Sunday, May 29, 2011

Beach clean-up, Doha, Kuwait, May 28th 2011

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 (12 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 either.
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.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Beach clean-up, Sulaibikhat, Kuwait, May 13th 2011

Another successful Clean-up with 16 Volunteers.
Sulabaikhat beach is a long 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?

This week’s event was sponsored by Dow and organized by K’s Path in collaboration with en.V.
The beach clean-ups are and ongoing project over the summer months (one every week) to clean up some of the beaches along the migratory bird route.
 We were 16 people today and I think the group photo with the garbage bags says it all Outcome: 216.5 kgs of waste (40% plastic bottles, 37% misc., 18% general plastic, 5% metal cans) collected in under 3 hours!



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