Al Wathba Wetland Reserve

This guide to Al Wathba Wetland Reserve outside Abu Dhabi starts with a biologist checking an insect trap before dawn and a fly that matches nothing in the reference books. It traces how a leaking sewage pipe accidentally created this desert lake, how brine shrimp and then flamingos moved in around 1993, and how routine surveys later turned up creatures new to science entirely. From the hide, look past the pink drifts of flamingos toward the reeds at the water's margin.