Doha Qatar

Observed these in flocks a few days ago in Thailand and got a shock when I saw these 2 White-crested Laughthrush illegally smuggled in the city market in a small cage! 

  I arrived in Qatar two days ago, where Al Jazeera's network comes from and where also Saudi Arabia keeps a close eye on this small country while at the same time they're blowing kids up to kingdom come in Yemen using British missiles!! Thanks to the billion dollars arms deal May made last year and her husband made a private neat little profit out of it!! Maybe this explains why they won't release the Saudi files?
  Anyways I made my ways to the capital, Doha, where I wasn't really interested in the high rise new buildings that dominate the skyline and made my ways to the first market. It didn't take long to find birds in tiny cages including White-crested Laughingthrush and Blue Magpie! Both illegally smuggled in from the east and maybe where I just came from, Thailand. It was very sad to see but it didn't stop there when I came to a cage full of some 20 Temmink's Horned Lark and Quail! I guess trapped from nearby deserts. There were 100s of parrots, parakeets, finches, canary's, weavers and a few macaws out in the heat of the day!

Blue Magpies also illegally smuggled in!

There were up to 20 Temmink's Horned Lark and below them, Quail

These 3 puppies with kittens, tortoises, lizards and all the birds were left out the burning sun!! Why?

  It wasn't just the birds that were upsetting to see. The cages were stacked close and on top of each other and included puppies, kittens, tortoises and lizard all mixed in with the birds and all trying to get out of the sun because for some stupid reason, the owners didn't provide them with any shade! Only for the those that were under a cage could find shade on the far side out of the sun. It was depressing to see and to think this this is more likely all over Qatar and the Middle East!

  Well, I didn't get any photos of any of the birds I observed as I left my card in my other camera by mistake! Doh! However, staying mainly around the city, which is a concrete jungle and expanding, I did get to see White-eared Bulbul, Laughing Dove, Osprey, Slender-billed and Heuglin's Gull.

The high rising towers looking over the city of Doha

The leader of Qatar, Sheikh Timim Bin Kalifa, you can't miss while driving through the Doha along with his old man!

The market in doha where the birds were kept in cages

the old part Chiang Mai in Thailand where this Thai busker played the songs that buskers also play in the UK!

Thanks to our Scottish/Irish friends, Gordon and Granne, who saved us a lot of hassle by giving myself and Martin Goodey a lift from Dio Inthanon to chiang Mai and they wouldn't take anythin off us!!