Trip (sort of) report - Apr/May 2013 (2 Viewers)

[John Fordham]

Just a few notes on trip I just made.

A comment to start with. If overnighting in Marrakech then well worth visiting the scrub immediately to the west of Jardin D’Agdal – can park near Carrefour. I had Stone Curlew, Rufous Buch Chat, White-Crowned and Black-Eared Wheatear and numerous warblers. Many Little Swift present as well.

Selected highlights (there were many) for me were:

1. Flock of 25 Bald Ibis at Tamri estuary – also osprey + 2 chicks.
2. Many Eleonora’s Falcon at Essaouira
3. Two Black-Crowned Tchagra at Tafingoulte – Gosney Pg 26, Site 4 – one seen, one heard behind football pitch.
4. Could only find a pair of Crimson-Winged Finch at Ouikameden – 100m along trail from second ski station
5. Four Crowned Sandgrouse right next to my car on Tagdilt Track. Car coming in other direction spooked them before could get any pictures. Blast!!
6. Four Scrub Warbler and two Fulvous Babbler at the ErRachida 43km site – Gosney Pg 16, Site 3. Great site with Pied Flycatcher, Rufous Bush Chat, Desert Wheatear, Hoopoe Lark among other species present
7. Two Desert Warbler at the Yasmina 9km site
8. Pharoah’s Eagle Owl at the Rissani site – Gosney Pg 8 Site 3 – towards right side of cliff face.
9. Spotted Sandgrouse in desert ~2km from Eagle Owl site. Whilst watching Owl, a local guide came up and told me about the Sandgrouse and I used him to take me there. Only distant views due to lack of 4x4 but guide reckoned flock was ~60 birds.

A few of the lowlights were
1. No Desert Sparrow at Yasmina. The bird-ringers present had only had two brief sightings in the time that they had been there.
2. No sound of Nightjars at Tresor site on evening visit
3. No Pharoah’s Owl at the Imiter 2km site given in Jones/Pointon/Soar 2012 trip report. Whilst scanning, a worker from the Gorge came up and told me that the Owl had moved to a new roost site nearby. This he showed me but no Owl present. If anyone wants to check it out, it is the East facing wall at 31 22 15N 5 48 30W

Hope this might be of some use.

Cheers
John

 

[amears]

Thanks for posting, John. Did you take a 4x4 trip from Yasmina or just search for sparrows locally?
Andy M

 

[John Fordham]

Thanks for posting, John. Did you take a 4x4 trip from Yasmina or just search for sparrows locally?
Andy M

No, Andy, did not take trip as had seen sparrows on previous trip. As I understand it, there is a Berber camp not far from Yasmina where they are more or less guaranteed.

Cheers
John

 

[amears]

Thanks John, much appreciated - we'll be in the 4x4 later this month I think.

 

[ianreid]

No, Andy, did not take trip as had seen sparrows on previous trip. As I understand it, there is a Berber camp not far from Yasmina where they are more or less guaranteed.

Cheers
John

Indeed in July last year we walked out into the dunes to this camp and had several desert sparrows. It is at 31.19640,-3.978095 (just punch these numbers into google maps and bring up the satellite view). We walked from Yasmina at dawn for about 45min into the dunes, following a well used camel trail. It was definitely one of the trip highlights.

My full report of a short, hot but quite successful trip is at http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~ian/Birding/

Cheers, Ian

 

[amears]

John, Ian and anyone trawling for Morocco gen:

Had a great week (26th May to 1st June) – thanks for your info and that gleaned from plenty of other sources (especially Mark Edgeller’s crew and Dan Pointon). All very much appreciated.

A few things are worth reporting back I think:

Most importantly, we were lucky to discover a new Sandwich in the roadside café at the petrol station near the Soleil Bleu auberge at Boumaine-ed-Dades. The coordinates are N 31-21-58.3 W 5-58-04.8 and the café is easily found on the east side of Boulemaine. Park near the café, go in and ask for a sandwich involving omelette and chicken. If you are lucky, you’ll get a superb spiced chicken and omelette sarnie with fresh lettuce and tomato, made with the lovely flat Moroccan bread that everyone eats out there. The guys behind the counter know the sandwich so you should have no problems if you ask.

Desert Sparrows – a tip off from another bird group in-country: ‘search the small copses in the dunes south of the houses on the southern outskirts of Merzouga’. 500m south of the village edge are a few more houses/buildings where you can easily park up. Behind these, the dunes start. There’s a notable copse towards the left (southeast) and another right at the back under the largest dune (due south, 25 min walk I’d guess). The former actually has a small dwelling behind it and is a 5 or 10 min walk from the houses/buildings. We first found 3 DSs here and Desert Warblers (seemed to be on territory). We then saw sparrows in the small areas of bushes scattered amongst the dunes between the copse and the houses/buildings over an hour. A concrete well structure seemed to attract several species inc the sparrows. They were very active and moving about a lot early morning but became much more elusive mid-morning. We probably saw 5 or 6 birds total (inc 1 male).

What we believed to be a Saharan Olivaceous Warbler was singing in the small, garden trees behind the houses/buildings.

We had OK views of an Egyptian Nightjar after another tip off: 'search wadis close to the tall palm grove a few hundred metres west of the Derkaoua auberge'. We managed a few flight views of 1 at dusk on a windy evening and a few seconds of it on the ground. With this and the sparrow UTB, we opted to leave out the 4x4 excursion from Yasmina.

Imiter was superb. As per directions, we drove about 200m south on a track approx 1km west of Imiter (opposite another track that goes north to visible gravel workings). We parked up and walked into the ravine (suggest you don’t drive down as you may disturb good birds). The local herder quickly found us and within 20 mins we’d had fantastic views of Pharaoh Eagle Owl and a male Maghreb Wheatear. It’s very scenic and if you clamber up various slopes you can get some awesome views of the surrounding hills and plains. We also saw Long–legged Buzzard and Black Wheatear amongst others and enjoyed a magic 90 mins on site.

The herder showed us the owl but for the record: if we’d walked all the way to the bottom of the drivable track (it bends to the right) and then looked directly across the ravine and up to the crags opposite, we’d easily have spotted the owl, which was roosting in a broad, shady crevice. It or others have also been seen on different crags in this general area (e.g. 200m east).

The wheatear was obviously on territory some 100 or 200m further west from our owl in the bed of the broad ravine/wadi.

The herder was incredibly helpful and friendly but had virtually no English or French. We insisted on paying him a small thank you. Perhaps he’d have asked for payment if we hadn’t offered but we really had the impression that he wasn’t bothered about the cash.

3 Scrub Warblers were seen at Gosney Km43 site (east of Goulmima), very active and moving up to 100m north of the road (i.e. not 2km away).

A small family of Fulvous Babblers were eventually found in Dan Pointon et al’s 2012 arid scrub area just west of Ar Rachidia / north of the road (it’s obvious as there are no other areas of arid scrub close by). We failed to find them or other Scrub Warblers in several other wadis searched between Goulmima and Ar Rachidia.

Dupont’s Lark’s put on quite a show at Gosney site 3 near Zeida late afternoon one day. 3 birds showed well from the car over 20 mins, certainly an adult and a juv but we couldn’t tell what the 3rd bird was because they were moving about a lot and we never saw all 3 together. In fact, a Desert Wheatear and a Lesser Short-toed Lark regularly harried the Dupont’s. Crippling views of 2 of them though. No sign at dawn in a quick visit the next day (none heard over 45 mins).

3 Marbled Duck were with a good concentration of wildfowl and grebes some halfway along the south side of Dayet Aaoua (just east of the King’s compound). Others had seen 6 a couple of days before.

A male Atlas Fly was on territory around the water fountain structure further west along the south shore. It was easily seen late afternoon but on another day could not be found mid-afternoon in the heat. A couple more were found in the forests east and south of Azrou.

Cheers all,
Andy.

 

[temmie]

Great updates!

As for the Desert Sparrows, I have one advice:

Just take a camel ride into the dunes. I saw plenty desert sparrows closeby in the berber tent camps, e.g. here in this little group of palm trees they were building nests: http://goo.gl/maps/Dh3V6, and here they were sitting on the tents of the camp: http://goo.gl/maps/W2EDU (also had Atlas Warbler at the 2nd site and some more).
+ the ride is scenic;
+ and the camel riding itself is actually not too bad;

The biggest nuisance however, are the 4x4 disturbing the magic silent atmosphere!

 

[amears]

Cheers, Temmie. I guess there are several good options for Desert Sparrows at the moment - no excuses!

And good point re 4x4 and noise - I hadn't thought of that...

Andy.