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.
Hawfinch
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.
Great Spotted Woodpecker
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.
We looked long and hard, but finally found two Desert Sparrows at a desert camel safari place.
Today we wrapped up the birding on the edge of the Sahara Desert by looking for and finding Desert Sparrow and Fulvous Chatterer. Both took more effort than expected, but we had great looks at the Sparrow, and brief in-flight looks at the Chatterer. Tomorrow we leave for a 6 hour drive to Ifrane, with birding stops along the way. I’ll simply put up some photos from today to show the day: Here are both the male and female Desert Sparrow.
Camels at the sparrow place.This is the color of Sahara Desert Sand.This fellow was a tough to see bird, Western Orphinean Warbler.European Kestrel, a bird we had seen every day until yeasterday. Today we started a new streak.After a good lunch stop we again visited the lake near Merzouga. The rest of the photos are from there.Marcus counted 4000+ Greater Flamingos.Across the lake the sand dunes were impressive.
One of many “dunes view” spots we saw today.
How nice today to have a day with lots of birding, less driving and what driving we did was in 4 wheel drive SUV in the desert, and finishing early for a swim. We are at a hotel in Merzouga, right on the edge of the Sahara. It is a place people come to play in the desert, and we did just that, American birder style.
A lunch spot in the shade under a bridge over a ‘”wadi” or a wash.
After a late breakfast at 7:30 we hopped into 4 SUVs, just Bruce, myself and our driver in ours, as for our group of 11 someone had an empty seat, and as Bruce and I had 2 of the 3 spotting scopes on the trip we got the spare seat. Greater Flamingos at Dayet Srij.
First stop was at a beautiful shallow lake near town where some years there is water. Lots this year, and an estimated 1500+ Greater Flamingos distracted us from seeing all the other cool shorebirds. We tore our eyes free to see lots though, including good looks, but no photos of Spotted Sandgrouse flying by and stopping on the shore. Sharing scopes prevented either of us from getting digiscope shots of them standing, and my inability to get on them with the camera in flight precluded flight shots. Still, really cool to see these lifers. Ruddy Shelducks and Mottled Teal with babies were great to see, and Ruff, Common Redshank and Greenshanks, Common and Kentish Plovers, Black and Gull-billed Terns, Little Stints, Black-winged Stilts, and much more gave quite a show. Still a common North American gull, Franklin’s Gull, rare in Morocco was the “hot” bird of the stop, found by Stephan Schlick and his tour group earlier this month.
Franklin’s Gull
After that we drove through the desert and saw Desert Warblers, Cream-colored Coursers, a Pharaoh Eagle Owl, and just enjoyed the desert. Highlight for me though was seeing Egyptian Nightjar. Mohammad, our in-country guide, along with the drivers have a network of local Bedouin shepherd families and they know birders want to see this species. They keep their eyes open, and after a few calls we raced to a remote family residence where a local woman pointed us right at the nightjars.
The group got good looks and then I snuck in for photos.
We finished the day driving to a sandstone cliff area, Escarpment au sud-ouest Tinegherass, where a Pharoah Eagle Owl nest was known to be, and we got great looks at this owl.
Pharoah Eagle OwlBedouin Home
Then back by 4:45 PM, a nice swim and a beer, and now off to dinner.
Good birding. Good Day!
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.
Day 1 of the Legacy Tours Morocco Birding Trip was great. We left the Hotel Toubkal in Casablanca at 6:30 AM and headed north toward Rabat. Along the way we stopped at several places along the coast looking for shorebirds, gulls, and migrants headed toward Europe. The first stop was right along the highwaMediterranean Gully at a large wetland area beside the road, where we had our first Collared Pratincole. These are a strange shorebird that hunts aerially, catching insects in flight. They are really cool looking, and call constantly a somewhat Killdeer calls.
Collared Pratincole
We had a nice variety of gulls here too, including a Mediterranean Gull, a black-headed gull with a red bill that stood out from the many Black-headed Gulls also there. We also had both species of Redshank, Spotted and Common. The Spotted Redshank has longer legs and a thicker shorter bill, and was a lifer for most of us on the trip.Curlew Sandpipers and Dunlin were together for nice comparisons, and we also added Little Stint, Common Ring-necked Plover, and a few passerines.
African Blue Tit
We pulled off at a sewer treatment facility by a McDonalds where we saw Lesser Kestrel and the recently split African Blue Tit. This is much like the Blue Tit of Europe, but has a larger white area on the head.
Red-shielded Coot with young.
We took our longest walk of the day at Oued Cherrat, a coastal river (Oued means river in Arabic) where over 60 Collared Pratincoles were constantly flying overhead, we added Pied Avocet to the much more common Black-winged Stilts, 12 Kentish Plover and one Little Ringed Plover were seen, and 3 Great Gray Shrike and a single Woodchat Shrike perched for us. Crested Larks were in the fields, and Willow Warblers and Common Chiffchaf were in the riverside brush. Western Yellow Wagtail and White Wagtails were near the water.
Crested Lark
Our last stop of the day was at Side Boughaba Lake, a park where we added lots of waterfowl, including White-headed Duck, a stiff-tailed duck related to our Ruddy Duck, but even more colorful with its large sky-blue bill. Great Crested Grebe and Little Grebe, both Red-crested and Common Pochard and Ferruginous Ducks gave great looks, and a Red-shielded Coot came very close for photos.
We ended the day’s list with a House Bunting that seems to be nesting on a light fixture in the outdoor restaurant where we had dinner.
White Stork
A great start with 85 species and 26 lifers so far on the trip,
You can best hear about Day 1 & 2 on my second mini-podcast episode on The Bird Banter Podcast.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bird-banter-podcast-morocco-trip-days-1-2/id1450449001?i=1000435303247
On Day 2 we made a number of stops in the areas around Rabat. We started by going inland from the coast trying for migrant and resident passerines as well as more water-related species. Our first major stop was at a road into a small wetlands where we checked the wetlands, and then took a nice walk along a riparian type ditch during intermittent showers. Common Cuckoos were calling and flying about, whie Corn Buntings seemed to be singing from every post of grassy knoll. Crested Larks were also very numerous.
Common Cuckoo
Two Cirl Buntings, both females, gave good looks.
A Booted Eagle flew overhead.
Booted Eagle
We totaled 31 species at this stop.
Next we went to a woodland park called Réserve Royale de Chasse. There we heard, and Heather and our guide Mohammed saw Double-spurred Frankolin. Common Nightingales sang incessantly from hidden perches. We left there with plans to return on Day 3 (the next day) early to have better chances for the Frankolin and other species.
On the ride back to the hotel we saw a flock of migrating Euroean Bee Eaters and stopped for nice looks.
European Bee Eater with a bee in its bill.
We stayed our second night at Hotel Ambassy. Dinner both nights was fine, I had vegetable tagine on night two, spaghetti on day 1.
Day 3 was mostly driving, but in the early AM we went back to the preserve from the day prior, getting there about 7:45 AM and as soon as we got out of the van it started to rain. The whole time there it rained variably hard, at times a drenching downpour. Despite the rain, the birding was quite good. We all saw the Double-spurred Frankolins several times in flight, and some saw it running, though nobody really had great looks.
Best other birds were Tree Pipit Tree Pipit
Spotted Flycatcher, European Pied Flycatcher, and Eurasian Blackcap.
From there we took a long drive to another protected area where we got distant but pretty good looks at Barburry Partridge, and a fly-by look at a Great Spotted Cuckoo.
Our stay for the next couple of nights is at a snazzy hotel in Marrakech, the Art Place Marrakech. which is right on the Medina, or city center mall.
Tomorrow we head into the mountains for a whole new avifauna of birds, many more specific to Morocco.
My trip to Morocco is off to a fine start, with new experiences and new species. The flight from Seatac the Seattle-Tacoma, WA airport to Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris was long but uneventful. Delta did a good job of providing vegan meals for me, and we got in at about 8 AM after a 10 ½ hour flight “losing” 9 hours enroute due to time-zone changes. Bruce and I wandered around the airport and tried to rest until or flight to Casablanca left about 12:40, arriving about 2:50, going one time zone back. Customs was an endurance effort, with a 2+ hour cramped line with masses of people, and we saw the customs employees need to exercise great patience as angry parents shouted and pushed and shoved while a trio of young attractive women tried to cut in line, and we all inched our way forward.
After getting our luggage, getting a SIM card for our phones, and buying data and voice time we caught a cab to the Best Western Hotel Toubkal in downtown. We had dinner and managed to stay awake until maybe 8:45 PM and slept well in our twin beds until jet-lagged morning arrived about 3-4 AM and we waited for daylight. This AM we had a good breakfast at the hotel, and went to Par Sindbad near the coastline where a large overgrown abandoned parking lot and entertainment park recommended by Michael Carmody provided an introduction to common Moroccan birds.
A Glossy Ibis, the species of ibis seen in the eastern U.S. flew directly overhead.
Shortly after arriving a pair of Eurasian Thick-knees flew in, a species Bruce had seen in Lesvos, Greece but were a lifer for me. They were a very exotic shorebird to find on our own. We added about 28 more species not including another 2 or 3 left unidentified. Here are a few photos I like best.
Spottles Starlings *Sturnus unicolor* here are very similar in appearance and behavior to the European Starlings that were introduced to the U.S.I love seeing different doves and pigeons, and this Eurasian Turtle Dove *Streptopelia turtur* was a lifer for me this morning.Blackbirds *Turdus merula* are common species throughout Europe, as well as in Morocco, and this male and female gave a good comparison showing the sexual dimorphism.We saw several Sardinian Warblers *Sylvia melanocephala* this morning.
Stay tuned for more Moroccan birding adventures over coming days. Good birding. Good day!
