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Red-throated Bee-eater

Red-throated Bee-eater
join us for a fantastic tour of The Gambia this November

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

MOROCCO - 10 DAY TOUR - DAY 10 - MARCH 26TH

Agadir – Oued Sous – Tamri – Oued Ksob – Essaouira

This was our last full day birding, we needed to see a few more species, especially waders, gulls and terns as well as the Bald Ibis. At 7:30am we arrived at Oued Sous the tide was low with a large area of exposed mudflats along the river, the air was very still and there was a thick mist shrouding the river. From the nearest viewpoints on the approach road we listed many of the waders seen yesterday as well as Greater Flamingo, Grey Heron, Little and Cattle Egrets and also our first new bird of the day, Common Shelduck. Towards the river mouth we found Avocets, a party of 12 birds was new for the list and just after that we saw our first Common Snipe as it flew in front of us.

The Group birding in the fog at Oued Sous

A pool on the salt marsh held quite a selection of birds with Eurasian Spoonbill, Little Egret, Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits, Redshank, Greenshank, Green Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Little Stint, Black Winged Stilts and another new bird for the list, Whiskered Tern. Other birds of note were: Stone Curlew, Curlew, Audouin’s Gull, Sandwich Tern and lots of plovers of four different species.

On the return trip we added a distant Black-crowned Tchagra, European Bee-eater, Osprey and our one and only Slender-billed Gull!

After 3 ½ hours at Oued Sous and some great birding we drove north through Agadir heading for Tamri, the mist was slowly lifting although it was thick in places. At cape Rhir we stopped to look for Bald Ibis and before the minibus had come to a standstill we had located half a dozen birds. We had very close views of them as they fed on the mountainside, ugly, but nice to see. As the mist was lifting we decided to try some sea-watching, it was very quiet out there and apart from the usual gulls we saw about 10 Northern Gannets. Along the beach we could see a Little Egret and whilst ‘scoping’ the bird we discovered Greenshank, Turnstone, Whimbrel and Sanderling.

At Tamri we bought lunch and drove to the river just outside the town where we ate our picnic. The large brackish pool held many Common Coot, Common Sandpiper, Moroccan Wagtail, Audouin’s Gull, Spoonbill, Little Egret and whilst we were there about 20 Bald Ibis dropped in to wash. A Marsh Harrier sat in the reeds and during a short walk we found Sedge Warbler, Tree Pipit, Robin, Subalpine Warbler, lots of Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers, Serins and Sardinian Warblers.

The habitat of the Bald Ibis

Just south of Essaouira we turned off the main road to pay a visit to Oued Ksob and despite huge development in the area, including a new bridge, there were lots of birds to see. The shrubby tobacco plants held lots of Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Serins and a Moussier’s Redstart. Down by the river we had a terrific n hour watching many species coming to drink and bathe, the number of Blackcaps was astounding, we often counted ten at a time coming to drink, a conservative estimate would have been 50 – 100 in this small area.

Many other species joined the Blackcaps at the water, at ant one time you could see: Greenfinch, Blackcap, Goldfinch, African Chaffinch, Linnet, Chiffchaff, Song Thrush, Blackbird and Laughing & Collared Doves.

A goat in the canopy of a tree!!!!

Our target species the Plain Martin turned up in good numbers throughout our stay, there was probably a dozen birds in all, we could see their nest holes in the sandy bank, we also found our second target bird, Common Kingfisher, two of them graced us with their presence. A group of Cattle Egrets sat in the trees above the water, they were looking good in summer plumage, a Little Egret Joined them, we also found several waders in the river: Redshank, Greenshank, Wood, Common & Green Sandpipers, Little Ringed Plover and lots of wagtails, Yellow, White and Moroccan.

A ‘good find’ turned up whilst we scanned the row of rushes along the far bank in the form of a Moustached Warbler, it was good to compare it to Sedge Warblers that were also present. Further sightings included: a Spotted Flycatcher which is a very early record for this species, also lots of Moorhens, Spotless Starling, Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Grey Heron.

We had about an hour left before the sun went down so we walked down river from the new bridge to it’s mouth where a huge roost of Gulls could be seen. We added our first Mediterranean Gull there, but also saw lots of Audouin’s Gulls, a single Black-headed Gull, in a roost fo over 1,000 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, we saw a Shoveler in the river, Sanderling, Ringed and Kentish Plover and lots more waders mentioned above, feeding along the river bank.

In all in all it was a superb day-out, we recorded several new species in a total of 101 species, our best day-tally of the trip and a very enjoyable day.

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