MOROCCO - 10 DAY TOUR - DAY 3 - MARCH 19TH

BOUMALNE DADES THE TAGDILT TRACK AND GORGE DU DADES
Another early breakfast-call found us in the dining room at 6:30am and after consuming a lovely breakfast we set off on foot towards the Tagdilt Track. Our first bird of the day was a House Bunting which was on the roof of the hotel this was quickly followed by Barn Swallow and a single House Martin.

SOME OF THE GROUP - SOMEWHERE OUT ON THE TAGDILT TRACK

We walked out to the mini-dump a few hundred meters from the hotel entrance, we were hoping for a sighting of Thick-billed Lark but failed to find one, however we were happy to watch Desert Lark, Thekla Lark, Trumpeter Finch, Red-rumped Wheatear and Northern Wheatear. Our driver Ahmed brought the bus over to collect us and as we were embarking a pair of Barbary Falcons flew over.

RED-RUMPED WHEATEAR (FEMALE)

Once inside the bus we set off for the ‘new’ Tagdilt track, which is in fact a tarmac road, several stops along this road produced more species, the best was a Lanner Falcon which flashed across the road in front of the bus. We saw a Marsh Harrier attack a couple of falcons that we perched on the ground near the road, they turned out to be Barbary Falcons, probably the two seen 10 minutes ago. We saw many flocks of Short-toed Larks, our first Temminck’s Horned Lark, Desert Wheatear, Red-rumped Wheatear and, a great find, a Magreb Wheatear.

GREAT GREY SHRIKE

A visit to a mini oasis provided more sightings; 2 Hoopoes, Common Chiffchaff, Long-legged Buzzard, another Marsh Harrier, Great Grey Shrike, Woodchat Shrike, Spectacled Warbler, Crested Lark, Thekla Lark, lots more Short-toed Larks, Northern Wheatear and Trumpeter finches.

DESERT WHEATEAR (MALE)

Back on the Tagdilt Track we turned west and headed out onto the ‘hammada’, this stony desert habitat is home to several sought after species. Cream-coloured Coursers gave themselves up quite easily when a flock of 25 flew over the bus, but the Hoopoe Lark took some finding, but what a great find, we actually found a bird sitting on a nest of eggs! Further searching produced Tawny Pipit, several Black Kites, a flock of White Storks, a probable distant Lanner Falcon, White Wagtail and our last bird of the morning was a Lesser Short-toed Lark.

TWO PICTURES OF HOOPOE LARK AND ONE OF THE NEST AND EGGS

At lunchtime we drove into Boumalne Dades to pick up picnic supplies before driving up through the Dades Gorge. Along the way to the head of the gorge we stopped to watch Crag Martin, Blue Rock Thrush, Black Redstart, Black Wheatear and Common Bubul. Near the top of the gorge we walked along the road whilst searching the mountain scrub for warblers. The Tristram’s Warbler was our main target and after a short while we found 3 of them, one in particular showed very well.

TRISTRAM'S WARBLER

For the last couple of hours we re-visited the Tagdilt track still searching for the Thick-billed Lark, without success. We find many of the species seen earlier and one nice find was a large number of Short-toed Larks feeding on what appeared to be a large spillage of salt, it was an incredible site.

SHORT-TOED LARKS FEEDING ON THE SALT SPILLAGE

The weather had taken a turn for the worse, it clouded over, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped, so we made a hasty retreat back to the hotel where we had a relaxing couple of hours before dinner.

MOROCCO - 10 DAY TOUR - DAY 2 - MARCH 18TH

Ourika valley to Boumalne Dades via the Tizi-n-Tichka Pass and Quarzazate

We were up bright and early, gathering in the hotel foyer at 6:15am, just as it was getting light. A Tawny Owl had been calling for a while just before we got up.

The air was alive with bird song, mainly Common Bubul but also African Chaffinch, Blackbird, Robin, Blackcap, Serin and Greenfinch. Our walk took us down through some wet pasture and tree lined ditches to the River Ourika, along the way we either saw or heard Cetti's Warbler, Great-spotted Woodpecker (drumming), Levaillant’s Woodpecker (calling from a perch on the trunk of a nearby tree), Hawfinch, several were feeding high up in the canopy. At the river we saw Grey Wagtail, Cattle Egret and heard our first Common Nightingale of the trip.

AFRICAN BLUE TIT

We were up bright and early, gathering in the hotel foyer at 6:15am, just as it was getting light. A Tawny Owl had been calling for a while just before we got up.

The air was alive with bird song, mainly Common Bubul but also African Chaffinch, Blackbird, Robin, Blackcap, Serin and Greenfinch. Our walk took us down through some wet pasture and tree lined ditches to the River Ourika, along the way we saw or heard Cetti’s Warbler, Great-spotted Woodpecker (drumming), Levaillant’s Woodpecker (calling from a perch on the trunk of a nearby tree), Hawfinch, several were feeding high up in the canopy. At the river we saw Grey Wagtail, Cattle Egret and heard our first Common Nightingale of the trip.

HOUSE BUNTING

On the return journey we saw Common Nightingale, Cirl Bunting, Song Thrush and many African Blue Tits. We spent another 30 minutes in the hotel ground and caught up with House Bunting, singing as it perched on the roof of the hotel, also Rock Bunting sitting on a wire, Sardinian Warbler, Common Kestrel and a pair of Little swifts were visiting their nest in the eaves of the hotel.

We were up bright and early, gathering in the hotel foyer at 6:15am, just as it was getting light. A Tawny Owl had been calling for a while just before we got up.

The air was alive with bird song, mainly Common Bubul but also African Chaffinch, Blackbird, Robin, Blackcap, Serin and Greenfinch. Our walk took us down through some wet pasture and tree lined ditches to the River Ourika, along the way we saw or heard Cetti’s Warbler, Great-spotted Woodpecker (drumming), Levaillant’s Woodpecker (calling from a perch on the trunk of a nearby tree), Hawfinch, several were feeding high up in the canopy. At the river we saw Grey Wagtail, Cattle Egret and heard our first Common Nightingale of the trip.

On the return journey we saw Common Nightingale, Cirl Bunting, Song Thrush and many African Blue Tits. We spent another 30 minutes in the hotel ground and caught up with House Bunting, singing as it perched on the roof of the hotel, also Rock Bunting sitting on a wire, Sardinian Warbler, Common Kestrel and a pair of Little swifts were visiting their nest in the eaves of the hotel.

After breakfast we set off for the long journey to Boumalne Dades. We made frequent stops the first of which was just passed the town of Ourika. The road was high above the surrounding farmland and we could the Atlas Mountains peppered in snow behind us. Before too long we had notched our fouth bunting of the day in the shape of a Corn Bunting, this was quickly followed by Thekla Lark, Moroccan Magpie, Barbary Partridge and Sardinian Warbler.

Over the next 50 kilometers we stopped a couple of times to watch specific birds namely: Black-winged Kite, Bonelli’s Eagle (being mobbed by a Long-legged Buzzard),Common Cuckoo and Great Grey Shrike. We drove up through the Tizi-n-Tichka pass where we saw our first Black Wheatear and then down towards Quarzazate stopping for lunch just passed Taddart. During lunch we searched a pine wood for Crossbill but found, instead, a flock of Rock Sparrows, and overhead a flock of some 50+ European bee-eaters flew passed, later we stopped to watch a large flock of both Red-billed and Alpine Chough.

As we reached the drier desert-like terrain we stopped to look for Magreb Wheatear, no lick but we did see Short-toed Larks and a small flock of Trumpeter Finches, we also saw from the bus many White-crowned Wheatears.

THE GROUP LOOKING AT BIRDS ON THE QUARZAZATE RESERVOIR

During the late afternoon we made two stops near the huge reservoir at Quarzazate, the first produced our first Woodchat Shrike and many Common Chiffchaffs. The second stop was near the shoreline of the reservoir where we saw hundreds of birds. Waders included well over 100 Common Ringed Plover, also a flock of Little Stint, Ruff, Kentish Plover, Green Sandpiper, Eurasian Curlew, Black-winged stilts and Wood Sandpiper. On the water we saw Shoveler, Eurasian Teal, Great-crested Grebe, Little Grebe, 50+ Ruddy Shelduck and there were numerous Grey Herons, Great Cormorants and Little Egrets, a single Marsh Harrier was perched on the muddy bank.

The water level of the reservoir was very low and large areas of wet mud were present, these areas were covered in both Yellow Wagtails and White Wagtails they were joined by several Water Pipits a couple of Tawny Pipits and on the drier areas we found both Northern and Desert Wheatears.

It was now getting dark so we jumped back into the bus to finish the final leg of our journey, the last bird recorded was Black-bellied Sandgrouse, a small group of them was seen in flight from the bus.

MOROCCO - 10 DAY TOUR - DAY 1 - MARCH 17TH

LONDON TO MARRAKECH - TRANSFER TO HOTEL OURIKA – AFTERNOON VISIT TO OUKAIMEDAN (TOUBKAL NATIONAL PARK)

The first day of a 10 –day tour of central Morocco.

Participants: 9 members of the Oxford RSPB Member’s group

Everything went smoothly at the airport, our group of 10 all arrived on time and the flight was also on schedule. We arrived at Marrakech at 11am in a blaze of sunshine and summer warmth, our first sighting was a House Bunting, it was singing to us from the roof of the terminal building as we stepped off the plane. As we loaded the bus with our luggage we had a little time to look around the airport and we found Common Bubul, White Wagtail & Pallid Swift.

The group during our first outing of the tour near Toubkal National Park, High Atlas

During our drive to the hotel we saw White Stork, Great Grey Shrike, Collared Dove, Barn Swallow and plenty more Pallid Swifts. At the hotel we spent little time unpacking our optics and met up again in the hotel grounds some 15 minutes later. We spent a few minutes looking around the grounds where we found more Bubuls and also African Blue Tit, African Chaffinch, Serin, Cattle Egret, Common Kestrel, Cetti’s Warbler (heard) and Levaillant’s Woodpecker also heard.

RED BILLED CHOUGH

For the remainder of the day we drove the 30km up to Oukaimedan, the road winds its’ way up through some fantastic scenery with the snow covered peaks in the background. Stopping along the way we watched several new species, our first stop produced Black Redstart, Moussier’s Redstart (at least 3 males), Long-legged Buzzard, Rock Bunting and more African Chaffinches.

ROCK BUNTING

Our next stop was in a small pine copse, there were still piles of snow on the ground, the air was a lot cooler up here. We found Coal Tit, Mistle Thrush, lots of African Chaffinches and more African Blue Tits. Another stop found us watching an obliging flock of Red-billed Chough, they were feeding on a grassy slope just below the road. The next stop was to survey a babbling brook, we were now above the snow-line and the temperature had plummeted, our target bird, the Dipper, was soon located.

THE MOROCCAN ICONIC SPECIES - MOUSSIER'S REDSTART

At Oukaimedan it began to snow, a small shower but it was very cold and the light wasn’t too good either. We spent a couple of hours searching the area for the must-see Crimson-winged Finch, which proved to be elusive but we eventually got to grips with it. Other birds were easier to find: Mistle Thrush, Black Redstart, White Wagtail and we had a brief view of Barbary Partridge. More difficult species to find were; Rock Sparrow, Atlas Horned lark and, of course, the Crimson Winged Finch. The latter two were the icing on the cake as they were our most wanted species, we found both of them in and around the car park near the ski-lift, both species were greatly appreciated by the group.

CRIMSON WINGED FINCH

Following that superb last hour we set off back down the mountain to the hotel for a delicious dinner.