We also had plans to do some birding and bird photography in the park and nearby area. After shooting the sunrise for sometime, we walked in the park to see if we could spot some birds. You might be wondering - Birds? In the desert lands of the Middle east, how can that be? But yes, the landscape of Bahrain is different, it’s not the regular desert land with sand dunes. I was expecting a full-fledged desert land till I reached here. But to my surprise, there is a lot of greenery in Bahrain, with some good number of native and migratory birds being spotted at different places.

With that said, the park we are in, is not a hot spot to watch birds. But then neither were we experienced bird-watchers ;). We were there to learn something new, and were to see things from a new angle. So spotting and watching the common birds in the area itself was a great experience for us. The grass lawn was filled with trash, thanks to the people who visited the place last evening! There are some 20 - 30 waste bins, placed at different parts of the park, which are almost empty and the ground is full of plastics, paper and what not! Ufff…!!! We humans!

Thankfully, there are some cleaners in the park who have started their work in the early morning. We could see some cyclists gather up in the park and start their morning trip and quite a number of people jogging. We walked along a path which is covered by trees on both sides. There were a lot of sparrows, mynas and doves on the trees. None of them where clearly visible, so I was finding it difficult to photograph them. To add to that, the 200mm lens on my cam seemed to be a huge limitation , as these birds fly away when we try get closer to the trees that they are perched on. At one time we felt the birding is going to end up in a big disappointment. We quickly tried to catch up with some of our contacts on the phone to see if we can find another place in Bahrain where we could spot birds better. Unfortunately, or may be fortunately, none of them where reachable!

It looked like we were going to have a bad day, but then I thought, why to worry, these plants and trees are all part of nature as much as the birds are. By this time we had reached a little away from the park area. Looking around the place, I found some interesting shapes in some of the tree trunks,with the morning light falling on them and started shooting them. Santhosh might have thought that I have gone nuts, because I couldn’t shoot any birds ;)

After a while, I saw two white cheeked bulbuls which came and perched on a tree next to the one that I was shooting. It was about 7.30 - 8 AM and sun had come up in the sky, behind me. I could easily move close to the tree and get a good view of the birds, in the beautiful day light. After sometime the birds started moving from one tree to another, towards the park. We were all charged up again and started following these birds, constantly trying to get them recorded in my cam. Soon we were back near the park and these bulbuls flew far away. We again started walking slowly under the trees, trying to spot any birds on them. There we saw a red vented bulbul, but couldn’t get a good shot due to the branches and leaves on the tree. While moving on from there, I just got a glimpse of a small sparrow sized white bird which immediately flew, hearing our foot steps. Santhosh and I were trying to spot the bird again and that’s when we heard the sweet song of a white cheeked bulbul, perched right on the tree, under which we were standing. I could get a nice view of this little guy, who was singing and jumping around on the branches or the tree. It looked like it was searching for it’s better half! :)

It was a nice end to our morning walk and start of the day, with that beautiful song. The sunrise we saw, was the icing on the cake! With a happy soul and tired body, we started walking back home, shooting some flowers and plants on the way. The 3 hours walk in the morning made me hungry and had to order for a heavy breakfast! :)