Emirates Natural History Group Al Ain Chapter Newsletter 2009/ V Summer is over, welcome back to the new season 2009/2010, filled again with interesting meetings, workshops and ever surprising hikes. Ramadan is over now, business getting back to normal and so do we. This season, our Al Ain chapter will hold the Inter Emirates Weekend (scheduled for spring 2010). We want to encourage members to suggest events and activities to offer to our friends from the other chapters to make the IEW surprising and unforgettable for them (and for us as well). Please notice that one Thuraya phone has a new number. The two valid numbers are: TH1: 0088-216-4440-5955 TH2: 0088-216-5552-1121 ENHG Al Ain Chapter Committee Committee members: Chair: Brien Holmes; Vice Chair Brigitte Howarth; Treasurer: Simon Wall; Secretary: Saima Tariq Khan; Membership: Barb Reimer; Photography: Bob Reimer; Newsletter: Roland Ochmann; Library: Marybeth Gaudette; Flora: Jodie Healy, Brigitte Howarth; Fauna (Insects): Brigitte Howarth; Fauna (Birds): vacant; Environment : Jodie Healy Visit the webpage at http://www.enhg.org/index.htm or contact us at [email protected] (all Al Ain chapter members) Upcoming Events October Tuesday Oct. 06, Committee Meeting, Al Ain English Speaking School, 7:30 pm Tuesday Oct. 13, General Meeting, InterContinental Al Ain Resort hotel, 7:30 pm Tuesday Oct. 20, Work room session, Al Ain English Speaking School, 7:30 pm Tuesday Oct. 27, General Meeting, InterContinental Al Ain Resort hotel, 7:30 pm November Tuesday Nov. 03, Committee Meeting, Al Ain English Speaking School, 7:30 pm Tuesday Nov. 10, General Meeting, InterContinental Al Ain Resort hotel, 7:30 pm Tuesday Nov. 17, Work room session, Al Ain English Speaking School, 7:30 pm Tuesday Nov. 24, Annual General Meeting , InterContinental Al Ain Resort hotel, 7:30 pm Committee Committee meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month at the Al Ain English Speaking School. Everyone is welcome to participate! We are always looking for people to join our discussions and help deliver events. The next Committee meeting will be Tuesday 06 October at 7:30 pm. 2009_V Page 1 News Themes and ideas for the Inter Emirates Weekend 2010, organized by Al Ain Chapter. Reminder: Suggestions for activities for this season’s Inter Emirates Weekend can be submitted by members to any Committee member. We appreciate your help and support to assure that the IEW 2010 in Al Ain will be a remarkable event for all. Walking and Hiking Trails in Al Ain For several months, we have been working with staff in the Town Planning Department to develop Walking Trails for residents, tourists and visitors in Al Ain city and Hiking Trails on Jebel Hafeet. The trails on Jebel Hafeet would offer different levels of difficulty and would include signs with explanations of the geology, plants and animals. We will keep members informed of further progress. The ENHG Library The Library is now situated in our room at the Al Ain Palace museum. Marybeth has been busy attaching labels to the bindings of items in our collection as well as posting details of items on the Internet. Our library database can be searched and visited under www.librarything.com/catalog/enhg If you’re looking for a publication, videotape or periodical, please contact Marybeth [email protected] . We try to put an inventory list on our webpage so everybody can look for something they are interested in or something special they may be looking for. Any problems? – just ask Marybeth. We have prepared a DVD-collection of more than 20 DVDs and CDs including all videos, CDs and many of the DVDs in our library. We are offering this set to members for Dh100. These are available to ENHG members only. You can subscribe at the general meetings for your collection. What Happened on Recent Hikes, Walks Each weekend we try to offer one or two field trips to some of the destinations within a short driving distance of Al Ain. Our field trip leaders are all volunteers and each tries to make each field trip as interesting and informative as possible. We are always looking for volunteers to lead trips; please contact a Committee member if you would like to lead trips. We ask members to dress appropriately and wear proper footwear. Please remember to bring plenty of water and a snack. It is important to let the trip leader if you have a medical condition which the field trip leader should take into account when selecting routes etc. Our field trip leaders carry a satellite phone on most trips; members should carry a small first aid kit. Thursday, 03 Sep Moonwalk in Musah Oasis: Our famous moonwalk in Ramadan took place in the lovely Musah Oasis. About 20 people took the advantage of this unique experience and some 40% took the opportunity to refresh in the pool (even there was significantly less water than in springtime) 2009_V Page 2 Figure 1: Hikers at reservoir Figure 2: Swimming in the moonlight Friday 04 Sep Jimi Oasis walk Saturday 05 Sep Rainbow Ridge hike Friday 11 Sep Off-road desert drive Our drive out to Wadi Safwan and Parakeet Park included a rare event: a river in the sand. Rain had fallen in the mountains near Khudrah that morning and it had taken several hours for the water to move down Wadi Sharm to our location many kilometers from Khudrah. The water quickly spread towards Al Hayer, with several small streams moving across the sandy wadi bed. Figure 3: The river in the desert Figure 4: Where is the wooden fort? Saturday 12 Sep Mezyad Fort, Jebel Hafeet tombs Friday 18 Sep Subaitah Oasis with refreshing dip in the rock pool. Ever stunning walk along the falaj from the Oasis to the pool; this time also a more challenging route over the ridge has been offered as an alternative Saturday 19 Sep Al Ain Oasis walk Tuesday 22 Sep Movie night (general meeting) at InterContinental We watched a film from 1981, narrated by Peter Hellyer, entitled ‘ March to Progress ’ 2009_V Page 3 Wednesday 23 Sep Oman tour down Wadi Jizzi Figure 5 and 6: The oasis at Abalah, including a recently occupied 'bait khaimah' Friday 25 Sep New hike between Musah and Haywan, with steep ups and downs one of the more challenging hikes, this time followed by a BBQ at hidden village. Figure 7 an 8: Views from one of the cuts towards destination near Haywan Saturday 26 Sep Dhow at Ras al Khaimah, status check Thursday 01 Oct: Moonwalk to “Big Structure” Friday 02 Oct: Wadi Nahyan and Jebel Hafeet Dayhike on Jebel Quatara, led by our experienced alpinist Bill Jones Saturday 03 Oct: Abul Wadi, Fort and Oasis Whale Shark Watching There are two whale sharks, the one you saw in the magazine that is blue is the big one, eight meters and the brown is five meters. They start coming in June and the last sighting was August 28. The sea condition now is changing from 32c to 26c that's why soon they will migrate to a warmer place. Whale sharks are found both in inshore and oceanic waters where surface sea water temperatures are between 18 to 30°C. However, initial tagging data indicates that whale sharks spend significant periods of time diving to depths greater than 980 m. 2009_V Page 4 Whale sSharks are spotted all year round in some locations and in others at different times of year. It seems the sharks’ presence is determined by environmental and oceanographic features such as water upwelling at sea mounts and along current boundaries which leads to increased plankton productivity. The Whale Shark is one of only four elasmobranchs that filter feed (the others are the Basking and the Megamouth Shark and Manta Rays). It has an enormous mouth which can be more than 1.5m wide and feeds by distending the jaws and actively sucking water into its mouth. The mouth is lined with rows of tiny teeth – around 300 in each jaw - but apparently play no part in feeding. Rather, gill rakers, sieve like structures on the gills, filter out any organism over 2-3 mm in size meaning that almost nothing but liquid passes back out through the gills. Whale sharks have been observed ‘coughing which is thought to be a method to clear food particles that have accumulated on the gill rakers. (Many thanks to Jeffrey Catanjal, Sales Manager and PADI Instructor, Premiers for Equipment, UAE for providing this information about whale sharks. Contact: +971-50-834-8894, Facebook; Premiers Diving) Photo by Jeff Catanjal Photo by Jeff Catanjal Where whale sharks are found 2009_V Page 5 Flora’s corner ––– Nan[n]orrhops ritchieana, Doom Sagir, Dwarf Palm, Mazari… Most of us are familiar with the date palm, Phoenix dactylifera but maybe a little less familiar with the dwarf palm, Nanorrhops ritchieana . Nanorrhops (Greek nannos = dwarf, rhops = bushy) do just as the name suggests and rarely grow above about six feet in the wild and have a bushy look because they generally grow from the basal stalk of another specimen, so tend to form big clumps rather than individual palms. The leaf is a grey-green colour and much smaller than the date palm with more of a fan shape. The inflorescence forms from a tall, branched stalk (up to 2m) that grows from the middle of the palm and above the fronds, with creamy white flowers growing from the stalk. Some sources say that the flowers have no smell, while others say they smell creamy and sweet.