TRANSFER TO ESSAOUIRA - WITH STOPS AT CAPE RHIR - TAMRI LAGOON - IMSOUANE FIELDS - OUED KSOB
WEATHER; clear sky all day, light breeze. Very hot, top temp. 35C
Our last day of birding bhad arrived and we still had several species missing from our list, so we stopped in places where we most likely to see them.
After a 6am breakfast we were on the road before 7am and heading north along the coast road. We stopped briefly at three beaches to scan gull roosts, we were looking for Audouins Gull but very few gulls sat on the beaches. The sea was flat calm and a mist restricted our view somewhat, we did see a few Gannets and some unidentified Terns flying in the mist.
At Cape Rhir we stopped for a sea-watch which proved to be a great move. Many birds were flying northward, many out in the mist but some were closer to the shore. The sea was flat calm with a few breaking waves and soon we started to see small groups of Common Scoter flying past. Dozens of terns were passing too, we identifed Sandwich and Gull-billed Terns but some of the smaller species were further out and went unidentified.
The coastline at Cape Rhir
Over the next hour we saw a couple of Balearic Shearwaters, many Gannets, Cormorants, a single Whimbrel and lots of large gulls, Lesser Black-backed and Yellow-legged Gulls. An Arctic Skua was then found and Bruce made the sighting of the day when he found a Pomerine Skua!! Wow! This full adult bird, spoons n' all, flew directly towards us and nearly came over the land before turning around and heading off, we had fantastic views of it, well done Bruce.
Stone Curlew taken by Rob Parsons
In the meantime Rob and Ros were scanning the scrub behind us and produced a couple of Stone Curlews. On the way back to the bus we discovered Sardinian Warblers, a Subalpine Warbler and another bird that may have been a Tristram's Warbler. Whilst searching for this last warbler, Rob discovered a Rufous Bush Robin, we all got to see that very well, nice one Rob.
Rufous Bush Robin also taken by Rob Parsons
We climbed back onto the bus and as we headed along the track we stopped to admire a Wryneck that sat right out in the open on the top of a small bush, a great bird to finish our sea-watch with!
We drove a short while to Tamri, the large lagoon usually holds many gulls loafing on the sand. Sure enough there were a couple of hundred birds on the shoreline. A quick scan produced our first Audouin's Gull, we saw a dozen of them, a couple had rings on thier legs. Little Ringed Plovers was all we saw on the shoreline but we did find many Bonelli's Warblers, Willow Warblers and Subalpine Warblers in the tamarisk scrub.
Audouins Gull - its the smart looking gull with the red bill!
The highlight of the Tamri Lagoon visit was the appearance of a single Bald Ibis, it circled on thermals with some gulls and then three more appeared behind us, doing exactly the same.
Bald Ibis - a phone-scoped picture. How do we know its a Bald Ibis and not a Glossy Ibis? Leg projection is main the clue! You can see the legs of the Glossy Ibis projecting beyond the tail, but not with the Bald Ibis.
We bought lunch supplies in Tamri and continued our journey northwards. Not long afterwards we stopped in the Argan 'Forest' for a short walk to some open fields, we were looking for larks, but we only found Crested Larks in the fields and Theklas Lark in the stoney scrub amongst the Argan Trees. We also logged Woodchat Shrike and not much else.
We ate lunch at a roadside cafe whilst we drank freshly made orange juice and had our first ice-cream of the trip! We saw a few Spotless Starlings and Rob heard an Iberian Chiffchaff singing.
It was 3pm when we reached the Oued Ksob just south of Essaouira, we got off the bus for our final birding excursion, our plan wa to walk a mile or so along the river bed looking for species in the pools and the area of scrub on either bank of the river,
look at those long legs! A Black-winged Stilt
It was slow at first but we eventually amssed a fair list of species, none of which were our 'hoped for' birds, nevertheless, it was an enjoyable walk in lovely afternoon sunshine with a nice breeze. It was the latter stages of the walk that most birds appeared.
Spanish Sparrow
Gloosy Ibis fed in the small trickle of the river with Black-winged Stilts, Green and Common Sandpipers, Little Egrets and a few Grey Herons. Smaller birds coming down to drink included Spanish Sparrows, Common Bulbuls, Blackcaps and Serins.
Glossy Ibis
We saw several groups of Yellow Wagtails and also White Wagtail and the Moroccan version of the White Wagtail with more black markings on its face. A group of five Curlew Sandpipers was a nice surprise, they were all still in winter plumage although some colour was breaking through on a couple of them.
Spur-thighed Tortoise
The dry, barren state of the area led me to conclude that the Brown-thoated Martin had deserted the area, I didn't see them last year either. Also, there was no evidence of Common Kingfisher and the number of birds generally was quite low. I had seen much more in the past, however, my group enjoyed their walk and the close proximity of most of the species. We found two Spur-thighed Tortoises and a species of Stick Insect and few butterflies, one of which was new for the list, it was a skipper.
a species of Stick Insect ( Clonopsis gallica) taken by Steve Berry
We finshed the walk around 5pm and drove into town to our hotel. Pallid Swifts, Common Swifts and House Buntings went onto the list as we walked through this beautiful walled-town.
We ate dinner at 8pm and finished our final checklist, our final count was 192 species, not a bad effort, I think we only missed the Tristrams Warbler from our main target species, all the group agreed that it had been a great trip and that they had enjoyed it.