TAGDILT TRACK ALL MORNING – DADES GORGE IN THE AFTERNOON
WEATHER: a beautiful sunny day, light winds, but quite chilly.
The clocks changed last night, Morocco introduced summer daylight saving a week earlier than Europe to coincide with the ending of Ramadan. That threw us out because our planned 6am walk was now in complete darkness!! Doh!! We abandoned the walk.
After breakfast we took the bus to the famous birding trail, the Tagdilt Track. We spent all morning walking, driving, stop-starting and watching an incredible variety of species.
The main track passes the municipal rubbish dump and that is where most species can be found, but we walked a kilometer or so before we got to the dump. Wheatears were everywhere especially the Red-rumped variety. Desert Wheatears and White-crowned Wheatears joined Northern Wheatears onto to the day list. Flocks of Short-toed Larks dashed about in good numbers, we saw Thekla’s Lark, Crested lark, Trumpeter Finch, House Buntings, Eurasian Hoopoe and Woodchat Shrike.
female Desert Wheatear
a male Red-rumped Wheatear
A few early morning raptors appeared too! Distant views were had of Black Kite, Booted Eagle, Marsh Harrier and a beautiful male Montagu’s Harrier. Kestrels flew over now and then.
a Trumpeter Finch
At the rubbish dump we found our main target species, the THICK-BILLED LARK, we watched a pair of them for a while and then two more joined them before they flew off. We also added White Wagtail, Yellow Wagtail, lots of Barn Swallows, House and Sand Martins. More raptors appeared and we found an immature Egyptian Vulture.
Thick-billed Lark
We drove deeper into the stoney plains, away from the rubbish and the smells and the packs of wild dogs that live there. Beyond the 'litter-fringe' we found a beautiful Great Grey Shrike, we saw more Desert Wheatears and we watched our first Temminck’s Larks.
We searched for Cream-coloured Coursers without finding one and during one stop we had better views of Short-toed Larks and we found a Spectacled Warbler, some Serins and Meadow Pipits.
the terrain at the Tagdilt Track
A walk in some small cultivated areas produced more Meadow Pipits but not the expected migrant birds. On the way back into town we stopped when a shout went up of “Courser”. A single bird flew up from the roadside, but we could not relocate it, but as we searched for it we found our first Hoopoe Lark!
Great Grey Shrike
a male Serin
We drove back into town to buy lunch supplies and spent quite a while doing so. Our afternoon was spent driving to the head of the Dades Gorge, it was spectacular there, the whole 30km gorge is stunning with some fantastic geological features including the famous “Monkeys Fingers” formation.
poart of thre Monkeys Fingers formation
At the top of the gorge we stopped for a walk and to search for Tristram’s Warbler, we found a single male bird which showed extremely well, but not long enough for me to get a digi-picture unfortunately.
Other species on show included: Crag Martin, Blue Rock Thrush, Rock Bunting, Black Wheatear and dozens of ‘Rock Pigeons’. We made our way back down the gorge stopping once for birding which produced very little, it was early evening now and time to call it day, a very good day, I must say!