TRANSFER TO ESSAOUIRA WITH STOPS AT CAPE GHIR, TAMRI BAY AND OUED KSOB
WEATHER: another sunny day but very windy.
Late news from yesterday; some of the group went to a small park very close to the hotel after a Scops Owl was heard the night before. The park was locked closed but through the fence, and to our great surprise, we saw a pair of Stone Curlews! They gave out their eerie call and delighted the group, there was not sight nor sound of the Scops Owl.
This morning, we were all packed and ready to go at 8am for the journey northward along the coast to Essaouira, we planned a few stops to look for a couple of species missing from our list. The first stop at the side of the road was made so we could scan a distant flock of roosting gulls. We found our target gull, four were present. The Audouin’s Gull is one of my favourite gulls, we had good views of them but they were distant.
At Cape Ghir we stood on the cliffs and spent an hour or so sea-watching, it was very pleasant, standing in nice sunlight with a gentle onshore breeze. Thousands of gulls were out on the sea, a huge string of them, we saw some massive Tuna Fish too!
Gannets poured northward in large numbers, a constant steam of them flew past the point. As did Cory’s Shearwaters, they passed by one at a time, every minute or so. They other activity we saw was a single Pomarine Skua, a few Whimbrels and small flocks of Sandwich Terns.
A SEA-WATCH AT CAPE GHIR
At Tamri we visited the large lagoon and 'scoped a few species. Another Gull roost held 50+ Audouin’s Gulls but they were no nearer than the last sighting, however, the light was much better. The lagoon was flooded and held very few birds, we saw Mallard, Common Coot, Greater Flamingo, Eurasian Spoonbill, Black-winged Stilts, Common Sandpiper and Little Ringed Plovers. A few Blad Ibis flew over us, heading both north and south and we saw White Wagtails in the car park.
Flamingos, Spoonbills and Black-winged Stilts at Tamri Bay
We bought lunch in Tamri town and drove up the hill to the desert landscape to eat it. From our high vantage point we could see Blad Ibis feeding in the scrub and after eating we walked down to get better views. Over the next hour more groups of Ibis came to feed, whilst others flew over and headed to their cliff nest-sites.
one of the rarest birds in the world, Bald Ibis and also one of most ugliest!!
We had good view of Spectacled Warbler too, also Thekla’s Lark and we could hear Short-toed lark but we never located one. We had a bit fun when the driver, Adamane, got the bus stuck in the sand (for the third time this trip!!), it took a good 30 minutes to rescue the bus with the help of a couple of local guys.
these are Audouin's Gulls, also seen at Tamri
Our delay meant we had to forego one of our birding stops. It was 5pm when we got to Oued Ksob just south of Essaouira. It was very windy there and the river was very full, fast flowing water, the colour of mud.dy sand We saw very little there, it was hopeless until Matts called out a Bonelli’s Eagle which drifted over, a smashing sighting.
Both Green and Common Sandpipers were seen, a Grey Heron appeared, a couple of Mallards sat on a bank. We saw many Pond Terrapins, a Ground Squirrel and a few Butterflies, but the wind drove us away in the end.
That concluded our birding for the tour, tomorrow we shall have leave at 6am for the 3 hour drive to Marrakech. Our, authentic Riad in the centre of Essaouira was superb, a classic Riad with all the trimmings, the food was excellent too!
Some of the group ventured out after dinner and walked the narrow streets to enjoy the atmosphere and some true Moroccan life.
That conclude the tour, we had seen 182 species with a few more heard, not seen. Most the of the Moroccan Specialities had been seen, we missed only Levaillant’s Woodpecker, Magreb Wheatear and we could done with better views of Sandgrouse.
Most of the group went home happy having seen: African Crimson-winged Finch, Atlas Lark, Thick-billed Lark, Seebohm’s Wheatear, Streaked Scrub Warbler, Tristram’s Warbler, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Saharan Olivaceous Warbler, Fulvous Chatterer, Desert Warbler, Desert Sparrow, Egyptian Nightjar, Bar-tailed and Desert larks and watched Hoopoe Lark performing its display flights.
If you enjoyed reading about ore adventure in Morocco why not come and join us in 2027?