BOULMALNE DADES ALL DAY – WALKING THE TAGDILT TRACK AND PARTS OF THE DADES GORGE
WEATHER: sunny all day with cloud late afternoon, light winds, Temp 5 - 25C
A short pre-breakfast walk produced a few new species, we saw four different warblers in the grounds of the hotel! There are only four little trees in the tiny compound of the hotel and they were full of warblers, we saw Subalpine, Bonelli's, Western Olivaceous Warblers and a Blackcap. We also clocked up African Blue Tit, White-crowned Wheatear and a House Bunting.
our local House Bunting
When we eventually got out of the gate for our walk we spent sometime watching a Corn Bunting! Seeing one totally out of context, hopping around on the desert floor around some scrub, made us srutinize it more than we should have. We then located a pair of Desert Wheatears, also Thekla Larks and a pair of Little Owls and not much else.
my group on the Tagdilt Track
At 8am we set off in the bus and drove to the Tagdilt Track, we spent the first hour walking from the main road to the rubbish dump. Most of our sightings were of Red-rumped Wheatears, a beautiful bird and very common out on the flat desert plains, lots of groups of Short-toed Larks appeared too, but generally it was pretty desolate out there. More Desert Wheatear sightings occurred, with Crested Larks and Yellow Wagtails (flyovers).
a male Red-rumped Wheatear
At the main rubbish tip we scanned for the Thick-billed Lark without success, we found more of the 'common' Wheatear species and more Yellow Wagtails. Just before we left we found a pair of Temminck's Larks and a lot more Short-toed Larks.
Temminck's Lark
For the next hour we drove slowly along the track away from the litter-strewn area, it was a relief to see the landscape as it should be and not covered in rubbish. We stopped a few times and added some nice species to our list, such as: Woodchat Shrike and Cream-coloured Courser (12) the latter were a great hit with the group.
Cream-coloured Courser we saw about a dozen of them
A walk near a small farm produced sightings of Meadow Pipit and Tawny Pipit, with a good number of Northern Wheatears mixing with the local species. A few Serins , House Sparrows, Short-toed Larks and Blackbirds were also seen at the farm.
We drove away from the farm towards the main road and came across more Temminck's Larks and a male Greater Hoope Lark, that went down atreat with my fellow birders. Another small settlement by the roadside produced more sightings. We had great views of Trumpeter Finches, they really are little beauties, we watched Siskins and Serins feeding on seeding plants and in the small orchards and olive groves we found more migrant birds.
Trumpeter Finch
Bonelli's and Subalpine Warblers, a Reed Warbler singing was an odd occurrance and a Common Redstart was seen by one of the group.
We drove back to Boulmalne Dades to buy picnic supplies before driving into the Dades Valley to sit and eat it. We sat on a wall in the wooded area near the river, listening and watching Nightingales! We also heard Cetti's Warbler, we saw our first White Storks of the day and a alrge party of European bee-eaters circled above us. Several of the common migrant warblers dashed around in the fruit trees and one of the group saw a Cetti's Warbler. An interesting find was that of a levaillant's Woodpecker (heard only), this bird seems to be following us around.
the view of the Midi-Atlas Mountains from the Tagdilt track
For the rest of the afternoon we made several stops in search of Tristram's Warbler, we drove right up to the top of Gorge and searched two places where I have seen the warbler in the past. This year there wasn't a sniff of the bird, not a single sighting was had by any of us!
part of the Dades Gorge
Other species seen during our Tristram's search included Barbary Partridge, Blue Rock Thrush, Black Wheatear, Laughing Dove, Crag Martin, Great Spotted Woodpecker and sevral warblers. We gave up on the Tristram's search around 4:30pm and headed back, making a couple of stops along the way, we never added anything new to the list from then on.
Blue Rock Thrush in the Deades Gorge
Another lovely dinner at the Riad was enjoyed by all. Rob went out on an owl prowl and came back with three Little owl sightings and tat completed our third day.