ALL DAY VISIT TO SOUSS MASSA NATIONAL PARK AND SURROUNDS
WEATHER: wall to wall sunshine all day, a light breeze.
My favourite part of the trip is the early morning walk along the main Souss Massa trail over-looking the river. Today was exceptionally good, once again perfect weather, a lovely temperature, no wind and a clear sky. From our high vantage point we could see for miles and quite far in both directions along the river, bird song came from all directions. The area was alive with butterflies too, carpets of colourful flowers covered the sand-stone landscape.
We listed dozens of species, we had great views, in really good light, of most of them during this first hour or so, except for the Black-crowned Tchagra of which there was only a distant sound.
Looking up the river Souss towards Sidi Rabat
and down river from the raised track of Souss Massa National park
Warblers flitted about in the tamarisk scrub, we saw Olivaceous Warblers quite frequently, also Sardinian, Subalpine and Blackcap Warblers. Bulbuls and Moussier’s Redstart were common and Zitting Cisticolas drove me made with their incessant calling. In the air we noted our first Plain Martins, a pair were visiting a nest hole just above the road and gave us great views.
a Blackcap below a Sardinian Warbler, apparently I just missed an Orphean Warbler in the same twigs!!
a Zitting Cisticola - they were very common along the track
On the river we saw Spoonbills and Flamingos, we added Kingfisher, Common Snipe and Marbled Duck to our list. Moorhens, Coots, Little Grebes, Common Sandpipers, Ruff , Greenshanks and Curlew Sandpipers were also present. After walking a mile or so the road dropped down to level of the river and we got back onto the bus for the short drive the reserve entrance. We then took a second walk into the reserve along a high track with the river a little further away from us. Along this track we found the Tchagra, two of them. Great, but short, views were had by most of us and some got lucky with prolonged views.
lots of Common Stonechats were about
We saw 5 Pintail Ducks and 7 Eurasian Teal further along the river and added a few waders which included Kentish and Ringed Plovers, also Gull-billed Terns, a White Stork and a Marsh Harrier.
Back on the bus we drove to the centre of the village and bought lunch which we ate sitting on the bridge at the bottom of the village watching Flamingos and more Plain Martins with Sand Martins and Swallows. Olivaceous Warblers came very close to us in the tamarisk bushes.
Orphean Warbler
A trip up to the seaside town of Sidi Quassay produced our only sighting of Bald Ibis, we only saw one during our visit. From the beach car park we saw Northern Gannet, Sandwich Terns and a gull roost on the beach held a few Audouin’s Gulls, but only I saw them!
the beach at Sidi Quassay - there are a few Audouin's Gulls in the distance in this picture!!
Back in the Sous Massa Valley we walked along tracks for a mile or so, looking for Common Quail, many were calling and we had brief views of at least three of them. We also added Green Sandpiper to the list, we saw an Osprey, Kestrels and Pallid Swifts. The alfalfa fields produced very little which was surprising as they are usually covered in Yellow Wagtails and Pipits, we saw one Meadow Pipit.
a female Moussier's Redstart
A tired group got back to the bus around 5:30pm we drove back up to Agadir to our hotel arriving in good time for our 8pm dinner.