Western Sahara and Morocco 19th – 26th Feb 2009 (1 Viewer)

(Finally getting around to putting a report of our trip on the net. Will also be putting a version elsewhere (probably the Go-South website) when a few other details get sorted...)


Western Sahara and Morocco 19th – 26th Feb 2009

Courtesy of reasonably inexpensive flights from that bane of the environmentalists, Ryanair, it came about that we made a winter birding foray into one of the far flung reaches of the Western Palearctic in search of some iconic birds and, hopefully, some great birding…

Thursday 19th Agadir and area.

There were three of us; two members of the party drove down from North Wales and exited the country from Stansted, whilst the other (me) flew from Marseille, already being in France, and arriving at the later time of 5pm. The airport at Agadir held a few nice birds, namely Common Bulbuls, a Blackbird and a redstart, which a little surprisingly turned out to be a female (1st winter?) Moussiere's Redstart. Feeding, or trying to, on some nondescript squashed car park food remains just as any common Starling or flying rat (Feral Rock Dove) would.

Into the birdingmobile (Opel Corsa from Autocar) with relative ease, given we all had fairly huge rucksacs and unfortunately no-one present was under 6 foot tall, and we were off….. to a garage restaurant for the first proper meal in at least a day. Not exactly hardcore, but then the others had already been to Oued Sousse for an hour or two (their flight had arrived in around midday) and scored Flamingo, Sardinian Warbler, ‘African’ Blue Tit (soon to be split?) and various waders etc, and we were expecting a full nights driving ahead of us……the real targets for the trip lay a lot further ahead.

Noshed up on what seemed relatively expensive Tagine type meals (but where was the couscous?), and we hit the road properly, successfully avoiding being hit or hitting anything on the crowded roads south of the city (this time - the others had apparently already knocked a motorcyclist over earlier in the afternoon… eek! …No actual damage done though fortunately….)

Friday 20th Knhiffis, and the road south.

The day started pretty soon after midnight, with the 3 of us still awake and in varying degrees of comfort/discomfort somewhere on the roads of southern Morocco. Due to the lateness (well earliness then) of the hour, lack of roadsigns, and being woefully misinformed by a resident of Morocco, we at one point found we’d left a town by a completely wrong road and made a detour towards a place we really didn’t want to go to. This added at least an hour on to the journey, not clever in the circumstances, although part compensation was gained in seeing an Algerian Hedgehog crossing the road. (For me, driving at the time, at any rate. I think the other two were asleep/dozing.)

Passing through police checkpoints also added time to our journey, especially around Tan Tan, where a lengthy stop at one checkpoint was swiftly followed by a speed radar check just down the road where we were pulled up and issued with our (only fortunately) speeding fine of 400 Dirhams. Doing 52 in a 40kph zone apparently (We hadn’t seen any signs, and quite lucky we were still going slow for what we thought should be a 60 zone…)

After some deliberations we eventually found the turning to the reserve at Knhiffis at some time after 4 in the morning, for a few hours proper kip in the car.

Waking around dawn, the excitement was palpable and despite a bit of lack of sleep we quickly extracted ourselves and made our way to the cliff edge overlooking the lagoon 30 yards away. And it seemed every bit as good as has been mentioned. A long way south of Agadir, and hence not quite on the beaten track. First bird of the day was a Black Wheatear on the clifftop, with various waders and water birds to be seen out on the lagoon, which is a bit like a long winding loch containing various marshy islets and spits and bounded on the seaward side by high sand dunes, and on the landward side by a low rocky cliff. Grey Herons (including those of the very pale West African race, Cormorants (2 races), Spoonbills, Flamingos, Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, a dozen or more species of wader, a couple of Ospreys, and then … could it be? …maybe it could be; our ultimate target species for this site? A large gull, then 2 on a rocky islet out in the lagoon. Smart and very black-mantled – Yes! KELP GULL!!! Scanning the spits from our viewpoint a total of 7 adults and one 1st winter were eventually noted. Possibly a site record. A new bird for 2 of us and certainly a WP tick for all. Excellent!

Inland on the clifftops a Hoopoe Lark with its distinctive call and excellent display flight was very nice. Dribs of Swallows passed through as we made our way a little way along the clifftop. Further species seen included a single Slender-billed Gull dip feeding and the first of several Caspian Terns. We decided to climb down a sand heap conveniently placed against the cliffs (ok, it was a dune and not the only one) and picked up further species in the drier habitat at the base, including 5 Red-throated Pipits, Yellow Wagtails, Skylarks and a very grey immature type Stonechat. Of an African race? 2 Chiffchaffs in this scrub were also very interesting, long winged and really not actually all that chiff like in jizz… hence probably Iberian. A Subalpine Warbler and a surprise Woodchat Shrike in a bush rounded off the birding with another bunch (15+?) ordinary Chiffchaffs in the same bush, with 2 Curlew Sandpipers on the waters edge.

On the road by mid afternoon and hoping to eat up some more mileage (possibly we could have spent more time here exploring – Scrub Warblers had been reported on the clifftops and further spits would have come within scope range, but hey, hopefully there would be more birds to see on the way…), and the first clifftop stop…

…to be entertained by a falcon with a prey item (unidentified deceased aveiform) which suddenly rose up in an updraft before us…. 2 of us at any rate…the third soon arrived, but the bird was distant at this stage. Smart bird, but we realised we hadn’t really got enough on it in our brief views, or a second bird which briefly put in an appearance even more distantly. (None of us had encountered Lanner before, although two had seen a flyby Barbary Falcon on a previous trip 2 years ago….) The bird duly showed again, doing a full circuit all around. Sorted - Barbary Falcon. A second stop a short while later for another raptor hovering in the wind gave us all full and uncontroverted views of our first Long-legged Buzzard in Morocco. (Much nicer than the very distant perched up bird seen in Tunisia some 12 years previously!).

Thekla Lark, Red-rumped Wheatear and Spectacled Warbler were all added to the trip list as we continued, all actually pretty good birds in their own right for varying reasons, with another good sea stop (594 km from Agadir?) adding a sizeable flock of Audouin’s Gull, with Kittwake (Actually a very good bird for S Morocco- notable influx displaced by the hurricane which hit Spain and France earlier in the year) and a second winter Mediterranean Gull at another beach roost shortly after, with 3 Black-headed Gulls heading north, and single Pomarine and Arctic Skuas. A last stop at dusk in the vicinity of a second of 2 huge salt pan based lakes brought a further Long-legged Buzzard and a Hoopoe disturbed as it prepared to roost in a small tree. We moved on and darkness fell, but still new birds were seen, with a Barn Owl seen and heard in Laayoune as we asked a native for directions, and at the other end of town, a Little Owl perched up like an exquisite marionette in the lit up trees by the wide highway as we filled up with petrol. We decided to fill ourselves too, and watched from an upstairs window as the presumed Lilith Little Owl gradually moved along the line of lit up trees, seemingly nonplussed by the traffic rushing by.

Hi Dan
Referring to the last part of the above, according to the latest edition of Owls of the World Lillith Owlet is a split from Little Owl and is not found in North Africa but occurs from southern Turkey down to Arabia. The subspecies which you saw according to this book would be glaux.
Cheers
Perry

Perry Smale said:

Hi Dan
Referring to the last part of the above, according to the latest edition of Owls of the World Lillith Owlet is a split from Little Owl and is not found in North Africa but occurs from southern Turkey down to Arabia. The subspecies which you saw according to this book would be glaux.
Cheers
Perry

Click to expand...

Cheers. Guess that should have read; 'potential Lilith Owl' or similar. One of our group was thinking it was a potential split,Athene glaux, to include glaux and lilith as proposed in a recent article in Dutch Birding. But not split yet, and who knows what will happen on the uk front?!

And now wondering if it was A.n.desertae or A.n.glaux we actually saw - need to check that out now ...

Saturday 21st Dhakla

Some time in the middle early hours, after varyingly lengthy stops at police checkpoints, we found ourselves at a Petrol station on the outskirts of Dhakla, far down in the south of the country. We had been hoping to fill up and then drive on down the road to Assouerd for our first proper day of desert birding. But the petrol station seemed closed up and deserted (wrong kind of deserted…) unfortunately. So after a brief appearance by a surreal Stone Curlew walking out of the shadows beside the car we resigned to being as comfortable as we could be in the car and getting a few hours stationary kip in.

We eventually awoke in daylight, having being entertained by a landrover driver revving his engines trying to make some petrol flow as if by magic. It didn’t work. We discovered no fuel would be available into later in the day, and needing something approaching a full tank if we were to attempt the Aoussard road (no fuel available at the end), we headed off to Dhakla Bay instead. Maybe a bit of confusion reigned, but we eventually came good with some birding back near the point of the peninsula, via the town again and a Collared Dove, with Gannets seen offshore. A flock of 30 or 40 Cattle Egrets flying through the building outskirts en route were another nice addition to the week’s birding. We had espied a large aggregation of gulls and water birds near a shanty village at a stop just outside the town, and and after a bit of uncertainty over whether we should be leaving the car unattended we set off across the flats. We were still some way off and the light was not good, but a quick scan of a group of a couple of hundred Sandwich Terns definitely held some promise, with several Caspian Terns, and in amongst the Sarnies, several similar sized terns… yet with orangey coloured bills… a trick of the light… or could it be? …. And they were, with 3 very nice ROYAL TERNS in the flock. Sorted! Another pretty difficult and enigmatic species to be found only on the fringes of the Western Palearctic...Flamingos and a small assortment of waders provided extra interest, but most interesting was an immature gull which appeared to be a first winter Great Black-backed Gull. Unfortunately a lone fisherman walked out onto the sandbar the gulls were roosting on, disturbing them all before we could confirm all features. Not relocated. Passing beyond the village and the throngs of boats and fishermen, receiving some brief nods and smiles, but no hassle whatsoever, a smart Arctic Skua made a close sweep of the bay, and thousands of distant gulls and gannets following a couple of distant trawlers. I made my way to the actual point of the peninsula only to be turned away by a soldier in uniform mooching on the beach – it appears the point is still inaccessible as it is a part of the military base here.

The day had disappeared very quickly in terms of birding, and after getting fuel back on the outskirts we returned to the town and found a cheap (very cheap – 120 Dirhams for all 3 of us) hotel. Some were lucky enough to have a hot shower, and after a bit of hotel window birding (Audouin’s Gull and Caspian Tern) an early night was had after enjoying a very good seafood paella at the restaurant next to the hotel. (Actually I think the first I have ever had).

Hey Dan

Great birds out there! Also, I'm pretty sure African Blue Tit is now a full species
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And now for one of the main reasons for coming all the way down here ......

Sunday 22nd .... The Aoussard Road

The reason being this stretch of road. In the last few years a couple of species new to the Western Pal have been discovered, in addition to good chances of seeing several other very hard to get/nice birds..... Up soon after 4 and at our destination by first light (7am). We missed out the first section of the road as others have described it as being relatively birdless. Instead of starting at 100km from Assouerd, we were even more ruthless and carried on in the dark until km post 70. Several small jumpy mammals and 4 hares were seen in our headlights on the latter stretch.

The desert! Ok, semi-desert probably in this case, but still great with big horizons and amazing colours and light. We disembarked to hear various unidentified lark songs and calls coming from the half lit distances around us. Camels materialised on the horizon, and small groups of larks kept us on our toes as they moved around the sparse grassland in the more vegetated areas. We eventually ascertained that it was Short-toed Larks providing the bulk of the birdsong, with small flocks moving around and eventually building into one large flock of c. 200 birds. Other birds seen were few, with Swallows passing through, up to 6 Hoopoe Larks audible in the area by the car, with one performing nearby very well and allowing us to approach close to. Several Wheatears turned out to be Northern, an approachable Bar-tailed Desert Lark singing on a rock gave us an opportunity for a bit of study in preparation for rarer larks we were hoping to engage with later… on which subject, one of the others had a DUNN'S LARK fly past (based on distinctive tail pattern), and 2 distant Cream-coloured Coursers in flight, whilst the remaining two had brief views of another very good bird as a male BLACK-CROWNED SPARROW-LARK briefly alighted at the roadside, burst into song before flying straight off again!!

7 Species, 2 of them target species, and we weren’t even at the proper sites yet!!!!!!

Moving on to km 68 for our first proper stop at a site Dunn’s Lark had been reported from and a singing male Desert Warbler just by the marker was very nice. The habitat was markedly different here, with lots of yellow sand and thick clumps of tussocky grass. Desert Wheatear was new for the day, but the other highlight, a FENNEC FOX flushed whilst we walked through the area was unfortunately only seen by one of the party (me). A study in sand and ginger highlights, unexpected, and very nice, although a bit of a downer the others missed out on it.

Driving slowly towards the next stop, we made a brief stop at km 66 for 3 Southern Grey Shrikes in the roadside Acacia trees. It was now about 9.30am.

Just before our second designated stop at km 63 (based on having read previous trip reports), we pulled over halfway between 64 and 63. We saw a Bar-tailed Desert Lark almost straight away, and further Hoopoe Larks. A large group of Camels over near km 63 drew our attention to a grassy depression running through the area. Distant birds here included 2 birds which we eventually realised were Tawny Pipits, whilst a larger lark could have been a Desert Lark. A distant Courser was also seen. Closer too and on the south side of the road we all caught up with and had great views of Dunn’s Lark. 2 individuals were moving over the sparsely vegetated and fairly stony desert floor, periodically digging into the sand near the bases of small plants with their hefty bills. They allowed a fairly close approach but eventually moved out onto a wider stony area, with a third bird seen briefly beyond them. Excellent!

Driving the short distance down the road to km 63 and then disembarking we found a further 7 Dunn’s Larks!!!!, in small loose groups of 3, 3 and a single, feeding peacefully and even engaging in song flights, allowing good views of the undertail as a bonus to all other features noted. A mystery bird which flew overhead fulfilled our suspicions, as a smart male Thick-billed Lark was located. Yet another lifer. It moved about on a ridge of gravel on the horizon, so much more wary than the other species. The Lark fest continued with a close Desert Lark, posing on the road itself at one point.

Driving on, 4 Cream Coloured-Coursers were seen at km 61 , including 2 young, with another Bar-tailed Desert Lark also seen. A Long-legged Buzzard in a tree was seen shortly after. Time was now 11:52.

Ten minutes later and another stop provided 2 more CCC’s, with a small flock of Short-toed Larks and another highlight, at least 3 (up to 6) male Black Crowned Sparrow Larks. A new species here was Temmincks Lark, with 4 seen.

At km 56 we stopped at a fairly substantial grassy patch with several acacias to search for more birds. More BC Sparrow Larks obliged, flying up from between the grass clumps. 2 Desert Sparrows flew in and posed briefly in the nearest acacia. I thought I glimpsed a potentially very interesting bird and called the others over… A warbler type bird, flitting teasingly in the grassy clumps. I got my bins onto a flitting warbler – to see an Iberian-type Chiffchaff. But then another bird appeared nearby, long tailed, strong eyestripe and crown pattern. This was the original one which had caught my eye initially ... Bright rufous ground colour with a uniquely patterned wing panel – CRICKET LONGTAIL!!!! Brilliant. We watched it distantly through bins. Jon attempted to get closer to photograph it (at which point his camera batteries ran out), and it moved off. As it went it collected a second one, and they both moved off through the scrubby grassland (not as rich quality as later areas). We were unable to keep them in view as they moved at least several hundred yards eastwards and parallel to the road. Flighty birds but still reasonable views and we were all pretty happy to have so easily caught up with the third WP speciality of this road, and on our first real stop in suitable habitat. Whist watching the Longtails a Thick-billed Lark flew over and was seen to land. Back west, we spotted a larger bird in the sky, which we quickly identified as our first Brown-necked Raven of the trip. (Possible lifer also, given the views we had previously enjoyed in Tunisia not excluding Common Raven as seen from a taxi.) It was soon joined by a second and made its way to a more substantial run of Acacias near a Berber camp where they alighted and a probable young bird was seen in a nest. More BC Sparrow Larks and a Spectacled Warbler completed the picture here.

Moving on, 5 Desert Sparrows, 1 Southern Grey Shrike, further Black Crowned Sparrow Larks and another Northern Wheatear were to be found at km 55

Several further brief stops provided similar species, with one at km 43 being particularly noteworthy for the number of Desert Sparrows seen (at least 39 counted in several acacias), with a Tawny Pipit also in an acacia, and myself connecting with a further two Dunn’s Larks feeding in the sandy/stony areas bordering the discrete area of sandy grass clumps, and a new species for the trip as a Lanner Falcon repeatedly tried to attack a pair of Hoopoe Larks, which would rise up from the ground and turn in mid air to fend the falcon off in turn.

A large black lizard on a pile of rocks off to one side of the road was worthy of a stop, with a further half dozen seen in the more barren areas as we drove past. Later identified as a spiny tailed lizard sp. (Uromastyx sp). An impressive beast to say the least. Appeared to be a couple of feet long, dull black. Have had trouble identifying this one specifically - doesn't appear to be one of the 2 recorded from S. Morocco, although there are 10 species in the whole of the N Africa sahara region.

On to Km 41, another stop we intended to make as Fulvous Babbler had been seen here, in addition to Cricket Longtails. We very quickly spotted a new bird in an Acacia, brown with a decurved bill, which was indeed a Babbler. Only the one seen. The Black Crowned Sparrow Larks were as numerous as anywhere here, with only a dozen or so yards being covered in the spiky grass clumps before yet another male bird flew up, often accompanied by a female, in its distinctive fluttering Serin like flight with its very marked black underwings. In covering the small area of the whole patch which we did we still possibly saw maybe 50 or more birds. (We should have tried a better survey, but that wasn’t our prime aim!). So hundreds probably in this one area alone. It wasn’t long before I stumbled upon yet 2 more Cricket Longtails, which even went so far as to engage in courtship feeding. 2 Further Brown-necked Ravens overhead briefly interacted with a Long-legged Buzzard which passed through.

We pressed on until we reached Oued Jenna (km post not noted, but it is the most substantial area of acacias in the area on the course of a wadi crossing the road, with much of ‘the’spiky grass also.) Subalpine Warbler was new here, but highlight for me was yet another Cricket Longtail, this one seen close to as it sang from an Acacia tree. Reasonable unsuccess in getting a killer shot of it as it either moved too fast through the branches for me to follow it with my handheld phonescoping setup, or perched partly obscured in the branches. But still, 3 sets of Longtails in total, a pretty iconic WP species and plenty more suitable habitat to look in. But time was pressing on…

We reached Aoussard itself with an hour or more of daylight left, and having passed 2 Desert Larks flying up from the roadside, made a stop, surreptitiously out of sight of the barracks. White-crowned Black Wheatear, a target species for the area was quickly seen. We scanned the cliffs for Pale Rock Martins, with no success, although a distant bird on the cliffs was definitely probably a raptor. A hirundine (could have been any species) was also briefly seen. Returning back a little we parked up and ate and scanned.
We were just contemplating moving on when an army vehicle pulled up alongside, its occupants politely questioning us on whether we had authorization or not. Upshot was that we had to follow them into the ghost town of Aoussard itself and register with the military. Strange, as at the police checkpoints at Dhakla no eyebrows had been raised when we had earlier told them our destination for the day, and there were no checkpoints on the road. A Collared Dove sp. on a pylon was pretty frustrating as it could have been an African, the late evening light being tricksy as we drove past, and we couldn’t stop for fear of displeasing our escort. (Hindsight is wonderful, but either species equally unlikely, and it did appear pretty grey and pink. Doh!) A cup of tea and reasonably strict admonishment (mildly administered) to avoid leaving the road anywhere in Western Sahara as far up as Laayoune (!) in case of landmines, and we were free to carry on. In the dark now though. A brief decision and we headed back towards Dhakla for our hotel again (hopefully), with several brief and unsuccessful stops to listen for Eagle Owls, and another (presumed?) Algerian Hedgehog (couldn’t see any long ears which could have made it a Desert one) and hares seen along with more Gerds, Gerbils and suicidal mouse like creatures. Our room did indeed await us…

An excellent day!

Monday 23rd South of Dhakla

Birding Karma – Good days are balanced by bad days. Excellent days are balanced out by rubbish days. Something like that, or maybe our expectations were just way too high after such a great day on the Assoured road. It was probably ok though, if a little hard work and fizzling out badly at the end….

It started well with Laughing Dove on the way out of town. (we’d not made the very early start before dawn as intended.) Heading out in daylight again and near the head of the 40 km Dhakla Bay a stop was made for Flamingos and various other dots. A particularly small bird had us getting excited but it was still a Greater and not a Lesser. Several km back down on the road leading south and on the opposite shore (North East corner) we stopped at the roadside as we could see the water body again, with the appearance of some greenery to boot. A short trek over the semi-barren cliffs and hillside and we were in a position to scan the still fairly distant birds (We could have pressed on and got closer). Highlights were an elusive Black-winged Stilt for me, with Slender-billed Gulls, more Flamingos, Spoonbill and 3 Ospreys, with distant Marsh Sandpiper and Little Tern being new birds, not much else, the waders were really blobs in the haze.

Pressing on, at the Porto Rico turnoff we had Desert Lark, and on the cliffs 4 further White-crowned Black Wheatear, with 300 plus Audouin’s Gull, c. 2300 LBBGull strung out along the beach, and 200 Sanderling in a tight knit flock picking its way through the much larger gulls. 16 Cormorants hauled up were all Great. (Reports of Long-tailed from the 50's surely erroneous id?) A Lanner Falcon allowed the other 2 to catch up with this great species, apparently it even showing an interest in myself as I dozed on the rocks... (gulls- after a quick count and scan I will admit my interest in this fascinating group did wane ever so slightly… and as no seabird passage seemed to be occurring I left Mike to attempt to age and sex each remaining interesting gull he could see…… all 3000 or so of them….)

Continuing on, Red-rumped Wheatears and occasional Desert Wheatears and the like popped up now and then, and at Ain Berba cliffs another huge assemblage of LBBGulls and seemingly little else. Odd Thekla Larks and the day ending on a low as an unsuccessful attempt was made to find a large lake prominently marked on our map down towards the Mauritian border. It may have only been a temporary water body, but the distances on the map were contradictory to say the least. We passed several recent and bad accidents (one of a large van on its side in the middle of the road, possessions strewn well about and several possibly uninjured (hopefully) occupants huddled at the roadside), and made a penultimate attempt at seeing some more good birds with a stop at the coast, 2 Spoonbills seen on the reefs the only birds seen (We should have made more effort if we were seriously wanting to find Western Reef Herons). A very last stop in an area of dunes and scrubby tamarisk type trees which should have been heaving with migrants held absolutely no birds at all...

Demoralising end to the day when we really were hoping for some new WP ticks (maybe a bit of dreaming there...), and given the hours spent at the end trying to find the non-existent lake which we'd held such high hopes for, and the distance left to travel, we decided to carry on driving through the night and try and reach the Tan Tan area to get some birds of the more normal Moroccan sort, rather than spend another day getting to grips with the Assoured road. Still good birds up there we hadn’t seen, notably sandgrouse, which we needed (only seen Spotted previously) and previous reports had reported goodies such as Isabelline Wheatear etc. Possibly we should have capitalised on being in the south, but who knows how it would have gone…. So a fairly tasty meal of lamb chops with bread in our bellies and we carried on driving into the night….

great trip report:t: wish i were thereo

birdboybowley said:

Hey Dan

Great birds out there! Also, I'm pretty sure African Blue Tit is now a full species
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Click to expand...

Cheers!

African Blue Tit -depends where you look I guess - eg bubo don't seem to have it yet. And not sure what it'll end up as - I see it could be Ultramarine Tit or Afrocanarian Blue Tit, and may be changed to Cyanistes as well!

Oh well.... on my list anyway

Tuesday 24th Knhiffis and points north to Goulimne

Another night spent driving, this time with the added hassle of a dust storm which seriously reduced visibility down to that of a thick fog. I awoke at one point feeling distinctly ill. Probably something to do with the amount of pure lamb fat I had consumed earlier and which was currently coating my insides admirably. Road speed was considerably reduced due to the poor visibility, although at other times we just ploughed on, hoping not to meet random camels or stationary vehicles in our path. We didn’t. Highlights when we eventually moved out of the heaviest dust were in another town where a Stone Curlew was wandering around the road around a brightly lit roundabout as incongruous as you like, and 2 Golden Jackals seen on the roadside in the more hilly regions. Driving in the dust storm had taken its toll, and eventually we gave up trying to push on, and caught a few hours sleep in the car.

Not long after it became light we carried on again, and soon we saw the first birds of the day, a couple of Black Kites gently hunting over the desert at the side of the road. More followed and a brief stop was made. 65 eventually tallied slowly moving north over the desert. And so it was that we had a second bite at the Khniffis cherry, turning up at a more civilised daylight hour. More incongruity provided by the camper vans parked on the cliff edge (there must have been thousands we’d seen on the route south), but the birds were still present. Kelp Gulls again, with Gull-billed Tern, Great Northern Diver (Rarity of the trip??!!) and a single Black-necked Grebe out in the lagoon. A brief walk along the cliff in the opposite direction yielded a flurry of passerine activity, with Yellow Wagtails and a Robin disturbed from the spring issuing into a water trough on the cliffside when an overly chatty and semi-clad french camper arrived to fill his water container. He was loudly talking french to us, apart from being not clad enough, so we mostly ignored him. The bushes on the cliffside held good numbers of Chiffchaff, with a couple of bright Iberians amongst them. A smart male Subalpine Warbler was also nice. Distant Black Kites passed by, but our attention was held more by the thousands of Dragonflies to be seen reaching up and into the sky – Migrant Hawkers? Impressive.

At a creek 265 km or so south of Goulimne we encountered our first Ruddy Shelduck of the trip, with 4 seen flying around and on the water. A Little Egret was about the sole other bird seen from the car. A stop at Oued Chbeika just after resulted in an ultimate count of 455 Black Kite moving over and then circling high north, with one or two unidentified raptors in amongst them, and one probable Lanner. We arrived somewhere in the middle of the passage, so presumably the actual count was somewhat higher. No yellow bills noted on the lower ones we could see! A large group of black dots on the sea were actually c.2-3000 distant Common Scoters strung out like so many distant black dots on the sea…

More miles passed, approaching one hill we had excellent views of an immature Long-legged Buzzard which flew over and landed in a bush not too far from the roadside, allowing me an opportunity to engage in a brief phonebinning session.

We stopped at the coast on one occasion and one of us found another adult Kelp Gull on the beach withthe other commoner large gulls present; unfortunately we were not all in the same area and the gulls dispersed before we saw it. Expect them in the Gibraltar Straits anytime soon...!!

Tan Tan itself added House Bunting to the list, and so we arrived on the road to Goulimne and various sites as described in ‘The Gosney’ for more birding. First stop was in a cultivated section, as we were seeing more and more larks in flight. Lots of singing Short-toed Larks, with Red-rumped Wheatear, House Sparrows and a Crested Lark just off to one side giving good views..

Eventually reaching the area around Tan Tan 100 we were treated to Temmincks Larks, one even flying up from the roadside as we approached. We didn’t trek that far from the road, so don’t know if we would have encountered all the species Gosney mentions, but were a little disappointed in only encountering species we had encountered before, namely Desert Wheatear and Spectacled Warbler. Otherwise it was Short-toed Lark central, with possibly hundreds in the more luxuriant vegetation. Still no Lessers for the trip.

A few kilometres further on (28 km to Guelmime) and another pair of Spectacled Warbler with a Thick-billed Lark at the roadside, and a distant male Marsh Harrier moving north briefly entertained us.

Eight or so kilometres before Guelmime we made a stop at Oued Sayed, another potentially good spot mentioned in the Gosney. The thick bushes and trees along the watercourse held plenty of interest, with Chiffchaffs numerous as expected. A Cetti’s Warbler called explosively, Laughing Doves skulked, and Sardinian Warblers dashed from one perceived bit of cover to another, before then perching out in the open anyway. Common Bulbuls and Blackbirds sang, several Song Thrushes flushed up and new birds for myself included a Kestrel on a pylon, with a flyby Goldfinch a new bird for all. More special birds included a Great Spotted Cuckoo playing peek a boo from within the branches of a large eucalyptus before eventually flying and later returning, and another Woodchat Shrike on a television arial of a house on the other side of the stream (One of the few closer ones we positively checked to eliminate the Balearic form). Highlight however, was a male white-spotted Bluethroat skulking down by the vegetated waters edge which I was lucky to espy after the others had already passed. Excellent bird, although it seemed quite nervous at our presence and disappeared into the vegetation as we tried to get a little closer. Mike was even able to initially id it for himself on its reflection, although it did pop out into the open for us all too briefly.

I made my way back through the scrub in the vain hope of encountering a Scrub Warbler (Very good site apparently, but we did little justice to the scrub present in the time we had), and came across a couple of showy Crested Larks singing from a leafless tree, as a shepherd herded his compact flock of goats home for the evening. He did this by walking on a completely different path higher above the stream, and calling to them continuously! I encountered a group of 6 Spectacled Warblers in a large bush, 5 of which were males and another Hoopoe in another scrubby small tree, presumably wanting to roost for the night. The others had a couple of Blackcaps and a flyover Tree Pipit. Not a bad spot really in the little time we had before it got dark.

tjbirdofprey said:

great trip report:t: wish i were thereo

Click to expand...

Cheers Morocco's great, Western Sahara, well that's great too.... Finishing writing this up is making me realise I wish I was back there too!!!!

Wednesday 25th Oued Massa

For our final full day we had decided it would have to be Oued Massa, despite it not being that cutting edge, and 2 of us having been before, as we really had very little gen for potential good sites in the Draa/ Tan Tan area. We knew there should also be plenty of good birds at Massa too.

We spent the night in a hotel in Tiznit, some km south of the Oued Massa turnoff. The toilets seemed to be definitely of better quality than our previous hotel, and having eaten a good meal the previous night and a good nights kip we were up sometime soon after first light. Pallid Swifts and Spotless Starlings in the town itself were a nice start, and 3 drive by White Storks in a tree were good. A further Marsh Harrier and Long-legged Buzzard en route were also nice.

We had been really hoping for an early start at the crack of dawn to move through the reserve and hit the cliffs for a decent early morning seawatching spell, but of course it didn’t quite happen like that. After our late start we also had to do some driving which took a while but we eventually arrived at Massa via a look at the river by the main bridge which revealed Black-winged Stilts, and some distant Sand Martins. A Kingfisher shot out from under the bridge and was later relocated in the overhanging trees. Lots of warblers moving in the reeds including Fan-tailed Warblers, Coots and Tufted Duck. A stop on the track just prior to the reserve proper revealed some nice birds including Moorhen, 3 Squacco Herons in the trees and a smart Ferruginous Duck in mid channel, Moussieres Redstart, and a Hoopoe flying up from the bank, finally revealing itself to all. Serins accompanied us, and we were at the car park. We were pleasantly surprised at not being approached to be guided.

The walk to the coast became hotter, but new birds along the way included groups of 7 and 5 Marbled Teal, more ducks including 2 Gadwall, 3 Pintail, a female Teal, single Pochard and Linnets on the hillside. Mallard were also new for the trip, appearing distinctly and uniformly paler than their british counterparts. Maghreb Mallard…? A Nightingale seen briefly on the track under some bushes was an early surprise.

A couple of House Bunting drinking at the dimples in the stone wheel near the end of the track were nice. Seawatching was ….quiet. Very quiet. It was also quite hot now, so we made our way back, with us all catching up on most of the ducks and the Glossy Ibis Mike had seen earlier now swelled up to around 15 in number. A Little Ringed Plover in poor light eventually gave itself up, with an earlier African Chaffinch back by the wheel also a welcome addition to any of the various lists we could have been keeping. After an unsuccessful foray to the big hotel and restaurant up on the hillside (way too pricey for the set menu of 2 options, and we should have actually gone into the nearby village of Sidi Rabat to see what was available there, doh), a couple of cool (compared to the outside temperature) cokes sufficed at a tiny café in the town of Massa itself with entertainment provided by some local Pallid Swifts, Spotless Starlings and local schoolgirls passing by (Or maybe we were the entertainment.). After a refreshing drink or two we made our way to the furthest bridge crossing the river. En route we were fortunate to have Jon espy a Black-crowned Tchagra flying alongside and into a palm, as we hadn’t yet seen one on the trip and didn’t really want to bother searching for one (we'd probably been hearing them all along the track, but been seeing Bulbuls instead). It showed very well after a while, although mostly as it flew. Well smart, and a good example of an atypical western palearctic bird. Too exotic by far. We parked up by the river, managing to miss a massive stump under the front bumper by mere nanometres (I call it driving skill as opposed to luck) which could have had interesting repurcussions on our insurance excess had a more positive connection been made.

Not long after and we had Moustached Warbler under the belt. A singing Reed Warbler also eventually showed itself to some of the party, whilst overhead some small martins revealed their true selves to be Brown-throated Martins (Formerly going by the unfair moniker of ‘Boring Martins’ according to WE Oddie or someone such..). Not boring, or indeed plain at all really. Subtle. Slower flight than Sand Martin and great little birds. 22 counted at one point. Other birds seen here included a singing Cirl Bunting, smart male Stonechat and a Purple Heron flying low overhead upstream. Turtle snouts in the water were added interest. A Green Sandpiper nearby enabled us all to catch up with this species for our 2009 Morocco lists….

A last futile attempt at a seawatch saw us head up the hillside to where we had seen the Bald Ibises feeding on the hillside 2 years previously. The site where they had been was being fairly well developed (like the whole sprawling town of Massa – ridiculous really given the potential importance of the site for wildlife, being a reserve and all…). Thinking about it, there was the possibility this had not been their only regular site when we had visited before and a Cattle Egret and 7 or more smart daytime Stone Curlews were some recompense. On the other side of the track and across the barren hillside we split up for a while, Mike for his aforementioned futile attempt at a seawatch, us other two turning up several Hoopoe, 2 Kestrel (Still only Eurasian) and a flock of 5 Golden Plover seemingly very out of place in the barren landscape. Bit of a heart stopping moment when they flushed up, very disappointed they had the temerity to not be Sandgrouse. They were very wary, even after they landed a considerable distance away. For the last hour of the day I trekked back through the dry landscape to the road, going a good half hour with absolutely no birds seen or heard before eventually reaching some cultivated attempts at some fields and catching up with a bevy of Lark species including Short-toed and Crested. Ultimate highlight however was a lift on the back of a locals ancient motorbike back down the road in the dark as we attempted to all meet up again, one arm clutching scope and tripod, and trying to keep the legs from dragging on the ground, the other hanging on for security and dear life as we pootled along the empty road at scary speeds of probably up to 20kph or so, until approaching headlights resolved into the Corsa and safe egress from the area.

Brief discussion and we headed back into town to an internet café we had spotted earlier and a chance for some to check their flight details back. We eventually arrived at Oued Sousse to try for the Red-necked Nightjars approaching 11pm. We had brief views on 2 occasions of what was most probably this species (one around a lamppost after moths at the favoured spot at the entrance to the king’s palace, the other flying up from the ground on the way back) but we could not hear anything in the windy conditions. We were also ‘asked’ to move on by a guard on a quad bike with the usual Moroccan military reason ‘that it was for our safety’ being quoted. We didn't test how unsafe it was to not comply with his wishes...We moved on and eventually found a hotel some miles away off a main dual carriageway en route to the airport, Agadir prices as opposed to Dhakla ones of course (about 350 Dirhams all in for the 3 of us).

Thursday 26th Oued Sousse

We left the hotel soon after first light, just as the first rain drops started to fall. It was still pretty gloomy as we arrived back at Oued Sousse, so much that given the rain we saw very little from the car initially. We took the road crossing the river and through cultivated fields and into the main part of the reserve. Interesting habitat, we were thinking, and probably well worth a visit at a later time in the season for passage or summer visitors. Still raining however, and few birds actually seen, highlights being 5 White Stork flying out of a roadside tree, and a Spur–thighed Tortoise actually in the road. After passing over it (ground clearance fortunately ok) we pulled up and waited for it to safely reach the verge.

Back at the Nightjar site (not that we’d ever intended to make it here for Nightjars in the morning before it got light) and we partly disembarked. Bad move, as heading out to observe the river poor views could only be obtained if optics were not to become steamed up in the steady wind and rain. The mud was also of an extremely sticky cloying type, and quickly built up into a fair representation of 80’s style ‘Blockaboots’, a rare species of platforms somewhat infrequently encountered these days, and which made progress a fairly slow and a decidedly perilous affair. Came across another Tortoise in the saltmarsh (good, as apparently they are under a lot of threat and quite scarce in Morocco as a whole due to being used to make gimmicky souvenirs for tourists), and added Woodpigeons to my personal list around the palace. Back in the car we scanned as much of the river as we could, which wasn't that much, a nice group of Black-winged Stilts the main highlight, apart from a couple more of the Moroccan race (with excellent blue eye-patches) of Magpie huddled sheltering from the rain in the roadside bushes.

Being realistic, we headed back to an eatery near the hotel and on the way to the airport, as we just had time for a reasonable breakfast of pancakes, croissant and hot drinks before heading back to the airport to hand the car back in (African Blue Tits seen briefly whilst unloading the car) and catch our return flight. No bonus Black-shouldered Kites unfortunately, although the sun had now come out. Everything went smoothly, with the last birds seen in Morocco being 2 distant Black Kite observed from the plane as we raced down the runway.

Overall an excellent trip, typically knackering with over 3000km driven, plenty of missed sleep, but no serious incidents (driving or otherwise), and a half reasonable 130 or so species seen. Plenty of gaps, but target species connected with and pretty good quality ones at that. Good company and excellent all round.

A great report Dan, lots of good species and a great winter destination. The only thing that puts me off are the tales of roadside carnage that inevitably accompany reports like yours!!

Excellent trip Dan - did think about doing that road when down at Dhakla, but was without car and in a lazy mood to hitch-hike out there ...not so green on the birds, but Fennic Fox, oo that would have been nice

It was pretty good down there :t: I think the tales of carnage are a little exaggerated sometimes, you just have to go for it sometimes and not worry about the possible consequences .... although we saw the accidents in W Sahara I think the drivers were more considerate there than in Morocco itself (it was also a lot less busy). Next time I'd like to go for longer and quite possibly do the bus from Agadir and do a bit of hitching myself...

And you can only do so much. Would have been nice to go over the border into Mauritania and the Banc d'Arguin National Park, but we would have had trouble with the hire car I believe, and I couldn't have got a visa in time anyway.... there's also plenty of other unexplored roads (eg beyond Assoured to Tichla) from a birding perspective (although you have to be a bit more careful in the border/military zones).

Top trip Dan and the crew. Some extreme birds and other wildlife (and I include the law enforcement officers in that!).
Glad you had time to squeeze in some caning of the Massa and Souss areas, some of the best birding i've ever had, there.
Henerz.

Sounds like a fantastic trip.....!
Just to highlight another potential split. The dutch are splitting the african grey shrikes into a seperate species, prob more closely related to Great grey than southern. This would leave southern grey shrike monotypic (meridionalis of iberia and s France) And 'Desert grey shrike', (including elegans and algeriensis) in north africa.

Meridionalis is frequently seen in northern Morocco.

Steve