2010 Tour Narrative
An early flight from Gatwick allowed lunch at our hotel and a full afternoon in the Sous estuary, providing an excellent introduction to Morocco and its birds, with Greater Flamingo, Spoonbill, Bonelli’s Eagle, Barbary Falcon, Osprey, Black-winged Stilt, Lesser Crested Tern, and Mediterranean, Slender-billed, and Audouin’s Gulls. The following day the Massa estuary yielded both more of the same and many exciting extras (Squacco Heron, White Stork, Glossy Ibis, Ferruginous Duck, Black-shouldered Kite, Lanner, Laughing Dove, Little Owl, Little Swift, Wryneck, Crag Martin, Red-rumped Swallow, Bluethroat, and Black-headed Bush-shrike – plus our first tasty tagine) whilst sunset in the desert rounded off a satisfying day with Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Desert Wheatear, and Trumpeter Finch.
A change of habitat on Day 3 brought a completely different selection of birds. Paradise Valley and the wonderfully scenic Imouzzer circuit did us proud with every speciality performing on cue: Barbary Partridge, Black Wheatear, Tristram’s Warbler, Ultramarine Tit, and Cirl and Rock Buntings. And after a relaxed lunch on the terrace of the Hotel des Cascades the most westerly Atlas Crossbill in the world completed our set of higher-altitude birds by flying from the last tree possible and perching on the wire above our bus. On reaching the coast at Tamri our final target species flew by to greet us even before we had checked out all the black plastic bags in the coastal scrub – a considerable percentage of the world population of Bald Ibis, with a supporting cast of several Long-legged Buzzards and over a hundred Audouin’s Gulls.
Changing pace again, most of the following day was spent on a most comfortable pelagic with a calm sea and a succession of interesting and instructive seabird sightings – five species of shearwater (including invaluable comparisons of Cory’s and Scopoli’s and Manx and Balearic, plus a couple of Sooties), all four skuas (involving 76 birds – a good tally by any seawatching standards), and a Grey Phalarope. Our lunch was the finest we have had at sea. A return visit to the Sous estuary rounded off the day with more egrets, storks, spoonbills, flamingos, and assorted waders and a classic sunset.
Now well and truly in our stride we headed south for the ultimate desert experience. En route a leg stretch in a mountain pass provided more Black Wheatears and Rock Buntings and our first Desert Lark. But our first desert stop near Asrir was even more rewarding with Rufous Bush-chat, Cream-coloured Courser, Short-toed and Bar-tailed Desert Larks, Desert and Red-rumped Wheatears, Spectacled Warbler, and more Trumpeter Finches. Fulvous Babbler was instantly obliging (together with White-crowned Black Wheatear and Blue Rock Thrush) and our final desert walk added the rare and elusive Streaked Scrub Warbler of the endemic theresae race – a pending split – and the charismatic Hoopoe Lark.
Despite this unprecedented desert selection the following morning in the desert south of Goulimime was by no means an anti-climax, with 250 Trumpeter Finches, 96 Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Temminck’s Horned Lark, Lesser Short-toed Lark, and the magnificent Thick-billed Lark. This desert clean-sweep left us time to call at the Massa again on our return journey and add yet more new species (Turtle Dave and Pintail) and some welcome second helpings (Cirl Bunting and Little Owl).
This daily 100% success rate on all our target species meant that we did not have to return to Tamri or Imouzzer and left our final day free to enjoy the dramatic Tafraoute circuit – in the words of travel writer Barnaby Rogerson ‘one of the most classically beautiful journeys that you can make in Morocco’. The adventure started with ‘scope views of perched Black-shouldered Kite and more looks at desert species (over a hundred Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Trumpeter Finches, Desert Wheatear, Black and White-crowned Black Wheatears, and Desert, Short-toed, and Lesser Short-toed Larks) but the avian highlights were undoubtedly 180 Red-billed Choughs and close overhead views of Golden Eagle. Equally memorable, however, were the endlessly (one might almost say relentlessly) breathtaking and gasp-inducing views of mountain scenery and the tastiest tagines in a Berber ceremonial tent. Our route took us across the Tiznit desert, through the valley which was once the long-impregnable sanctuary of El Hiba the Blue Sultan, winding up past Col-du-Kerdous (once a kasbah, then an Islamic school, now a hotel), through the territory of the Ammeln (a tribal sub-division of the Cheleuh Berbers and the best known of the six tribes of the Anti-Atlas mountains), to the amphitheatre of Tafraoute itself where the bizarre and massive red rock formations have been compared to meteorite showers on Mars. Then over the passes of Tizi-Mlil (1662m) and Tizi-n’Tarakatine with Adrar-Mqorn towering above at 2344m and down to the fortress village of Tioulit, a spectacular example of the homeland of the Illalen, a confederation of 18 tribes who occupy the mountain plateau between Tafraoute and Ait-Baha. The agadirs of the Illalen are known to have contained as many as 300 compartments, in several storeys either side of a central isle. We even added two new species (Pochard and Black-necked Grebe) at dusk on our descent.
Our final morning saw us back at the Sous once more – very much our local patch for this week – with great looks at perched Bluethroats and Ultramarine Tit and the usual suspects, plus our final target bird: Moroccan Wagtail.
Once more Morocco, long known in the Muslim world as Maghreb el Aksa, the land of the furthest west, literally the edge of the world and a place notorious for its powerful magicians and demon-like jinn, had worked its magic. Bryan Bland
Updated: February 2011