Brexit?!! Pah I’d rather go birding 😂
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| 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.
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| An "Oasis" for birds |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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