Today we left the eastern part of our trip and moved to Ouarzazte this entailed a long drive punctuated by birding and coffee stops (surprise, surprise). We saw Scrub Warbler, Thick-billed Lark and Seebomn's Wheatear- the latter a welcome surprise as we missed it earlier in the trip, and brought our trip Wheatear species total to 9.
The journey was, as always a great opportunity for us to mull over important topical ornithological matters, the state of the nation, the quality of the coffee, the great diversity of the landscapes we were passing through, and best of all, putting our beloved leader under a tad of pressure on the bird list front!
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| Tamarisk and Broomrape |
We continued on for several hours, stopping off for more tea and coffee and then a delicious lunch near a wadi. As usual we all went off in search of birds whilst our two drivers prepared lunch for us.
As we wandered in a rather loose group, Darryl managed to almost step on an Egyptian Nightjar - it's amazing how cryptic they are - even close too! It was great to see this bird flying in the daylight - a stark contrast to the night-time views we had a couple of nights ago. It flew right over Andrew's head as he bowed down botanising, completely oblivious - he actually didn't believe us when we told him of his "dip". We all moved stealthily towards the spot where the bird had settled but once again it moved off - this time across the wadi and into low cover, so we left it alone. Migrating birds need all the safe rest they can get along the way.
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| Subalpine Warbler |
Continuing down the wadi we came across a family of young Common Bulbuls all cuddled up on a branch, as we walked past they flew off and in fact revealed 8 individuals. There was also a nest in the vacated tree, but whether it was their former nursery was hard to tell. We found a whole host of asphodels at the next bend in the wadi and photos were taken. The wandering continued until it was time to turn back.
The nightjar had settled itself in the lee of a thorny bush alongside the wadi. We stood back and watched it for some time, marvelling at how well it was camouflaged against the sandy ground. It was perfectly still and at ease, not moving a muscle. As we snapped photos this amazing bird did a great rock impression - a fantastic experience!
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| The desert creates a natural bonsai tree! |
Eventually, an hour late, we arrived back at the 4x4s for a rather late lunch. After apologising to our two hosts/drivers we tucked in to another delicious lunch This time it was a lovely Berber tagine of vegetables and eggs. With fresh bread and the usual finely chopped salad and olives it was lovely- and ideal for the heat of the day.
We continued our journey through the Anti-Atlas with dramatic scenery all around us. The constantly changing landscapes will be one of my lasting memories of the trip and an experience which I had not considered when contemplating the trip.
Our hotel was great, with a modern twist on traditional Moroccan, a shame we only had one night here, but thoroughly enjoyable, and a great location for our first stop tomorrow.
