Tag: michael carmody

Morocco Days 4 & 5: Mohamed Takes us to the Mountain and the Desert

Mohammed on the Mountain

On Day 4 our guide Mohammed and Michael took us to the high Atlas Mountains, to the Vallée d’Oukaïmeden Ski Area and the surrounding mountainside. The elevation when we got off the bus was 8547′ and we walked mostly uphill from there. Over the course of the day we walked 7.02 miles per the eBird tracker, and battled fog and cold most of the day. Despite the really tough weather viewing conditions we managed several good species of birds.

Red-biilled Chough.

Both Chough species, Red-billed and Yellow-billed were all over the place. They are almost crow sized black birds with colored decurved bills.
Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush

A Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush gave close up views. A female Blue Rock-Thrush was seen by all, and a male by a few. Black Redstarts were commmon. Rock Finch, or Rock Petronia before its name change, were abundant, with one flock of over 200 birds.

An old rock-built village

After an hour or so the fog really settled in and we battled, but heard a couple of flocks of Crimson-winged Finches flying about just overhead but invisible in the fog.
On the drive down the mountain two stops in steady rain yielded Eurasian Firecrest, European Treecreeper, Euripean Jay, and Coal Tit.

We stayed another night at Maharrech and again had great meals for dinner and breakfast at the Art Place. Up early to head for the coast on Day 5.

Northern Bald Ibis

Day 5 birding was in coastal scrub habitat. Not really desert, but pretty close, with dry sandy soil and scrub-thorn type vegitation. The birding was spectacular. We made our first stop for a potty about 9 AM after leaving about 7 AM and Jay, one of the people on the tour found a Rufous-tailed Scrub-robin in the adjacent vacant lot. At least 6 were zipping about and posing for photos.

Rufous-tailed Scrub-Robin

Next stop was at a fishing port called Port dÉssaouria, where the primary goal was to see Eleanor’s Falcon, a Peregrine look-alike that breeds on an island nearby and we saw 3 seeming to hunt in a line, chasing Rock Pigeons. We also saw the Moroccan race of Great Cormorant, lots of Yellow-legged Gulls and then walked out to a nearby river mouth. There we saw the European race of Sandwich Tern. No yellow tip on the bill of this race.

Ruddy Shelduck

Funny line, Heather Ballash, one of the Tacoma contingent on the trip, remembers this species as having mustard on the tip of its bill, a memory aide to the sandwich name. Does not work here. We also saw a Moussiere’s Redstart.
Next was another river mouth for Ruddy Shelduck, Audouin’s Gull, and the Moroccan race of White Wagtail.

Northern Bald Ibis

Next a spectacular roadside stop to see Northern Bald Ibis. This species was nearly extinct when a local preserve was set up and it is recovering
We finished with a seawatch at Cap Rhir where we all saw Balearoic Shearwater at a distance, and Bruce found a Great Skua.

Closer look at Ruddy Shelduck.

Staying at a nice hotel in Agadir, and headed out locally tomorrow.

Notes Related to The Bird Banter Podcast #12 with Michael Carmody


In The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #12 host Ed Pullen and Legacy Tours owner and guide talk about Michael’s career as a bird guide in Mexico, his “”patch” as well as around the world. Michael leads several trips a year to Mexico, specializing in showing birders the endemic species of Mexico, as well as trips to other parts of the world.
We spend a good part of the episode talking about the upcoming trip to Morocco that Ed as well as Bruce Labar from TBBP Episode #3 are taking with Michael as the guide. Here is a map of the route we will be taking. Morocco Route

This is going to be what Michael calls a “B” type trip. This means it will be primarily a focused birding trip, but we will have some time in various places to enjoy the local culture and sights. Sounds like fun to me.

Here is a link to Legacy Birding Web Site.

I am hoping to make recordings for TBBP while in Morocco and if I can find decent WiFi publish periodic updates on the podcast.

Good Birding. Good day.