LONDON TO MARRAKECH - TRANSFER TO HOTEL OURIKA – AFTERNOON VISIT TO OUKAIMEDAN (TOUBKAL NATIONAL PARK)
The first day of a 10 –day tour of central Morocco.
Participants: 9 members of the Oxford RSPB Member’s group
Everything went smoothly at the airport, our group of 10 all arrived on time and the flight was also on schedule. We arrived at Marrakech at 11am in a blaze of sunshine and summer warmth, our first sighting was a House Bunting, it was singing to us from the roof of the terminal building as we stepped off the plane. As we loaded the bus with our luggage we had a little time to look around the airport and we found Common Bubul, White Wagtail & Pallid Swift.
The group during our first outing of the tour near Toubkal National Park, High Atlas
During our drive to the hotel we saw White Stork, Great Grey Shrike, Collared Dove, Barn Swallow and plenty more Pallid Swifts. At the hotel we spent little time unpacking our optics and met up again in the hotel grounds some 15 minutes later. We spent a few minutes looking around the grounds where we found more Bubuls and also African Blue Tit, African Chaffinch, Serin, Cattle Egret, Common Kestrel, Cetti’s Warbler (heard) and Levaillant’s Woodpecker also heard.
RED BILLED CHOUGH
For the remainder of the day we drove the 30km up to Oukaimedan, the road winds its’ way up through some fantastic scenery with the snow covered peaks in the background. Stopping along the way we watched several new species, our first stop produced Black Redstart, Moussier’s Redstart (at least 3 males), Long-legged Buzzard, Rock Bunting and more African Chaffinches.
ROCK BUNTING
Our next stop was in a small pine copse, there were still piles of snow on the ground, the air was a lot cooler up here. We found Coal Tit, Mistle Thrush, lots of African Chaffinches and more African Blue Tits. Another stop found us watching an obliging flock of Red-billed Chough, they were feeding on a grassy slope just below the road. The next stop was to survey a babbling brook, we were now above the snow-line and the temperature had plummeted, our target bird, the Dipper, was soon located.
THE MOROCCAN ICONIC SPECIES - MOUSSIER'S REDSTART
At Oukaimedan it began to snow, a small shower but it was very cold and the light wasn’t too good either. We spent a couple of hours searching the area for the must-see Crimson-winged Finch, which proved to be elusive but we eventually got to grips with it. Other birds were easier to find: Mistle Thrush, Black Redstart, White Wagtail and we had a brief view of Barbary Partridge. More difficult species to find were; Rock Sparrow, Atlas Horned lark and, of course, the Crimson Winged Finch. The latter two were the icing on the cake as they were our most wanted species, we found both of them in and around the car park near the ski-lift, both species were greatly appreciated by the group.
CRIMSON WINGED FINCH
Following that superb last hour we set off back down the mountain to the hotel for a delicious dinner.
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