Day 8 – 25th
March. Taliouine to Agadir via the ‘Sous Plain’ passing through Aoulouz
and Tarroudant.
What a fabulous day!! The
weather was perfect, clear sky a lovely temperature and a nice cooling breeze,
perfect for my kind of birding. We listed an amazing 92 species despite
traveling for 3-4 hours!
The
day stared with a similar walk as last night, which was down towards the river,
we started at 6:15am just as it was getting light. We found two new species for
the list, Western Orphean Warbler was the first, which began singing as we entered
the small cultivated area, it was hard to track down but eventually we all had
excellent views of it. Many other species were singing including Common
Nightingales, which showed very well for us, the whole area was alive with bird
song. We also found Common Redstart and a good selection of other warblers which
included Melodious, Olivaceous, Bonelli’s and Willow. As we walked back to the Auberge we noticed
some birds feeding in the conifers, these turned out to be Serin and half a
dozen Siskin, our second new bird of the day.
The
second leg on the journey to the coast commenced at 8:30am 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 Oued Sous which had a good flow. In fact there was probably too
much water as we couldn’t see any of the usual array of herons, egret and
waders. We only found two Little Egrets and two Ruddy Shelduck.
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| the Sous Plains |
We then walked into the gorge and watched a
few falcons on the cliffs, they were Common Kestrel and Peregrines. On the
rocks we saw House Bunting and Blue Rock Thrush and in the trey of roosting
Night Herons. Many Serin were singing and a Booted Eagle was sighted several
times as it drifted over the cliff tops along the gorge. Further up the river
we found a Kingfisher, Grey herons, Great Cormorants, Grey Wagtails and a
single Common Sandpiper.
In
the vegetation which surrounded a small farming area we found Common
Nightingale, Sardinian Warbler, Willow Warblers and African Chaffinches. Several butterflies were on the wing and the
Moroccan Orange Tip was particularly enjoyed by the group.
A
few kilometers further along the sous plains we stopped again and took a short
walk, we were hoping to find Black-winged Kites. The area was brimming with
birds especially shrikes, there were lots of Woodchat and Great Grey Shrikes,
Black-eared Wheatears, Northern Wheatears and small parties of Bee-eaters flew
over. In the scrub we found several Spectacled Warblers which was a first for
many of the group. We also found a Tawny Pipit, Melodious, Sardinian and
Subalpine Warblers in good numbers but the kite eluded us on this occasion.
We arrived at our hotel at
3pm, 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, fortunately we were able to walk along the new pathway along
the river’s edge.
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| Moroccan Wagtail |
From the bank we spent an
hour or so looking at the gulls and a few waders, we logged Greenshank, Curlew
Sandpiper, Ringed Plover as well as Greater Flamingo, White Stork and the
following gulls: Yellow-legged, Lesser black-backed, Black-headed and
Mediterranean. We also found a single Gull-billed Tern.
In the salt marsh scrub we
saw Zitting Cisticola and Sardinian Warblers and as we moved further down the
river towards the river mouth we saw many waders on the huge expanse of expose
mud. We quickly added Grey Plover, Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwit, Sanderling and
Kentish Plover. To find further species we had to scope a series of pools that
were found in the heath-land but these pools lay next to the fence-line of the
King’s Palace which was heavily guarded, As discreet as possible we watched:
Eurasian Spoonbill, Great White Egret (in flight), Avocet, Redshank,
Greenshank, Northern Shoveler and Black-winged Stilts.
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| two good shots of Stone Curlew |
We
climbed a bank to get better views of the pools and from there we added Marbled
Duck, Ruff, Osprey, Whimbrel and then a Palace Guard appeared and asked to us
to move away, which we did with reluctance. As we were now at the shoreline we
found two more species, a flock of Knot flew by and two or three Stone Curlews
were flushed from the dunes and out to sea we saw a few Northern Gannets.
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| view over the Atlantic from Qued Sous at sunset |
The
sun was rapidly dropping from the sky as we walked slowly back, a flock of some
30 Gull-billed terns flew over us and a single Sandwich Tern was seen on the
bank of the river. By the time we reached the entrance to the estuary it was
almost dark, so we hung around hoping for a glimpse of Red-necked Nightjar but
we couldn’t get near the best place for them because of the guards, however as
we approached the car park where our bus was waiting for us we heard a Nightjar
calling, a little consolation but our day was not ruined by the restricted
access to the wonderful reserve here at Qued Sous.
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