EARLY MORNING WALK IN MARRAKECH - ALL DAY VISIT TO THE HIGH ATLAS MOUNTAINS AT OUKAIMEDAN
WEATHER: lots of morning sunshine with moderate breeze, cloudy later and much colder. Rain from 4pm onwards.
We started the tour this morning with a pre-breakfast walk to a local park, which happened to be closed, it was a national holiday due the ending of Ramadan. So, we walked the streets around the park and found a few interesting species. Common Bulbuls, House Buntings, House Sparrows, Spotless Starlings, Collared Doves and Wood Pigeons seemed to be everywhere.
sunrise in Marrakech
We found a single Turtle Dove, a few Sardinian Warblers, Greenfinches and then Pete found a Booted Eagle perched nearby which was a great find. The most impressive species was the swift, dozens of them filled the sky. Mostly were Pallid Swifts with a few local, non-migratory Little Swifts and Common Swifts were also seen. On the way back breakfast it was Pete again who picked out another raptor, this time it was an Osprey.
Booted Eagle
We were joined at our el fresco breakfast tables by several House Buntings, the cheeky little mites came down for crumbs.
House Bunting and a dog bowl
At 9am we were on our for the tour-proper, we headed directly up to Oukaimedan, a village in the High Atlas Mountains that sits on a large plateau with ski-slopes all around it. On the way up we stopped to buy lunch provisions, but because of the Ramadan Holiday most shops were closed, we found fruit and snacks and water.
there was a lot more snow this year than in the previous 5 years
Our first stop as we climbed the slopes produced a few species, but it was slow and hard work. Moussier’s Redstart was the pick of this first stop, we also saw African Blue Tit, a Sparrowhawk, African Chaffinch and a Sardinian Warbler.
Moussier's Redstart
The next stop was a little higher up and we had much more success from there, our view from the road overlooked a large area of rocky terrain with patches of grass and some bushes. Behind us and above was a rocky hillside with a pinewoods covering a large area.
We found a few target species which included; Blue-rock Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Black Wheatear, Rock Bunting and Cirl Bunting, Moussier’s Redstart (again), Coal Tit (heard) and a family of Northern Ravens flew over.
Next, we found ourselves in a clearing in some pine woods about 2km further up the hill. We searched for Firecrest which called, but was only see by two of the group. Also, Serin, Siskin (7), Great Tit and Short-toed Treecreeper were seen. Birding-Guru Guy, then spotted a large Eagle which turned out to be a Goldie, quickly followed by small groups of Red-billed Chough.
Atlas Horned-Lark
Before we reached the summit, we stopped three times to view a fast flowing stream which was fed by the overspill of the dam. We searched for Dipper but never found one! We did have great views of Black Redstart, Black Wheatear, both Yellow and Grey Wagtails, more Chough some Rock Doves. From a roadside pull-in we scanned the huge flocks of Chough and added Yellow-billed Chough to the list.
At Oukaimedan we spent our first hour searching the car parks for the most-wanted African Crimson-winged Finch which did not show! What we did find was a beautiful male Seebohm’s Wheatear and a small flock of Rock Sparrows.
Seebohm's Wheatear
Eventually, after some anxiety from the leader (me), the Finches started to appear, what a relief. We eventually totted up about 30+ of this amazing bird, we took plenty of photographs.
we got fairly close to these enigmatic little beauties - African Crimson-winged Finch
Our final target species was the Atlas Horned-Lark, a drive up a side track did the trick. We found up a dozen, they all seemed to be paired off and were working the exposed grassy areas just below the snow-line. We also found a couple of Crimson-winged Finches there too.
the finch and the lark together - our two main targets species in the bag at last
After a quick diversion to look at the fantastic view across to Mount Toubkal we drove back into the village and had a lovely bowl of hot soup, before making our way back down. It started to rain quite heavily as we got into the bus. We stopped at the stream once again and this time we had good views of two Dippers, job done.
We checked into our one-night hotel and whilst drinking hot mint tea, we watched Little Swifts, Cattle Egrets, Bulbuls and we heard a Cetti’s Warbler, the rain continued to fall.