Day 7 - March 14th. Sidi Yaha cork woods - drive to Tanger - ferry to Tarfia drive to Gaucin.
This was our last day in Morocco and the whole purpose of driving all the way south to Rabat was to try to find the Double-spurred Francolin, they are active at first light so........we got up at 5am in the dark and drove to the cork woods, arriving just as it was getting light.
After 20 minutes we had seen nothing, but we heard Common cuckoo, Hoopoe, Sardinian Warbler, African Chaffinch and Blackcap. Then Chris spotted a movement along the track so we approached the area and two Francolin's flew off, calling noisily.
Over the next couple of hours we had several similar experiences, none of which gave us satisfactory views. In the meantime we also logged Barbary Partridge, Common Cuckoo, Subalpine Warbler, hundreds of blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, Jay, Mistle Thrush and we had great views of Balck-winged Kite.
At 9am we set off north for the long journey to Tangier, we stopped a few times and arrived at Tangier ferry port at 1:30pm.
The ferry crossing was as eventful as the outward journey, there was a flock of Black Kites starting their long flight across to Europe against a liught wind, they were keeping very low over the water. We had a superb view of a Great Skua very close to the boat, we also logged many Cory's and Balearic Shearwaters,
We landed in Spain and cleared customs by 5pm local time and made it to gaucin by 6pm and so ended our short break to Northern Morocco.
Red-throated Bee-eater
join us for a fantastic tour of The Gambia this November
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