Morocco/Western Sahara - Day 4 - the day we "sprang forward"!!

31st March . . . The clocks changed in the uk, but not in Morocco! 

Some using their phones as alarm clocks were rather rudely awoken at 5:00 am instead of 6!   This would not have been a problem if the same had not occurred with our local guide Nico (an Italian whose phone was on manual?!)    All very confusing, however as all the staff and the majority the group were up early and coffee had been packed for us, we decided to set off anyway - the final two team members having had a rather rude awakening! 

Very early morning in the desert

It was 5:30 am, pitch black and we set of for our second nightjar attempt.   Standing in the dark watching the stars gradually fade in the increasing sunlight brought us back to reality.   

We listened for nightjar - nothing, 

Wandered around - nothing,

Tried a more organised approach - nothing

Nightjar 2 -v- 0 Birders

We returned to the vehicles for coffee and then drove to another site.   Here we did a walk through desert in an organised attempt to find birds and hopefully nightjar!

Birds yes, nightjar no!   

We are now at Birds 3-v- 0 Birders 

Back to the house, for brunch and to regroup.

Lunch was tomato and cheese wrap, black and green olives, flatbread, spreadable cheese and green bean frittata.   Coffee was great as usual, and Sidi’s tea was sweet and strong.

Our every move being watched!

At 1.00 pm we went off to look for Pale Rock Martin which were seen yesterday around the post office building.   Keeping our eyes away from all the military buildings we managed to get to the end of town without mishap.   A lark flew up ahead of us and as we continued forward into empty land we drew the attention of the local police force.   

After much explanation in french by Paul one of the policemen volunteered he spoke English!   Apparently we had not been clocked in by our local guides, and were heading in the direction of an area not yet approved for wandering.   Maybe I should add now that Western Sahara has had a lot of landmines laid in the past, and although our local team are very well versed in the safe and not so safe areas, it was not advice to take lightly.   However, as the previous weeks group had explored the same area, we doubted this, but were not prepared to risk it!

Walking back through the village, via the shop for three bottles of POMS fizzy apple drink, we returned to the villa and were followed at a discrete distance by said policemen.

Within minutes discussions took place and everything was sorted out by our amazing crew - thanks Nico!

With a decision to go for a later night driver tonight with a more mammal focus we had a free afternoon to relax and catch up on sleep with dinner booked for 7:30 pm.

Dinner was an hour early (another victim of the phone clock syndrome!) but it was very welcome and once again delicious with chicken, rice, lentil soup, home made coleslaw and the ever-present olives.   Apple, dried fruit and cinnamon desert with coffee and Moroccan biscuits completed our banquet.

Desert Hedgehog

Soon we were off for our evening/night drive.    In contrast to last night the air relatively still and the sand was not blowing around.  A small flock of desert sparrow were seen in a roadside tree as we flashed last.   Just before sun-down we strolled around an area where nightjar had been seen by the road previously, nothing responded to our hopeful tape (4-0).


We did have a couple of Great Grey Shrike but the only other thing of real interest was a clump of ‘eggs’ attached to an acacia tree.   This was on a branch about two metres from the ground and a yellow colour.   On closer inspection of the photograph there are what appear to be compound eyes in one of the cells, but who knows?   We couldn't see any more so the mystery continues.

As darkness fell we moved away from Aousserd to an area of better habitat, and once we had turned around spent the next 4 hours or so slowly driving along spotlighting.

Two Lesser Egyptian Jerboa were seen along the road, but the highlight of the night (and mammal highlight of the whole trip for me) was an interaction between a Ruppell’s Fox and African Wildcat!   The Fox was barking and screaming at something, which initially looked like a second fox, but when it hunkered down it had the telltale stripes of a cat.   Eventually the cat got fed of being taunted by the Fox and both disappeared, but an amazing encounter for us.

We got back to base around 1:30 am, and slept well.

compound eye visible in the middle

The egg sacs

Morocco/Western Sahara - Day 3

A civilised start breakfast at 8, leave 8.30am giving us time to catch up with House Bunting which Ian had spotted from his room the morning previously.    An Osprey flew past the hotel too. 

On the first part of our journey inland we saw a White Wagtail in the town along with the usual house sparrow, collared dove and feral pigeons.   

Our first scheduled stop on the road to Aousserd was at a small derelict building near Dijane which had an old water tower where a spring overflows down the side of the brickwork allowing lichens and mosses to grow. A leaking pipe also helps to keep the area wet and a small pool with tiny froglets had developed.   As we arrived a long-legged bustard flew off the tower and rested on a hillside nearby, a group of trumpeter finch flew off too - they were our target species here.   

Trumpeter Finch

However, there were other specialities to enjoy including a pair of (southern) Great Grey Shrike (elegans) with two young.   Presumably the frog/toad hatching had come at a good time for their demanding two.

Crowned sand-grouse were seen here, and we added black wheatear to our day list.  

Our next stop was to be lunch so we needed to get some kms under our tyres.   Brown necked raven, stone curlew, 

Eventually we stopped by the side of the road and sauntered through stunted dry trees and sparse grasses.  Desert sparrow, black-crowned sparrow-lark,  rested lark sp. and more shrike were here.  Barn swallow and sand Martin flew over, latter stayed with us feeding above our heads as we in turn enjoyed another excellent lunch, which included aubergine, peppers homemade Vegetable cake and flatbread.  Bananas and Moroccan biscuits completed the banquet all in the shade of a mimosa tree.

Desert Sparrow (juv)

Our journey continued in the afternoon with a couple of stops, one for potential golden sparrow - although we saw at least 300 of the desert variety our target did not appear.

Our Second stop of the afternoon was for Dunn’s lark and thanks to Ian most of us saw the underneath of one as it soared high above us - better views requested!   

Desert warbler XXXX????

Large squash-Type fruits lay in the ground, growing wild.   Apparently called donkey melons. They are poisonous to humans,

Back in the road and no more stops until our final destination.  At the very welcoming house we found white-crowned wheatear in the garden, presumably the rarer, bold sub-species.

With a couple of hours relaxation we took the opportunity of showers, walks and settling into our home for the next three days.

Dinner was once delicious with soup, fresh bread, olives and the most delicious warm coffee desert.   Sidi made tea the Moroccan way and the coffee was, as always, great.

After dinner (around 8:20) we left for our evening walk this was was to be to a relatively new site for golden nightjar.   The original plan was scuppered as the old area has not had the species recently so as it had been reported elsewhere we went out with an air of expectation.

Look! No Feathers . . 

The wind was whipping up sand as we drove and when we finally stopped our footsteps disturbed and encouraged a light sandblasting which left the skin feeling quite smooth with the occasional gritty patch!   

The clear sky gave one of the best night skies I have ever experienced.   The reduced light pollution away from the SE of the U.K. always reminds me what we are missing.   

There were literally millions of stars twinkling above us, and working out the difference in angle of the plough, finding Orion’s belt and searching for Cassiopeia all helped to pass the time away whilst we waited for the elusive nightjar to start singing/calling/flying.   

Although we were not successful this evening we did see hedgehog and African savanna hare.

Desert Hedgehog

Nightjar 1 -v- 0 Birders

Morocco/Western Sahara - first full day - 29th March 2019

Brexit?!!   Pah I’d rather go birding 😂

View from our rooftop restaurant

Around the hotel we found House Sparrow, Collared Dove and feral pigeon - not unlike home!   Breakfast was omelette (only two between five of us as they only had three eggs in the kitchen), crusty bread, mini croissant, flatbread and cake.   The coffee was great and copious.

We were soon off to find more exotic species and started our journey to Tinehr along the coast from Dakhla.   This is an area where Crowned Sand-grouse had been seen recently, sure enough, within minutes we could hear them.   Several flew around, gradually numbers increased and everyone had great views of the, flying and on the ground.

An "Oasis" for birds

Lark country

Black Wheatear, Laughing Dove, Temminck’s Lark, Thekla Lark and the first of what was to be many Subalpine Warbler were found here along with some interesting plant species most noticeable being a superb red succulent. 

Our journey continued with Cream-coloured Courser, Hoopoe-lark, Marsh Harrier, Red-rumped Wheatear and Bar-tailed Lark.

Near Mijk we wandered through a “bird friendly” oasis in a very dry area.   Here the landowner had built up a productive melon and fruit farm in polytunnels but had also worked hard to make the area more supportive of wildlife.   

With small pools set in acacia and mixed tree copses this gave us some interesting species including Sedge Warbler, Blackcap, Moorhen, Lanner Falcon and Black-crowned Night-heron - an eclectic mix of birds.   I also found a plant very reminiscent of sticky groundsel, and a red/scarlet darter sp.

Crowned Sand-grouse

Lunch was taken under the shade of a nearby copse with delicious avocado and salad wraps, pink olives, hard boiled eggs, fresh oranges and homemade cake, it was wonderful.

After another circuit we were off to explore the coast and Dakhla’s RAMSAR site.   Once again reminders of home with Bar-tailed Godwit, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Dunlin, Curlew, Whimbrel, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Great Cormorant (both sinensis and maroccanus races), Spoonbill, and a distant Osprey.   

More exotic species were a large group of Greater Flamingo, Western Reef Egret, Caspian Tern, Audouin’s Gull, Slender-billed Gull and Kentish Plover.   

Sea-watching

Several stops along the Atlantic coast and eventually near a fishing village we found huge numbers of birds, with mixed wader flocks including Common Redshank and Turnstone, many gulls, Sandwich Tern and finally African Royal Tern, my first new bird of the trip.

A Little Stint caused interest for a while.   The bird was obviously a stint, but was washing itself preening, dashing back into the shallows of the tide and then preening again.   We ventured nearer and confirmed ID, questioning if it was a tired bird recovering from a migration flight.

Finally we made our way back to the hotel, for a shower, dinner, checklist and packing for tomorrow we move to the desert proper!

Destination Morocco/Western Sahara

Gatwick to Casablanca then change for Dakhla in what used to be Western Sahara.

There were great views of Portland and Chesil beach, the channel and over the Brest peninsular.  The snow on the top of the Pyrenees looked spectacular.

Chesil Beach

Lunch was a recycling nightmare with plastic packed smoked trout, plastic and foil packed cream cheese with plastic packed bread roll - all the crockery and cutlery was . . . . . yes, you guessed it, plastic and wrapped in plastic.

Foil packed main course of vegetable rice and more plastic for yogurt which did the usual explosion up the side of the cabin.

Sunset over Morocco

With all this plastic I thought of my first visit to the Sahara desert and the glistening plastic everywhere - no wonder if this was anything to go by, but then every one of the millions of flights a day are creating this waste! 

There has to be a better way forward. 

Lots of plastic!

After strange experience at Casablanca airport with no-one there to check us through immigration, we were soon on our second flight.   

More plastic-wrapped food with a savoury filled roll, and a chocolate chip cake, more yogurt and an apology from the crew for a delay we weren't aware of and eventually we had reached our hotel for a good nights sleep.