MOROCCO 2013 - DAY 9 26TH MARCH

Day 9  - March 26^TH   - Souss Massa National Park

It was a fabulous trip today, the weather was gorgeous, the birds superb and the group saw several new trip-birds, the total for the day was 84 species. We ate breakfast at 6:30am and set off for the hour-long journey southward to Souss Massa. Bubuls were calling loudly in the hotel grounds and above us hoards of Pallid and a few Little Swifts filled the sky. Along the way we noted Great Grey Shrike, Spotless Starling, Moroccan Magpie, Little Swift, Laughing Dove and Crested Lark.

The first bird we encountered this morning as we began our walk was this European Roller

Our first walk began just inside the reserve perimeter, we started on a track high above the river and we could see for miles across fields and farmland. The birding was so good that it took us 1 ½ hours to walk a few hundred meters. Our first bird was a superb Roller, it sat in the morning sun at the top of a tree, we scoped it from above in superb light, what a great start.

 Many other birds entertained us, with House Bunting, Black-eared Wheatear, Cetti’s Warbler, Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers, Blackcaps, Sardinian Warblers, Subalpine Warblers and some very colourful Stonechats all showing in the hedgerows and fields. We had excellent views of Moussier’s Redstart, both the male and the female showed very well and several Laughing Doves were very obliging. 

Laughing Dove

Our main target bird was the Black Crowned Tchagra and a few of the group had brief glimpses of two birds as we made our way further along the track, not satisfactory really, so we pressed on in the hope of better views. Over the next hundred meters we caught up with Western Olivaceous and Western Orphean Warblers and a very showy Woodchat Shrike posed for our cameras.

Woodchat Shrike

We then got back onto the bus and drove into the official reserve and continued our walk along the track, we could see a great expanse of the river in both directions and it was from there that we added a few more species to the day list. A couple of waders sat in the river with a Ruddy Shelduck and a Moroccan Cormorant, the waders turned out to be a Greenshank and a Spotted Redshank, as we were watching them a superb male Montagu’s Harrier appeared, it was quartering the reed-bed on the far bank, the fabulous light gave us excellent views, a fantastic sighting of this exquisite raptor.

As we neared the ‘mouth’ of the river (there isn’t a mouth really the whole body of water is essentially a lagoon) we could see a sand bar across it, on and near the sandbar we could see, a single Eurasian Spoonbill, a huge flock of (150+) Sandwich Terns with about 50 Gull-billed Terns, many of these two species were in summer plumage and looking lovely. We also found a solitary Caspian Tern, a juvenile Audouin’s Gull, many Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. 

In the water we found Little Grebe, Little Egret, Moroccan Cormorant and along the shore we saw Sanderling, Ringed and Kentish Plovers and a single Knot. The sea was very misty so we couldn’t see very far off-shore but the track itself was superb for flowers, butterflies and birds. There were Linnets everywhere, many in bright red summer plumage, Stonechats, Moussier’s Redstarts, Goldfinches and sylvia warblers mainly Sardinian and Subalpine. The last stretch of the footpath provided our best sightings of the Black-crowned Tchagra, we heard several in song and we finally had great views of a couple of individuals.

Moussier's Redstart

At lunchtime we walked north along the coast, uphill through the sand dunes to a small village where a hotel had a strategic terrace that overlooked the sea. It was very warm now but a lovely cooling breeze came onshore. We sat and ate a lovely lunch, relaxing in the superb surroundings and we finally dragged ourselves away at 2:30pm for some more birding.

Yellow Wagtail ssp. iberiae

We drove into the village of Massa and down to the river, our first stop was on a new bridge where we found two more Black-crowned Tchagras and had very close views of Yellow Wagtail (iberiae) and Common Sandpiper. A short walk along a track through some farmland didin’t produced very much, it was getting very windy. Highlights along the walk included a Turtle Dove ‘turring’ a Quail ‘calling and good views of Olivaceous Warbler. We drove to some open meadows in search of our first Plain Martin (now called Brown-throated Martin) but we failed to find one. 

a  poor record shot of the Black-crowned Tchagra

The sky clouded over the wind increased so we decided to call it a day, it was now 4:30pm and the light was beginning to fade too.

We ended the day fairly early as we pulled into the hotel car park at 5:30pm. We ate a lovely fish dish 7:30pm before retiring at 10pm for a well earned rest. Our total for the day was an impressive 82 species, it was a great day out at the Souss Massa National Park.