Tunisia Trip report - September 28th-October 5th (1 Viewer)

[Trystan]

A week in the sun with the destination picked by my wife for rest and relaxation on the island of Djerba. We booked with Thomas Cook, all inclusive at the Vincci Helios. I felt that some of the trip advisor reviews were unjustified, obviously the staff are better at French than English, and there are more French and German tourists here but staff were friendly, rooms clean, food generic but good with really good desserts!

Watch out for Thomas Cook charging £60 extra for hotel transfers. We declined and took a taxi when we arrived. It cost us £7 each way.

Before the trip I tried to get information about birding here and I found a little about Tunisia but absolutely nothing about Djerba. As such I did not set my expectations very high. I had decided that I would like to rent a car but rather than booking in advance I would wait until arriving to assess the roads, people, safety and so on, more to appease my wife than for any other reason.

Roads were good and well signposted with a few potholes and speed bumps here and there. Traffic was the usual two extremes of crawling traffic such as a moped with a donkey on the back, to the racing traffic overtaking on blind corners on two wheels but the roads were pretty quiet so in the end I rented a car two days. One day spent looking round the island, the other driving to Km 26 of the Matmata-Douz road described in this useful report I found:
http://www.birdtours.co.uk/tripreports/tunisia/tunisia-11/Tunisia-08.htm

I will describe this latter road trip later, but rather than a day by day account of the rest of the trip which was mostly spent in the vicinity of the hotel; I will describe the three locations on the island which at some point or another provided sightings of all the species I saw on Djerba.

Firstly, the hotel was located in the best possible place to access the spit of land on the East end of the island. Across from the hotel, a dry salt pan for horse, camel and quad bike riding but south of this is an inlet forming a thin lagoon. Between this and the sea was an abandoned hotel, intriguing in its own right with a series of tiny apartments with ripped out electric and plumbing, crumbling masonry, overgrown gardens including tennis courts, crazy golf and a climbing wall. The hotel still had security guards but since they happily waved me through with my binoculars every morning and neither my French nor their English was up to the task, I never found out what happened to the hotel or why it still even had security.

Anyway, the abandoned hotel grounds were very good for migrant passerines, while the lagoon produced a multitude of waders and the effect of the whole place was not dissimilar to Spurn point. Overall this was a big area to cover on foot so I tended to focus on different areas on different days.

Crested larks, easy to find around the island were noticeably absent here and I put this down to packs of feral dogs which have probably done for all ground nesting birds in this area. More about the dogs later but the other big problem, mentioned in another Tunisia thread on bird forum is the quantity of litter. Everywhere near humans are overflowing bins with plastic debris caught up in all the vegetation. Tunisia has just implemented a departure tax and it would be well spent on a massive clean up and recycling programme.

So now for the birds. The hotel grounds did not hold much. The ubiquitous algeriensis Great Grey Shrike, Spotless starlings, Spanish sparrows, Feral Pigeons, Collared and Laughing doves, there was a Little owl on the beach one morning while 4 fly over juvenile Night herons were the only ones of the trip.

An Easterly wind on the first day seemed to produce the best results for migrants that day and the next around the abandoned hotel with odds and ends sticking around longer. Along with the ever present Sardinian warblers were Common Redstart, Robin, Northern Wheatear, Blackbird, Yellow Wagtail, Swallow, Spectacled Warbler, Chiffchaff and Icterine Warbler. A fleeting flycatcher was probably pied but I couldn’t rule out collared. At least 2 Kingfishers were also present.

The lagoon regularly held good numbers Little Egret, Grey Heron and Spoonbill along with Yellow Legged Gulls, Slender Billed Gulls and interestingly a party of about 15 Baltic Gulls was present here all week but not seen elsewhere on the island and according to the Collins guide, wintering much further East.

Caspian and Lesser Crested Terns were ever present, the later mostly confined to the southern tip of the lagoon, the former often amongst the gulls. Flyovers here were a couple of Ravens and 5 young Greater Flamingos together followed by several single birds over the week.

Kestrel was regular on the streetlights between our hotel and the abandoned hotel and I saw a Kingfisher on 3 occasions, twice flying through the overgrown gardens and once across the lagoon.

Waders came and went and worth a decent look every day. The usual suspects were Dunlin, Greenshank, Curlew, Kentish and Grey Plovers but there were usually Redshanks too. In addition, 2 Whimbrel one evening, Little Stint a couple of times, a group of 5 Ringed plovers and 2 Turnstones at the back end of the week and a single Knot was the last bird on the trip list.

 

[Trystan]

The second site I found by chance during our drive around the island. At first I thought it was some kind of rubbish tip as from the road I could see a large number of Ravens perched up on fence posts around a field with piles of rubbish with several more mobbing a raptor which proved to be a Marsh Harrier. The site is located on the west coast just before reaching El Kantara and although it has a perimeter fence, can be accessed from the rear where there is no fence between the posts.

At this time however, I was on a promise not to spend all day stopping to bird so I settled for a pair of Sand Martins and a several Crested Larks while 2 Great Crested Grebes were just offshore and decided to investigate more thoroughly later if time allowed.

I did manage to return here both evenings that I had the car and within the perimeter fence are some raised artificial pools. Anyone visiting the site should view from the north end where bushes provide cover for climbing the bank without flushing all the birds. Also be mindful that although there was no fence at the rear, I suspect that one is not actually supposed to be here.

Further to the morning’s birds, a showy Fan Tailed Warbler in the reeds at the bottom of the bank both days while 50+ Flamingos were just offshore and more in the pools. I saw several Cormorants fly through here too.
On and around the pools, wildfowl included mostly Shoveler with Mallard, Wigeon, Pintail and a handful of Teal. There were good numbers of Coot, Black Necked Grebe and a few Little Grebe too.

A group of Great White Egrets was on a central island, not many waders but a few Green Sandpipers, singles of Common Sandpiper and Ruff, while a Temminck’s Stint looked very leggy walking about on the plastic lining of the pools. There was also a pair of Black Winged Stilts on both visits.

The only other additional bird here was White Winged Black Tern, three birds fishing over the water. Other species here already mentioned at the previous site were Grey Heron, Little Egret, Greenshank, Yellow Legged and Slender Billed Gulls.

 

[trw]

Thanks for the report.
Brings back memories of Mahdia last year especially the Great Grey Shrikes!They were all over the place there.
If you fancy returning to Tunisia you may enjoy the Riu El Mansour in Mahdia.
It is a Thomson exclusive hotel and the staff there were great.The food was decent for Tunisia.
You can do most of your birdwatching on foot or by train avoiding having to hire a car.
There is an excellent bird habitat in the farmland close to the hotel and a top birding spot at Sebkha De Moknine 20 minutes away by train.
If you enjoy decent hotels with great birdwatching close by have a look at my report on Isla Canela,Costa De la Luz in Spain.It is currently on the vacation trip forum section.
Thanks again.always interested in reports like these to plan future holidays.

 

[Trystan]

Thanks for the feedback, I have a little more still to write up which I will hopefully get to this evening.

Will also check out your report.

Cheers

 

[Trystan]

Site 3,

Continuing a circuit of the island, heading North now from Ajim we reached Sidi Jmour Mosque which is quite pretty.
Just before reaching it was a bay with a sandbank full of gulls and a few terns. I set the scope up next to a tree with a Kestrel perched in it.

A small number of Sandwich Terns were grouped together among the Caspian Terns, Slender Billed and Yellow Legged Gulls. The other new addition here was Oystercatcher, at least 5 of them. Other waders included Ringed Plover, Grey Plover and Dunlin.

Next, we parked under the trees outside the mosque and I tried to get looks at the warblers flitting about in the canopy and was rewarded with some close views. Olivaceous warblers, I reckoned at least six but probably more judging by the amount of 'tacking' going on among the leaves. Eastern or Western was more than I could tell and the Collins distribution map didn't shed any light but I suspect by the general sweep of ink over North Africa that Western is the more likely.

There was also a Spotted Flycatcher here and numerous Spanish Sparrows while a Northern Wheatear hopped around nearby. Across the road, Swallows to'd and fro'd over the field and to complete the tally of birds seen while on the island, there was a European Bee-eater on the wire just after we set off North again.

Since my wife had never set foot on mainland Africa, and since she had decided not to accompany me on my long trip to Matmata, we also drove over the causeway to the mainland during our navigation of the island. I mention this simply because, during a brief walk down a track through an olive plantation on the other side, a pair of Chaffinches flew by, the only time noted on the trip.

 

[Trystan]

This just leaves my 400km round Jaunt into the desert between Matmata and Douz. I set off ate 4.30 am in the cold and dark. I passed the town of Medenine just as it was starting to get light. Up to this point, the area is very flat but between Medenine and Matmata, the mountains spring up suddenly and the road becomes very windy and picturesque.

New birds for the trip began to show up as I passed the little villages. In the first, a Hoopoe on the wire, in the next I stopped for a raptor on a telegraph pole and was delighted with the cirtensis subspecies of Long Legged Buzzard.

Following on from this new for me subspecies came my first lifer of the trip. House Bunting singing from the roof of a village, the name of which I noted was Saykah. Plenty more of this species turned up between here and Matmata and as the road began to climb, my first of many Black Wheatears was perched on a wire. I was stopping regularly in the hope of some larks and found several Thekla between the many Crested Larks but nothing more exciting.

Then, just after the village of Toujane a bird came up off the road, firstly I notice the white in the wings and stonechat crossed my mind for a split second until I registered the red tail. A stunning male Moussier's Redstart which hopped around for a few minutes while I watched from the car before it bobbed down into a gully.

Unfortunately, this was to be my last lifer of the trip. I found a Black Eared Wheatear in a small orchard along the way and a stop at Matmata produced a Pied Flycatcher. I found the white box described in the linked report easily and spent over an hour trudging about in the hot desert in the hope of further lifers but could only add more year ticks, albeit very nice ones. At the top of the hill just north of the road, Desert Larks foraged unconcernedly and on my return to the car a lovely male Desert Wheatear was actually singing from a tree by the roadside.

I worked my way back slowly, stopping again at several points but apart from 2 House Martins at Toujane, no further species were added.

A little disappointed not to get at least one lifer lark (any of Temminck's horned, Hoopoe, Bar-tailed desert or Thick billed would have been) but overall the holiday was much more productive than I had expected.

In total I saw 79 species and there was just one other incident which I feel I should mention, I will certainly be informing both Thomas Cook and the Tunisian tourist department about it.

The incident relates to the feral dogs to which I alluded earlier in the report. On the last full day of the trip I set out as usual from the hotel down the road when a young dog started yapping at me. The dogs were generally timid but I didn't think much of it until it brought two adult dogs charging up at me, one of them snarling and barring my way down the road.

I backed up, using the tripod of my scope to keep the dog away as it continued to push me away. All three dogs suddenly backed up and returned to their starting point, so I tied again this time taking a really wide berth away from the road and in the scrub but to no avail, this time the dogs came again even more aggressive and now the second dog seemed to be trying to flank me.

Backing up again this time flailing with the scope to try and prevent this from happening I had to back somewhat further before the dogs relented. This time I gave up and set of back to the hotel but no sooner had I turned my back than the dogs charged again and I had to back up a great deal further before they finally gave up.

I do not know what the dogs would have done had I not had the scope to use as defense and perhaps a thunderstorm in the small hours contributed to this behavior but clearly they are a danger to tourists both physically and from the potential of rabies. Had this happened the first day and not the last, I doubt that my trip report would have been so full. My attempts to explain what had happened at the hotel were unsuccessful with the receptionist telling me to come back at 10 am when the hospital was open.

The event somewhat tainted the holiday for me and where I would have recommended it, I would now advise caution.

If anything comes of my correspondence with Thomas Cook I will post further on here for information.

Thank you for reading.

 

[trw]

Thanks for the report.
I have had many hairy moments with mad dogs.It is an occupational hazard when birdwatching in Tunisia,Morocco and Egypt!
So far,touch wood,not been attacked yet.
My method of defense is to stand stock still,arms by my side and make reassuring calming down noises.
I used to work with feral children and reckon my defusing techniques transfer well to yapping dogs!
If anyone is visiting Dahab sewage works,beware!
Its a great birdwatching site but there is a pack of feral hounds guarding it.
They calmed down after my second visit and by the end of the week we were best friends.
The farmland area I mention in my Mahdia,Tunisia report has one or two dodgy strays but they soon got used to me after a couple of visits.
Good to see you found the Moussiers Redstart,which are commonly found in Morocco.
Have a look at my Mahdia report if you are tempted to return to Tunisia.
Thanks again for posting your report.