Day 8 - 25th April - Birding around Agadir

Leaving the 'Auberge Taulouine' early morning, we headed to Agadir by the coast for a change of scenery. Driving through the numerous villages, it was clear that we were in good habitat for Fulvous Babbler as these were quite numerous.

Turtle Dove migration was well underway as we witnessed at least 1,000 of these beautiful little doves migrate over head, some in flocks of 200!

Along the way we picked up Black - Eared Wheatear, Black Kite and Black - Shouldered Kite.

Further along the coast at a site called Tamri, we picked up Slender - Billed Gull, Sanderling and a single Collard Pratincole on the beach.

A thorough search around the area of Tamri, revealed about 6 Bald Ibis resulting in a short paddle across a stream..

Mid afternoon and we headed past Agadir to a site where we had brilliant views of Black - Crowned Tchagra, Stone Curlew, Marbled Teal and Brown-Throated Sand Martin - many thanks to the warden here as we would never have found the sites by ourselves.

Late evening and we headed for the nearest hotel we could find and got our heads down, after yet another gorgeous meal, a hot shower and a ridiculously comfy bed!

Day 7 - 24th April - Tizi-n-Tinifift!

Leaving the 'Le Soleil Bleu' Hotel at 6am prompt, we headed straight to a renowned site in search for the Moroccan race of Pied Wagtail. No sooner had we got out of the car, I spotted a candidate and over the next 10 mintues, the bird showed exceptionally well!

We still hadn't connected with the elusive Mourning Wheatear so we made 3 stops en-route but sadly we weren't rewarded despite a thorough search at each site.

Stoppong at a large reservoir before the Tizi-n-Tinifift pass, we managed to see several Blue-Cheeked Bee-Eaters, Great White Egret, Purple Heron, Squacco Heron and Little Bittern.

Stopping en-route we called in at the Tizi-n-Tinifift pass for African Rock Martin. These birds abundant at this site with at least 10 birds seen and which gave exceptional views with one particular bird perching on the ground right below us some 5ft away. Alpine Swift and Little Swift as well as Crag Martin were also seen here in good numbers.

A spectacular find was a secluded valley where we had great views of Golden Eagle and a pair of Bonelli's Eagle displaying at close quarters. Time was getting tight now so we headed for the nearest hotel being the 'Auberge Taulouine'. Here we had a surprise visit from the Moroccan race Tawny owl..

Day 6 - 23rd April - 'Local Birding'

The decision was made this morning to have an early morning walk around the grounds of the 'Auberge Derkhaoua' to see if we could locate any Egyptian Nightjars. A short breakfast and we were ready for action!

Unfortunately, that morning we were supposed to meet up with Ali Mouni in search of the elusive and rare Houbara Bustard. However, by 8am there was no sign of him so we gave Idir a call and he arranged to meet us at the hotel and show us a Female Egyptian Nightar on the nest.

Before Idir arrived, a flock of 200+ Spotted Sandgrouse flew over our cars heading deep into the Desert. An hour or so later, deep into the Saharan Desert we were stood watching the Nightjar on her nest - spectacular experience!

Back at the 'Auberge Derkhaoua', Idir gave us another one of is contacts, Hassan. Meeting up with Hassan on the 'Rissani Bridge', he later showed us fantastic views of 30 Crowned Sandgrouse, 50 Spotted Sandgrouse, Barbary Falcon, Lanner Falcon and Pharoah Eagle Owl!

An overnight stay at the 'Soleil Bleu' Hotel, enjoying couscous, beer and wine - nothing else mattered in the world!

Day 5 - 22nd April - Proper Sahara!

Having never experienced sleeping in a car in the middle of the Saharan Desert - it was something I won't be doing anytime soon. After a awful night's sleep, waking up all groggy and shattered, it was time to get out birding; this being 4am. I had been awake at 3am listening to an Egyptian Nightjar churring which was later followed by great views of a bird flying around our car just before we set off for our dawn walk - great stuff!

A flock of around 200 Bee-eaters flushed from their overnight roost above us! A Rufous Bush Robin gave great views as did 1 Male Golden Oriole and a small group of Fulvous Babbler, in nearby vegetation. We were witnessing migration at first hand!

Around 6am we bumped into a tour group who kindly gave us a phone number to contact for some 'proper local' bird knowledge.

Another target bird for us here was Brown - Necked Raven. These were very numerous in the correct habitat and are very different from our British species.

Next stop was the 'Hotel Said' for African Desert Warbler. After a good hour of searching, a bird popped up right by our feet and flew to a nearby conifer. Great views were had of this little beauty!

Moving onto the 'Auberge Caravanne' where we had a cup of mint tea and eventually located the only pair of Desert Sparrow in the area at 'Cafe Yasmina'. However, instead of nesting in the old sheep huts like previous years, this year they turned their attention to a nearby nestbox.

Throughout the rest of the day, temperatures began to soar to an all too hot - 38 degrees so we retired inside and had a refreshing glass of coke. The decision was made to stay another night in the 'Auberge Derkahaoua'.

Spanish ringers were also in the vicinity but unfortunately when we arrived it was mid day and the nets were furled. A real shame as I would have loved to see what they were catching.

Other specialities seen during the day include Saharan Olivaceous Warbler.

Day 4 - 21st April - 'Tagdilt Track' (Visit 2)

Up early again next morning and heading for the 'New Tagdilt Track' by the new Inknouen Road. First stop was to the famous Wheatear Wall for Mourning Wheatear but after several hours - no joy. Desert Wheatear were very numerous here which allowed some more mega digiscoping opportunities.

Thick - Billed Lark was also high on our prioroty list that day and we eventually found a superb male, albeit very showy.

Mid morning we headed off up into the hills to the Dades Gorge for a walk for some mountain/ scrub birds. Here we encountered Grey Wagtail and Yellow Wagtail, Blue Rock Thrush, 1 Dartford Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Woodchat Shrike and several House Buntings.

In the afternoon we concentrated our efforts on searching for Scrub Warbler at a renowned site at Kilometre 2 and no sooner had I stepped out of the car, 3 birds popped up and began calling and showing really well. However, not the easiest bird to digiscope as they never stopped moving.

Early evening was soon upon us so we deserperately tried to find the 'Auberge Derkhaoua' (our hotel for the night) in the mean time got ourselves completely lost in the middle of the Saharan Desert and it was pitch black! Luckily, a Moroccan we named the 'Blue Flash' came to our rescue and very kindly took us to our hotel, but ofcourse it was for a price..

On arrival, our room had been taken by a family as we hadn't phoned ahead earlier to let the owners know that we would be late. No food either so we finished off the pringles and bread that we had left, had several glasses of whisky and tried to get as comfy as possible as that night we slept in the car in the hotel car-park. Not pleasant at all but being woken up at 3am by a churring Egyptian Nightjar wasn't all that bad!

Day 3 - 20th April - 'Tagdilt Track'

Next morning we were up at dawn and deciding not to have any breakfast this morning. Instead we headed for the 'Old Tagdilt Track' for the dawn chorus and a whole morning in search of Larks and Wheatear species. Spending 6 whole hours on the deserts proved tiring, but extremely rewarding. Temperatures reached a high of 35 degrees - any hotter and we would have keeled over!

The Tagdilt Track is the best site in Morocco to find Larks and Wheatears in good numbers. Mile upon mile of stony, deselate landscapes.. Covering every possible area proved worthwhile as we were rewarded with mega views of Crested, Thekla, Short-Toed, Bar-Tailed Desert, Temminck's, Hoopoe and Thick - Billed Larks. Northern, White - Crowned Black, Black, Desert and Red - Rumped Wheatear were also seen during the morning.

Long - Legged Buzzard, Lanner Falcon, Cream - Coloured Courser and Black - Bellied Sandgrouse were also numerous here.

Everywhere we went there seemed to be hundreds of Trumpeter Finches. Managing to locate several areas where there was cover proved very productive as migrants such as Turtle Dove, Nightingale and Melodious Warbler hung out in small patches of vegetation in the middle of the Saharan Desert! True migration witnessed at first hand.

Finishing up at around 3pm we managed to have our breakfast, which consisted of some Pancakes, Jam and several mugs of Coffee. A stunning Southern Grey Shrike perched nearby allowing some great digiscoping opportunities.

Mid afternoon and we headed into Boumalne Dades as we had inevitably found ourselves with a flat tyre. Whilst Ralph went and spoke some Moroccan to try and get the car up and running again.. Eugene and I headed into a little Oasis nearby. This place was astonishing and alive with migrants. Birds such as Nightingale, Western Olivaceous Warbler, Western Orphean Warbler, Western Bonelli's Warbler, Pied Flycatcher and Serin were abundant and in large numbers. We could have spent hours in this small oasis.

Finishing up with our 2nd night in the 'Le Soleil Bleu' Hotel, we grabbed a quick shower and enjoyed the delights of our evening meal, followed by several bottles of red wine and an update in the birdlog which is on show here and gives up -to - date sightings from the Tagdilt Track from visiting birders..

Day 2 - 19th April - High Atlas Mountains

Next morning we were up at 5:30am for an early dawn walk up into the High Atlas Mountains. Packing up our gear early on and grabbing a quick moroccan coffee, a few slices of bread and honey, it was all we needed to keep us going for the day. Leaving the french hostel we headed on up the valley; parking the car at the bottom of the valley. Several hours were spent stopping and starting picking up various birds along the way..

Our targets here were the atlas specialities, which soon followed one by one. Atlas Shore Lark were numerous whilst Seebohm's Wheatear were even more numerous. A Male Spectacled Warbler burst into song infront of us; a bird we weren't expecting to get to grips with until later on in the trip but a very welcome bird all the same.

Plenty of Red-Billed and Alpine Chough fed on the lower slopes, but I had to save the best bird until last and this wasn't until we were heading back down the valley when a couple of Crimson -Winged Finch flew past and landed nearby! Cracking little birds and our main target for this visit. Rock Sparrows and a couple of unexpected Dippers were seen on our way down alongside the river.

Successfully getting to grips with all our target species here, we headed on down from the High Atlas Mountains and headed in the direction of Boumalne Dades, stopping en-route at the Tizi-n-Tichka pass. Stopping for a pair of Rollers on nearby wires was well worth it as this has to be the best view of Roller I have ever had.

We were now in the deserts and after several failed attempts we managed to locate the 'Le Soleil Bleu' Hotel - our destination for the night. An exceptionally delicious meal was enjoyed by all and with Soup, Tajin, followed by orange slices dipped in Cinnamon and 3 beers - it was time to get our heads down for the night.

Day 1 - 18th April - Marrakech to Oukaimeden

Leaving Ormskirk at 3:45am with Ralph and Eugene, we headed off to Manchester Airport and with only a few delays on the way there, we were more than ready for a sleep on the plane. A calm and relaxing flight awaited us, followed by a short discussion about what the first bird was to be when we landed in Morocco. Collecting the hire car took a while but a good and roadworthy car for the terrain we intended to take it on. Most interestingly, the first bird we encountered was infact House Bunting inside the actual airport around the car hire desk!!

Dumping our gear in the car, we headed out of Marrakech following a guy on a scooter who was going to show us the way out of the area and fair play to him, he did actually take us to the correct road. The plan was to head for Oukaimeden for some High Atlas Mountain birding for the day.

Driving towards Oukaimeden we stopped en-route every 10-15 minutes as birds seemed to be everywhere and we were keen to see everything!

During the drive to our first main site of the trip we encountered some superb birds such as our first Barbary Partridge, Little Swift, Moussier's Redstart, Western Olivaceous warbler, African Blue Tit, Common Bulbul and African Chaffinch of the trip.. Eugene was keen to have a look over the edge of the cliff, but we were to see worse heights than this along the way. A grand total of 48 species for the day and 8 lifers.

Driving higher and higher into the Atlas mountains until we could drive no further, we spent the night in a french hostel with a lovely meal and well earned beer. A quick shower and we hit the sack for an early morning walk high into the Atlas Mountains.

Magical Morocco!!

Since I was a young lad, I have always wanted to visit Africa as it is a continent that I have not yet managed to cover. A combination of the spectacular rich birdlife, fantastic food, stunning landscapes and an overall 'awe' for the place; this was to be the best birding trip I have ever witnessed. Ralph Jones, Eugene McCann and I, headed out to Morocco for 10 days of speedy birding on 18th April - 27th April.

Seeing as though none of us had birdwatched in Morocco before, nearly every species we encountered was new to us and being such a memorable venture, it is going to be tough to describe all parts of the trip so I shall try my best and show you the sites we visited day by day and the species we encountered within. The main aim of this trip was to cover the whole of Northern Morocco around the Atlas Mountains and try to see all the 'main' moroccan species that all birders who visit this area, target.

Throughout the trip we visited all the main sites and picked up all of our desired species along the way, with some of these showing themselves to us like we had never believed possible. Temperatures reached 35 degrees in the Sahara Desert and we even managed to witness a hail and thunderstorm in the Sahara - honest! I added a superb 50 lifers to my lifelist and an overall trip total of around 150 species.

No matter where you travelled in Morocco, camels seemed to be everywhere. Now for the day by day account of our trip with some spectacular birds!

Patching Perfection!

During my birding career I have always been interested in patching, looking for local birds instead of galavanting all over the UK looking for rarities. Never did I think I would have the best morning's patching here in North Wales. On Sunday 10th April, Zac, Hamza and I headed upto the Great Orme in Llandudno for a 5am start.. The Great Orme is widely renowned for its rewards for visible migration but this visit had to be the best patching day ever!

The day before had produced a few decent birds such as Lapland Bunting and typical spring migrants like Tree Pipit and Redstarts, but if that was anything to go by, our morning was exceptional. As you can see from the main picture of this post, condiditons were perfect..

Regulars such as Alan Davies, Marc Buzzard and Robin Sandham were also on the Great Orme during the morning, so if anything was found all would know about it within a few mintues.

Throughout the morning birds seen included:-

350+ Lesser Redpoll
5 Mealy Redpoll
1 Arctic Redpoll
1 Greenland Redpoll
50+ Wheatear
9 Golden Plover
1 Dotterel
2 Crossbill
6 Blackcap
3 Brambling
2 Ring Ouzel
2 Tree Pipit
2 Yellow wagtail
2 Lapland Bunting
1 Short-Eared Owl

Aswell as numerous Redstarts, Whitethroats, Grasshopper Warblers and a few Garden Warblers.

The best bird of the morning and one that I personally found was the first record of Red-Rumped Swallow for the Great Orme and the County of Conwy! This bird was also seen by Zac Hinchcliffe.

A superb morning's patching on the Great Orme and one that I shall never forget! I wonder what other (1st's) I can find in North Wales before I complete my degree?

Mist-netting at Arthurs

After seeing my 1st Purple Heron in the UK, followed by a few days of lectures, I was rather keen to get back out and do some ringing.. On Saturday 9th April along with Zac, Steve and Rachel, we headed over to Arthurs near Caernarfon for a morning's mist-netting session.

This area is our regular mist-netting site, where large numbers of tits are ringed during the winter, however this morning we set ourselves up in a slightly different location in heath/scrub type habitat, with the main aim to catch Willow warblers and Linnets.

Throughout the morning a total of 12 species were caught which included:-

9 Willow warbler
2 Blackcap
2 Chiffchaff
5 Bullfinch
3 Linnet
1 Lesser Redpoll
3 Wren
3 Great tit
2 Blue tit
1 Long-tailed tit
1 Song thrush
1 Goldcrest

Another visit was made later on that day to attempt to catch some more of the Linnets going into their evening roost, however just 2 birds were caught. Also, 5 Willow warbler, Chiffchaff, Song thrush and Goldcrest.

Huge thanks to Steve and Rachel for yet another great ringing session!

Purple Heron on Anglesey!!

Photographed by Zac Hinchcliffe

Since my last post where I stated that 'I shall try to update as soon as I had finished my 2nd year exams', was a rather silly statement as there has been no activity on this blog since that given time. Now that I have a week or so free, this blog will be updated completely with all ventures that have occured over the last few months!

To kick start this update, I shall begin with the twitch that myself and Zac took part in whilst we were back in Bangor on 5th April, over on Anglesey. There had been a few reports of an adult Purple Heron on a small pond at a place called Dwyran. Unfortunately at the time, my week was rather full of lectures, but luckily when I had a day off the bird appeared once more on the pool and as a result, within half an hour of the phonecall from Alan davies; we were both over on Anglesey watching this superb bird feeding around the edges of the pool, alongside Alex Jones. This was a british lifer for us all and was truly well earned, as by the time we had seen the bird well, we were already caked in mud..

Photographed by Zac Hinchcliffe

Great views were had of the bird in flight and as we hadn't yet seen the bird on the ground, we re-twitched the bird a few days later; this time with Mathew Bruce and Hamza Yassin, where superb views of the bird were had feeding around the margins of the small reedy pool.