DESERT SAFARI 4*4 EXCURSION AROUND ERI CHEBBI – LATER A WALK IN A WADI NEAR MERZOUGA
WEATHER: dull, overcast, light rain with heavier downpours. Sunny late afternoon
Today was our big ‘desert-day’ we had a number specialist species to look for and we hired three 4*4 jeeps for the morning. The only problem with that was…….. it was pouring with rain at 7am when we got up for breakfast and it refused to stop all morning. It was such a blow and a big disappointment for the group.
looking from the entrance to Cafe Yasmina - very wet.
We visited the terrace at Café Yasmina in the hope that the ringing group were catching birds in the rain, but that was not happening. So, we boarded our jeeps at 9am and set off for the desert region beyond the dunes.
We went straight a known watering hole where Sandgrouse regularly come down to drink, when its not raining!! We waited fro nearly an hour and saw just one bird, a Bar-tailed Lark, which was new for most of the group. Nothing else flew by, so we went in search of the sandgrouse.
We never saw a single one, one of our most wanted species failed to turn up for the show!! It had to be the weather because yesterday morning, apparently, hundreds turned up. The main problem was that many small pools or puddles were dotted all over the desert and the birds were not reliant on this one pool that we were watching, they could be drinking anywhere.
We stopped at an area of small bushes and scrub to search for Desert Warbler, we saw a couple of Subalpine Warblers and Brown-necked Ravens flew over before one of the drivers shouted out. He had found a Desert Warbler, sure enough as we gathered round him this little sandy coloured Warbler appeared. In fact a second bird appeared and we went on to find two more! Wowza!
a Painted Frog in the gardens at Yasmina
Next we drove to a small camping site, where people can stay overnight to experience the true desert ‘life’. The small compound was full of Sparrows and to our great delight most of them were Desert Sparrows, they were coming down to food offerings thrown there by the camp owners! Better still, a small group of Fulvous Babblers were joining them, as well as a Blackbird and a White-crowned Wheatear.
above and below - Desert Sparrows
After that excitement we returned for more grouse searching. We saw more Ravens, Desert and Black-eared Wheatears, we watched Hoopoe Larks performing their kamikaze flight display and we found Bar-tailed Larks, a first for most of the group. But no grouse appeared, the rain became a little lighter and the sky brightened, it was midday.
two views of Fulvous Chatterers
Finally we visited another area of scrub, where a tall local Berber was waiting for us. He was the Nightjar-finder, I have met him several times over the years. He led us to a stoney area with small scrub and pointed out an Egyptian Nightjar. The bird was sitting out in the open and looked wet. A second bird was located, then a third and finally a fourth!! Wowza! I never expected that. My group was buzzing.
searching for Desert Warbler
Egyptian Nightjar
the second one of four Egyptian Nightjars
We left the nomad and his nightjars and set off back to our Auberge for a late lunch.
We never had much time left for birding in the afternoon but we spent a couple of hours walking a local wadi in search of Coursers and Sandgrouse. The sky had cleared, the sun came out and it warmed up. We saw the sandgrouse, in fact we saw dozens of them as they flew over us. From the calls we can only be certain that Spotted Sandgrouse were present but is highly likely that Crowned Sandgrouse were there too!
Hoopoe Lark
We watched Hoopoe Larks and Wheatears on the ground and in a single tree we found two Bonelli’s Warblers and a Woodchat Shrike. We dipped on the Coursers and made our way back to the hotel at 6pm.