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| Morning light in the desert |
We went off to another site via
the infamous Cafe Yasmina. This is a
well known birding site, where ringing is sometimes carried out. During the wetter season there's a small
lake nearby (totally dry now unfortunately) and a great area of tamarisk and
scrubby habitat which was great for a bit of migration investigation. Here were warblers aplenty, with Sardinian, Westerm Bonnelli's, Cetti's, Chiffchaff, Woodchat Shrike
and Common Redstart. One of the House Sparrows was completely black
- most intriguing. We set off in
different directions taking tracks through the scrub and just enjoying some
'real birding'. The thrill was seeing our
migrating birds on their long way north and realising just how amazing their perilous
journey is.
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| Brilliant creatures! |
Our driver had spoken to a nearby Nomad
who was said to have the sparrows near his bivouac, so we took a short drive to
his camp. As we approached, a small light
warbler appeared - a Desert Warbler! At
this point I realised that the bird I had glimpsed at the rubbish tip yesterday
was probably this species, acting in exactly the same way, keeping to the base
of the small shrubs, and only showing itself when absolutely necessary. The pale colouring was exactly what I saw,
so not a cricket after all! We raced
off through the sand dunes to track the bird down again. As we scanned, a pair of Desert Sparrow
turned up, so after all that effort we were rewarded. After enjoying them for a few minutes we
decided to try for the warbler and then return to the bivouac later for the sparrows
which were more likely to stay around.
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| Woodchat Shrike |
As for the warbler, it called its
beautiful song, but generally it remained in the dried up stalks of the dune
grasses and gave us very scanty views, before flying off into the
distance. As the heat was building up -
by now it was around 9.10 am - we moved back to the camp for some shade and
enjoyed trying to photograph the sparrows from a nearby tree.
We were invited into the tent for tea,
which, as always, was delightfully
refreshing. A White-crowned Black Wheatear perched on
top of a jeep outside, with a huge camel tick in its bill. It appeared to be showing off its great prize
by finding the most obvious perch, then singing away to draw attention to itself. We had a great time watching it. It did elicit an outbreak of itching as we
thought about the prospect of those large ticks though!
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| White-crowned Black Wheatear with Camel Tick! |
By now it was time to meet our second Nomad of the day, this time for Egyptian Nightjar. Off we drove across the sand, along almost
invisible tracks which seemed to meander rather haphazardly through the desert. We were greeted with yet another
tray of tea, this time accompanied by the most delicious salted nuts -
what a great way to say hello!
After several minutes, we were driven just
a few hundred yards away from the camp and there sheltering under small bushes
to get some relief from the increasingly hot sun were not just one, but two Nightjars. We bunched together and
slowly approached a short distance towards the birds who appeared to be completely
oblivious to our presence. We were
quietly enjoying them, taking photos and studying them through bins and scopes,
and we spent a considerable time in almost complete silence until a Lanner
falcon flew overhead, and even then we were so aware not to disturb that Lee didn't even realise the falcon was overhead. Eventually we moved off to our lunch stop by
the River Ziz, buoyed by our surreal experiences.
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| Tamarisk Gall |
Whilst the drivers prepared our picnic
we went for a stroll along the river where we had more warblers, including
Subalpine, African Desert, Western Bonelli's and more of our familiar Chiffchaff. We also had at least two Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters fly by, calling
as they went. I also found a tamarisk gall, which is apparently formed when gall-wasp eggs are deposited on tree branches. The nutlike gall grows until the larvae are completely enveloped. The mature insect bores a hole through the gall in order to escape.
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| Chiffchaff |
Lunch was Moroccan beef burgers which
are actually a type of bread which is
stuffed with spicy meat and vegetables and
then sliced 'pizza like', fresh
bread and salad followed by oranges and
bananas.
After lunch we were off to meet yet
another well connected Nomad, (a great day for Nomads!) this time to be
introduced to Spotted Sandgrouse.
Again, the locals had their facts right as within minutes we were
watching around 60 of the birds as they fed in the rough ground of small bushes
and sandy ground. Once more we savoured the
birds and spent much time enjoying them.
A second wander around the river area
didn't add much more for the trip, but kept our day list going. Soon, with the sun starting to set, we were
off to the hotel for tea in the garden and dinner.
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| Egyptian Nighjar |
A great day, completed by a rather
interesting night drive in the desert. We were driven round and round in circles, bumping up and down sand dunes, losing our orientation completely. In the midst of all of this we ended up in a race with a desert hare, the racing hare had far more agility than the Toyota and he left us in a hysterical heap, unable to speak or function for several minutes, with the other vehicle unaware of the delirium at the other end of the radio.
