Grampy Bustard
Saturday 5th March 2005, 21:43
Well you would wouldn’t you….a chance of a free jump-seat on a Marrakech charter on a Wednesday afternoon, returning Friday afternoon. Picked up my Europcar at 1600 and drove down to Oued Massa, south of Agadir, crashed out in the car waiting for dawn.
Oued Massa, still as fabulous a place for birding as I remember from my previous visits in April 1978 and December 1983. Few duck around, but did include Garganey, loads of Subalpine Warblers, Bulbuls, Great Grey Shrikes, a Wryneck, Pallid Swifts, 6 species of hirundine including Brown-throated Sand Martin and Crag Martin, 400+ Audouin’s Gulls, 3 Palm Doves, House Buntings, Stone Curlews etc etc. The star bird has to be Moussier’s Redstart, which is a fabulous little bird, not diminished by the fact that they were so common.
A brilliant mornings birding, but no Bald Ibisis flying up the coast or Black-capped Tchagras, or a White-tailed Plover like on previous visits….but it would be churlish to complain!
An hours drive up to the Sous Estuary, with loads of waders, gulls and terns. Had an adult Common Gull, which is uncommon, 85 Spoonbills, and a few more odds and ends before the heavens opened.
Now 1700, so with the rain and impending nightfall, drove back towards Marrakech, cutting up over the mountains from Taroudent….bad move. Single track road, steep drops, heavy rain causing mudslips, rockfalls, turning to blizzards in fog further up, before getting through the pass and down the other side. The old sphincter contracted a few times on that journey…
Up early next morning, and cut through to Oukaimeden, the ski resort in the high Atlas mountains. Still dark on arrival, and only got there because of a snowplow, ending abruptly in a wall of snow in the resort. The place totally deserted, except as it got light, had Crimson-winged Finches sitting on the car. Loads of Choughs, Alpine Choughs, Rock Sparrows, but surprisingly no Shore Larks. Only 5 km down from the resort, just as the roads triple S bends through the first thin confer tree zone, stopped the car and had blisteringly close views of Levaillent’s Green Woodpecker, down to the white iris, calling for almost an hour. This is a bird that has avoided me both previous visits, and was a complete surprise at this location (although Gosney mentions it in the area). As a mega grip, I left a message on Aquilla’a mobile of the bird calling – how childish is that?! Also had singing Rock Buntings, Cirl Bunting, good views of Barbary Partridge, and other common species.
Further down it started to rain heavily, and so I had to return to Marrakech to get on the return flight. The flight was an hour late positioning from Stansted due to snow there, and scraped in to Marrakech in low cloud and heavy rain, only to be struck by lightning. A close inspection by local engineers of revealed superficial damage, and they cleared the aircraft to fly, only to find the refuellers had put too much fuel on, and now 2 tonnes too heavy to takeoff. A defuel seemed too difficult for the Moroccans, so I was looking at moving 20 passengers to a later flight to Gatwick…only for the refuellers to come up trumps in getting their defuelling rig working. As if this was not bad enough, a passenger keeled over in the terminal, and had to be offloaded, and eventually located and offloaded the bags. Fortunately they seemed to be ok on arrival at hospital. Meanwhile the weather meant wrong end of the runway, wet conditions, and stonking headwinds for the return journey. So perversely, having had to offload fuel to make max take-off weight, did not have enough fuel for trip back to UK, and with all the fun and games, a crew rapidly getting close to max duty. Eventually got away, hitting 120kt headwinds from Madrid northwards, and diverting to Nantes for a refuel, before carrying on to Stansted.
Eventually got to my car past midnight, and home by 0430. Was it worth it? YOU BET! Just over 500 miles in 48 hours, 110 species, 2 species I had seen elsewhere but not in Morocco, and a lifer. Not only that, a stunning country for scenery, and good numbers of common and not so common birds. Next stop…Beijing……..
Oued Massa, still as fabulous a place for birding as I remember from my previous visits in April 1978 and December 1983. Few duck around, but did include Garganey, loads of Subalpine Warblers, Bulbuls, Great Grey Shrikes, a Wryneck, Pallid Swifts, 6 species of hirundine including Brown-throated Sand Martin and Crag Martin, 400+ Audouin’s Gulls, 3 Palm Doves, House Buntings, Stone Curlews etc etc. The star bird has to be Moussier’s Redstart, which is a fabulous little bird, not diminished by the fact that they were so common.
A brilliant mornings birding, but no Bald Ibisis flying up the coast or Black-capped Tchagras, or a White-tailed Plover like on previous visits….but it would be churlish to complain!
An hours drive up to the Sous Estuary, with loads of waders, gulls and terns. Had an adult Common Gull, which is uncommon, 85 Spoonbills, and a few more odds and ends before the heavens opened.
Now 1700, so with the rain and impending nightfall, drove back towards Marrakech, cutting up over the mountains from Taroudent….bad move. Single track road, steep drops, heavy rain causing mudslips, rockfalls, turning to blizzards in fog further up, before getting through the pass and down the other side. The old sphincter contracted a few times on that journey…
Up early next morning, and cut through to Oukaimeden, the ski resort in the high Atlas mountains. Still dark on arrival, and only got there because of a snowplow, ending abruptly in a wall of snow in the resort. The place totally deserted, except as it got light, had Crimson-winged Finches sitting on the car. Loads of Choughs, Alpine Choughs, Rock Sparrows, but surprisingly no Shore Larks. Only 5 km down from the resort, just as the roads triple S bends through the first thin confer tree zone, stopped the car and had blisteringly close views of Levaillent’s Green Woodpecker, down to the white iris, calling for almost an hour. This is a bird that has avoided me both previous visits, and was a complete surprise at this location (although Gosney mentions it in the area). As a mega grip, I left a message on Aquilla’a mobile of the bird calling – how childish is that?! Also had singing Rock Buntings, Cirl Bunting, good views of Barbary Partridge, and other common species.
Further down it started to rain heavily, and so I had to return to Marrakech to get on the return flight. The flight was an hour late positioning from Stansted due to snow there, and scraped in to Marrakech in low cloud and heavy rain, only to be struck by lightning. A close inspection by local engineers of revealed superficial damage, and they cleared the aircraft to fly, only to find the refuellers had put too much fuel on, and now 2 tonnes too heavy to takeoff. A defuel seemed too difficult for the Moroccans, so I was looking at moving 20 passengers to a later flight to Gatwick…only for the refuellers to come up trumps in getting their defuelling rig working. As if this was not bad enough, a passenger keeled over in the terminal, and had to be offloaded, and eventually located and offloaded the bags. Fortunately they seemed to be ok on arrival at hospital. Meanwhile the weather meant wrong end of the runway, wet conditions, and stonking headwinds for the return journey. So perversely, having had to offload fuel to make max take-off weight, did not have enough fuel for trip back to UK, and with all the fun and games, a crew rapidly getting close to max duty. Eventually got away, hitting 120kt headwinds from Madrid northwards, and diverting to Nantes for a refuel, before carrying on to Stansted.
Eventually got to my car past midnight, and home by 0430. Was it worth it? YOU BET! Just over 500 miles in 48 hours, 110 species, 2 species I had seen elsewhere but not in Morocco, and a lifer. Not only that, a stunning country for scenery, and good numbers of common and not so common birds. Next stop…Beijing……..