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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jos Stratford" data-source="post: 3247397" data-attributes="member: 12449">Onward...22 June. Dakhla to Laayoune.In a random patch of desert, I caught a Lesser Egyptian Gerbil in the traps overnight, another new species and a good way to start the morning. Thereafter, we shifted to Gleb Jdaine to see if any sandgrouse came to drink, but not a single one did. Still, couldn't complain too much - four Stone Curlews lurked in the shade of bushes and a bunch of Trumpeter Finches dropped in.With that, after an obligatory few hours on the beaches of Dakhla Bay, I decided to forego anymore night explorations of the Aousserd road and instead begin the long drive back to the north, albeit a rather more sedate pace. Cream-coloured Coursers in two locations, a superb Hoopoe Lark feeding a small chick, several Red-rumped Wheatears, so the first hundred kilometres rolled past. Just beyond Chtoukan, about 175 km north of Dakhla, a major surprise ...dark swifts swirling through a rocky ravine. After days of Pallid Swifts, an apparent smaller size and uniform dark plumage immediately caught the eye, the birds in good light and flying low. Plain Swifts, fast agile flight, turning much onto the ravine, overall blackish-brown plumage, barely discernible throats. Abundant on the nearby Canary Islands, Plain Swifts are not confirmed as breeders in Morocco or the Western Sahara, but these certainly seemed to be in suitable habitat. Either way, a cracking record and a new bird species for me, the first of the trip!Next up, a Fat Sand Rat about 200 km further north and another 100 km beyond that, the piece de la resistance of the journey north, the simply amazing Laayoune lagoon. Bordered by towering sand dunes and boasting a string of deep pools and luxuriant vegetation, this is truly the greatest freshwater oasis on the long coast of the Western Sahara. Having previously visited this site in winter, I was keen to sample its delights in summer and we soon found ourselves traipsing over the piles of rubbish at the edge of Laayoune city to access the site. With a good two hours before sundown, we 'surfed' down a last few dunes to grab a perch overlooking the best of the pools ...and what a feast for the eyes it was! To be honest, I was not expecting the pools to hold so many birds in summer, but how wrong I was! The place was teeming ...Marbled Ducks, Ruddy Shelducks, Glossy Ibises, Purple Herons, Greater Flamingos, birds everywhere! Gull-billed Terns patrolling, Pallid and Little Swifts overhead, Eurasian Spoonbills and Squacco Herons at the edges of reeds. Camels plodded up the dunes, I set about making a few counts of the most common species ...with the pools stretching beyond sight, all were conservative estimates, but Marbled Ducks clicked in at a minimum of 800, Ruddy Shelducks at 250, Glossy Ibises at 80 and Little Grebes at 40. Quite a wow factor indeed. Then to cap it all, a Barbary Falcon cruised directly overhead and a flock of about 20 Collared Pratincoles dropped in, hawking the pools for the last half hour of the day. Little one decided to extract a loose tooth at that moment, fortunately not squealing in response.As the day drew to an end, with Black-winged Stilts making a right racket and a flock of Slender-billed Gulls bathing in the shallows, we wandered back up to town. Pallid Swifts by the hundred filling the sky, I did have plans to celebrate by staying in a hotel ...the place we checked out looked a dump however, so we quit those ideas and drove further north, camping instead near Khnifiss Lagoon.</blockquote>

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