HOTEL TERRACE - OURIKA VALLEY - CLIMB TO OUKAIMEDAN - OUKAIMEDAN LAKE - OURIKA VALLEY
WEATHER: bright sunshine all day but very windy. Temp 1C - 24C (felt like 6C all day)
We had a terrific start to our birding tour of Morocco with a visit to the High Atlas Mountains.
We all arrived on time last night around 6:30pm, a beautiful setting sun greeted us as we disembarked from our aircraft. Three species were quickly logged before it got too dark to see them, Cattle Egret and Common Swift were seen in flight and I saw two Barbary Partridges as we taxied to the terminal (I don't think they technically count as I was the only observer!).
we met at 6:30am this morning on the terrace of the hotel which overlooks the River Ourika and is surrounded by beautiful scenery, including the snow-covered high peaks of the Atlas Mountains. The Common Bulbul made itself known pretty smartish we could also hear Blackbird, Wren and Cetti’s Warbler singing. We logged many Blackcaps as they came to feed on the ivy berries with blackbirds and African Chaffinches. Grey Wagtails flew about the hotel but we never found a single House Bunting, now that’s bizarre!
the view from ouir hotel terrace in the Ourika Valley
Cattle Egrets flew upriver from a roost further down, dozens of Little Swifts clouded the distant skyline and we saw four Common Kestrels. The distant ‘yaffle’ (call) of the Levaillant’s Woodpecker enticed us out onto the road where we took a short walk. We found Great Spotted Woodpecker but not our most wanted bird.
After breakfast we set off for the ski centre at Oukaimedan in the High Atlas, but before we started the climb in the bus we stopped in the valley for another attempt at seeing the woodpecker. This time it called much nearer and we did see it in flight, not great views and not everybody got onto it, so it remains a work in progress.
watching Ring Ouzels on the climb up to the Oukaimedan Ski Resort
Driving up to Oukaimedan took quite a while because of all the roadworks and we stopped several times to look for other species. Our first two roadside stops were overlooking some rocky terrain with grassy banks, we logged several Black Wheatears, about four Moussier’s Redstarts, also two pairs of Blue Rock Thrushes and a couple of Black Redstarts. A nice find was pair of Ring Ouzels, bringing our total of ‘thrushes’ seen this morning to five! A Sardinian Warbler put in an appearance, we found Common Raven, Short-toed Eagle and large gangs of both Yellow-billed and Red-billed Chough.
a view of the Atlas Mountains
In a pine copse we spent some time tracking down Firecrests, we also saw African Blue Tit, Great Tit and we heard Coal Tit. Short-toed Treecreeper was next on the list and Mistle Thrush soon followed. A couple raptors were also seen, Eurasian Sparrowhawk and North African Buzzard both came up on the thermals.
a large flock of Yellow-billed Chough
The gusty, cold wind was getting stronger as we climbed higher, we needed the shelter of the bus as we neared the top. White-throated Dipper, was seen well with more Black Redstarts and Black Wheatears on show. At the dam on the edge of Oukaimedan we were very lucky to find two Crimson-winged Finches, our main target bird in the bag. Then two or three Atlas Horned Larks dropped into the same area, we had tremendous views of both species.
African Crimson -winged Finch
The lake beyond the dam held four Common Coot and nothing else, we searched for more Wheatears and came up with half a dozen Rock Sparrows. We drove further into the Oukiamedan ‘Plateau’ and reached the ski lift car parks. Another short walk produced nothing more that 5 more Atlas Horned Larks. At Toubkal View-point we found another North African Buzzard and not much else.
Red and Yellow-billed Chough
On the open grassy plain we enjoyed watching huge numbers of Yellow-billed Chough (2-300) with fewer Red-billed with them. The gusty wind was too much for us in the end, so we left.
On the way back down we walked for quite while, seeing a lot of the birds already logged today, but we did add Rock Bunting, Crag Martin, Wood Pigeon and we saw the Dippers again.
Rock Bunting
We got back to the hotel around 5:30pm some of the group went onto the terrace and not long after the Levaillant’s Woodpecker landed in a dead tree where it should have been this morning!! Four of the group saw it well (not including me), when I scanned the dead tree from my room, all I saw was a Blackbird and a Magreb Magpie.
Mount Toubkal is 4167 meters - approx 13,400 ft above sea level. It is the peak on the left in the distance
Striped Ground Squirrel
We called the bird log at 7pm, we had recorded 50 species, not too bad. My bird of the day was Yellow-billed Chough, I have never seen such a large flock of them before, at least 300 individuals wee there, amazing!