second clean-up at this beach. The first one was approx. 2 months ago. At first glance the beach looked fairly clean, except for a few corners where the plastic gathers from the wind. But as soon as we started the cleaning, we saw that a lot of plastic had been collected underneath the bushes. Right next to this beach is a beach that belongs to 'Entertainment city'. Angelique told me that they offered them to clean up that stretch of beach, but the company refused. Nobody is allowed to enter there. Well, it was low tide and I had a peek. They should take up that offer, or clean it up themselves. In the photos it's the stretch with the beautiful, small mangroves and the pics before and after show the trash gathered there. Some morons did drive their vehicles around at the beach, not realizing how much damage they are doing to the plant Life and the structure of the beach. :( One one of the photos you see a factory that's close by. It's blowing something nasty in the air. We actually saw that haze all the way from Mangaf and I thought it's dust rolling in. Nah, the wind was blowing that pollution all the way (almost 45min drive) down south. Today I saw my first Lizard (not sure which type), a Grasshopper (my first around here), some sort of desert rodent, a bunch of varied coloured Dragonflies and a dead beetle that looked almost like the ones I usually see, but this one had hooks all around his 'armor'. As far as the birds go, migration is pretty much over. Here's what I found: Bulbul (4), House sparrow (13), Dunlin (7), Basra Reed Warbler (1), (possible) Graceful Prinia (2), House Martin (12), Kentish Plover (8), Collared Dove (2), European Bee-eater (2), Little Egret (1), Namaqua Dove (1) 11 species Sadly enough I saw a lot of empty shells from 'hunters' too :( Overall it was a great day and a successful one (exact count will come when we get the numbers from the recycling company). It was hot of course (around 100F/40c - today it will be around 110f/43C), but unlike the last time it wasn't humid and we had some nice wind that was cool for a change and not the hot furnace we usually get. Now, enjoy :)

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Another successful Clean-up today. Sulabaikhat beach is a longs stretch of small beaches, this one was near the Health Ministry. The area you see alongside the fence is a nature preserve / or protected area. Really? :/ We were 16 Volunteers today and I think the group photo with the garbage bags says it all :) Bird count of the day: Slender-billed Gull (85), Barn swallow (5), Curlew Sandpiper (66), Little Stint (34), Curlew (4), Gull-billed Tern (5), Dunlin (4), Sandwich Tern (4), Red-backed Shrike (7 male & 3 female), Willow Warbler (1), Little Tern (2), Yellow Wagtail (1), Ruddy Turnstone (9), Blue-cheeked Bee-eater (3), European Bee-eater (1), Sanderling (1), House Sparrow (12), Common Tern (1) 18 species

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Ras Mohamed is a nature preserve in South Sinai, Egypt, near Sharm el Sheikh. It's a beautiful little paradise where you can breathe some fresh air and find some hidden corners away from the tourists, if you want to. You can go there by car (either rent one or arrange a driver). Entrance fee is 25EGP per person (unless you are a local, then it's, I think, 5EGP). You can also camp there, registering at the information building, if I remember correct. Many boats leave from Sharm el Sheikh (either from the Old market or from Naama bay) to go out here for snorkeling and diving tours. Sadly many tourists don't respect the fact that this is a nature preserve and destroy corals and leave trash behind and is threatened by overfishing. It's a great place for birding, especially during migration.

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In 2009 I went with a guided tour provided by the DDNP to the Balata to (Baláta-tó = ancient moor / bog) near Nagyatád close to a small village named Kaszó in Somogy county, Hungary.

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