- a trip organised by Bird ID based in Norway, to test your ID skills go to : www.birdid.no
What an amazing day we had today, we spent 5 -6 hours travelling and yet we amassed an incredible 112 species! This is quite remarkable considering we spent only a few hours in the field but it just shows what a great birding location Morocco really is. The weather was again superb with unbroken sunshine all day and hardly a breeze, it was quite warm too.
We left our Auberge at Taliouine at 8am and set off toward Agadir, after 30km we passed through the town of Alouez then over the Souss river where we stopped to visit the picturesque Gorge.
We spent a good hour finding many species, on the cliffs we were entertained by Common Kestrels which were attacked by a Sparrowhawk, then just after the fight one of the Kestrels took a House Martin in mid air. A pair of Peregrine Falcons was found on the other side of the valley but they didn’t perform for us.
THE SPARROWHAWK HAVING A REST AFTER ITS TUSSLE WITH A KESTREL
On the river and in the wooded valley we produced an impressive list, the best of which included: Black-crowned Night Heron, Kingfisher, Green and Common Sandpiper, Water Pipit, Little and Cattle Egrets, Common Bubul and many common species.
Moving on westward we dropped down into the Souss Valley, passing kilometer after kilometer of Argana Forest before reaching more open fields with scattered trees and shrubs. This is ideal habitat for the Black-winged Kite. Wes spent half an hour searching the area before finding our first one, what a stunning little bird of prey that one is. Whilst searching for it we also located Marsh Harrier, Long-legged Buzzard, several Black Kites, Crested and Thekla Larks, Great Grey Shrike, Moussier’s Redstart, Corn Bunting and Barbary Partridge.
We drove around the very busy Agadir and then drove northward along the coast, we noted Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed Gulls along the way. On reaching Cape Rhir we came upon a small flock of 14 Bald Ibis feeding by the side of the road. What a great find and a great help as it saved us driving all the way up to Tamri. After admiring this strange looking beast we set off back southward to Agadir and onto the Nature Reserve at Oued Souss.
BALD IBIS
It was now 4:30pm so we had just a couple of hours of daylight left and boy did we use that time effectively. The tide was turning in our favour, as it began to rise the birds began to amass on the muddy banks, these included over 100 White Storks all in a very dirty, muddy state. We counted over twenty new species for our list within the first half hour! The birds ranged in size from Greater Flamingo to Little Stint and from the mighty Osprey to the elegant Avocet.
We walked along the river bank on the heath-land and headed down-river to the shore line, more waders and wildfowl were found there, Dunlin, Knot, Curlew, Curlew Sandpiper, Sanderling, Kentish Plover, ‘shanks’ of the Red & Green and Spotted varieties, In fact our daily wader tally reached 24 species!
Near the shore we found a couple of Stone Curlew and from our vantage point on high sand dune we overlooked a pool which held: Eurasian Spoonbill, Little Egret, Ruff, Common Snipe, Spotted Redshank, Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwits, Bl;ack-winged Stilts and Grey Plover.
ZITTING CISTICOLA
It was now getting dark so we moved back up river towards the woodland which surrounds the Palace of the King of Morocco. It was there that we waited for darkness and the appearance of the Red-necked Nightjar and sure enough, right on cue, we saw and heard three or four of them, this was a very apt ending for a very successful day, our last birds of the day were another couple of Stone Curlews, we heard them screaming and trilling overhead in the darkness as we returned to the bus.
THE GROUP ON THE RAISED DUNES
The day finished back at the hotel which was just a few minutes drive from the Oued Souss, we had a spendid 3 course meal washed down with a couple of cold tinnies!
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