TRANSFER FROM MERZOUGA TO TALIOUINE WITH BIRDING STOPS AT: RIO GHERIS RISSANI – ROADSIDE CAFÉ NEAR ALNIF – LUNCH STOP AT AGDZ - SCRUB LAND WALK NEAR TAZENAKHT AND A WALK AT OUR HOTEL IN TALIOUINE
WEATHER: a great sunny start with no wind. Later, very windy and quite cold.
Breakfast was taken at 6:30am and most us then spent a little time watching the Ringing Team process a few birds. We saw Western Olivaceous Warbler (2), Subalpine Warbler and Bonelli’s Warbler in the hand before we departed. We left Merzouga on a high as not one but two Harrier species were sighted as we drove away from our hotel. A Hen Harrier is a very unusual sighting in this area but there it was, flying past us and not long afterwards we saw a male Montagu’s Harrier as well. Brown-necked Ravens and White-crowned Wheatears were very common sightings as we made our way to Rissani and beyond.
We stopped at the River Gheris just east of Rissani, the river was bone dry but the Tamarisk scrub was alive with birds. We saw Magreb Lark, the two most common migrant warblers, Bonelli’s and Subalpine but we could not locate a Saharan Olivaceous Warbler.
Miles of empty roads and wide-open spaces are a feature of this part of Morocco
Both Blue-cheeked and European Bee-eaters were seen as well as flyover Booted Eagle and three Long-legged Buzzards, both Barn and Red-rumped Swallows were seen, also House and Sand Martins.
Blue-cheeked Bee-eater above and European Bee-eater below - both taken by Tony Moore
We put some miles on the clock before making our next stop which was a roadside petrol station with a café and a shop. We found several species there, Common Redstart, House Bunting, Common Bulbul, Subalpine Warbler, White-crowned Wheatear and we saw another beautiful male Montagu’s Harrier.
Magreb Lark - by Tony Moore
It was 1:30pm when we stopped at Agdz to buy our lunch supplies, we drove a few kilometers out of town to eat it. It was quite windy there too but we managed a short walk and found a few species but not much. Laughing Doves and the common Warblers and Common Bulbuls.
a first year White-crowned Wheatear - without the white crown, you can just see flecks of white coming through - photo by Tony Moore
At 3pm we stopped at very large scrub area just west of Tazenakht where we searched for Pin-tailed Sandgrouse without luck. In fact, only a couple of species of birds were seen in a 30 minutes walk. Desert Wheatear and Desert Lark. Flyover species included Barn and Red-rumped Swallow.
miles of birdless scrub-land near Tazenakht
Before arriving at Taliouine we had a very close near-miss road accident, it was almost a head-on collision with a small truck which was overtaking a slow moving vehicle on a bend! We stopped with inches to spare, very scary for all of us, I think I'd better go and change my underwear as I was sitting in the front passenger seat!!
At Taliouine we went for a walk between 5-6pm, it was still a bit windy and quite cold. We saw several species and added Goldfinch to the trip list, at last!! Other species seen were: Serin, Thekla’s Lark, Sardinian Warbler, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, laughing Dove, European Bee-eater, House Bunting and lots of common species.
female Woodchat Shrike - taken by Tony Moore
Dinner was taken at 7:30pm and the bird-log followed. We have now seen 140 species with the potential of 60 more, so a record list may be on the cards, watch this space!!