THEY DON'T LOOK TOO HAPPY ABOUT BEING OUT AT 6AM DO THEY?A similar walk was taken down towards the river at 6:15am just as it was getting light. We didn’t find any new species for the list but we did get better views of everything because the wind had died down. Common Nightingales were singing sporadically, we found Common Redstart along with all species seen yesterday.
THE VIEW FROM THE TERRACE AT AUBERGE TOUBKAL AT TALIOUINE
The second leg on the journey to the coast was commenced at 7:30am and it wasn’t long before we stopped for a spot of birding. It was the Gorge at Aoulouz that was our destination. From the bridge just outside the town we look over a good stretch of the almost dry Oued Sous we could see into the mouth of the gorge. From our high vantage point we located a good number of species, new birds included Great White Egret and Squacco Heron, they were joined by Little & cattle egrets, Green Sandpipers, Little Ringed Plovers, Moroccan Wagtails, Water Pipits, Greenshank and Grey Herons. We then walked into the gorge and watched a few falcons on the cliffs, they were Common Kestrel and Peregrines. Hundreds of European Bee-eaters flew over us and higher up we found Marsh Harrier, our first Montagu’s Harrier, Griffon Vulture, Black Kite and another ‘first’ Short-toed Eagle.
ONE OF THE FEW LIZARDS SEEN ON THE TRIP SO FAR - AS YET UNIDENTIFIED
As we walked further into the gorge we looked down over small cultivated fields surrounded by a variety of shrubs and trees. In this vegetation we found Common Nightingale, Sardinian Warbler, many Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers and Chaffinches. High up in one of the trees we found a dozen or so of Black-crowned Night Herons, many were juveniles and they gave us superb views.
A few kilometers further along the sous plains we stopped again and took a short walk, we were hoping to fimd cuckoos but all we managed were a few Black Kites, Marsh Harriers, lots of Woodchat Shrikes and Black-eared Wheatears and hundreds of Bee-eaters. Over the nest 50km we must have seen over 500 Bee-eaters!! Also many Swallows and House Martins, Spotless Starlings, Common Bubul and we did get a glimpse of two Fulvus Babblers that were perched in a roadside tree. As we descended into the sous valley and the Argan Forest we noticed our first tree climbing Goats, they were incredible and some were really high up in the trees, no I hadn’t been drinking!!!
We arrived at our hotel at 2pm, we checked into our rooms and had a quick wash and change before setting off for the nearby Oued Sous. Great disappointment greeted us as we approached the river, hundreds of cars were parked along the road and we soon found out that a major golf tournament was taking place on the new golf course next to the King’s Palace, much worse news was to come, the track to the Oued Sous nature trail was closed for security purposes so we couldn’t even see the river mouth.
Nevertheless we stayed upriver and spent a couple of hours finding several species of waders, as the tide went out more mud appeared and hence more birds. We logged Redshank, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint, Black-tailed Godwit, Little, Ringed, Kentish and Grey Plovers, Green and Common Sandpipers and Black-winged Stilt. We also found Greater Flamingo, Eurasian Spoonbill, White stork (150+), Little and Cattle Egrets, Grey Heron and Moroccan Cormorant.
In the salt marsh scrub we saw Zitting Cisticola and Sardinian Warblers and our best find was Stone Curlew (5). It wasn’t so bad after all but as the sun went down the breeze became a cold wind so we beat a hasty retreat and headed for the hotel and a nice hot dinner (not tajine for a change).
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