A fine day started at Turtle Beach followed by a fruitless search for Crab Plover. I believe this was the right location for them, but despite a long muddy trudge, they failed to materialise. I was up early to have a quick look around the scrubby barren areas around the hotel that yielded a couple of male Desert Wheatear , a Red-tailed Wheatear , and a surprise Wryneck . Firstly driving round the lagoon at Ras al Hadd produced plenty of waders including both species of Sand Plover, my first ever Terek Sandpiper with one group holding 35 birds, a Bar-tailed Godwit , a Gull-billed Tern just offshore, and small groups of Grey Plover and Greenshank . A Black-headed Wagtail flew past. Moving onto Khwar Jirama just off the Sur road, I could sense that the beach was muddy so made conservative efforts to keep the rental car away from the sinking mud. This was made evidently clear to me as I watched one poor individual, his car sinking...