Today was a really pleasant day of birding in Morocco. After an open air breakfast on the roof of the inn, we headed to a park with a lake and woodlands called Dayet Aoua, where almost immediately we found good numbers of Hawfinch, lifers for many thought I’d seen Hawfinch in England in 2006 on a Rotary Friendship Exchange trip.

We found lots of first birds for Morocco, including Eared Grebe (here called Black-necked Grebe) and a great look at a Great Spotted Woodpecker excavating a nest cavity. I got a good video of this species and posted it to my Facebook and Instagram pages, so not added here as a video. Here are a couple of still shots.

The rest of the day was spent at other woodland areas, where we added Atlas Flycatcher with incredible ease. This can be a tough bird to find, and Mohammad had one before we got out of the bus

Our last trip bird today was a very distant scope look at a Northern Shoveler at a lake. We earlier got brief looks at Iberian Chifchaff.

Off to bed now.

Good Birding. Good Day!