ALL DAY IN THE DESERT REGION AROUND THE DUNES, MERZOUGA AND RISSANI
WEATHER: all day sunshine, moderate winds. Temp 25C
We had a great start to the day watching the bird ringing group in action on the terrace of Café Yasmina. But before that we had a bit of a mishap with the bus. This year, after many years of drought in the region, there was a good quantity of rain and as a consequence the area around café Yasmina is now flooded, the lake at Merzouga also holds lots of water. Our mishap involved Idriss, our driver, taking a short cut in the wet sand and getting the bus embedded in the sand. We spent 30 minutes trying to push it out to no avail.
stuck in the mud! Is this the sahara desert??
on the terrace with the ringers
Some guys turned up with shovels and started digging the bus wheels out, we left them too it and mad our way to the edge of the water. Scoping around the pool we saw Green Sandpiper, Greenshank, Great Ringed, Little Ringed and Kentish Plovers. From the main terrace we watched the ringers at work and scoped the birds in the pool. To our great joy there was a small flock of 14 BLUE-CHEEKED BEE-EATERS flying around and perching in the tamarisk, wowza, we never expected those.
Marc the ringer just about to release a Bonelli's Warbler
We watched several birds being ringed and released, Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler, Western Olivaceous Warbler and Bonelli’s Warbler. We could see some of those species flitting about in the tamarisk, in and around the pool we saw Ruddy Shelduck (one with eight chicks), Green Sandpiper and a Little Egret. A bunch of Yellow Wagtails were dashing about on the far shore. A Marsh Harrier flew over just before we left the terrace and Brown-necked Ravens had put in an appearance several times.
the 'lake' seen from the terrace of cafe Yasmina
the Blue-cheeked bee-eaters were quite distant we saw 14 of them
The main lake just outside of Merzouga was also full of water and it would have been rude not to take a look at it. From the northern end we scanned the lake and found some 200+ Greater Flamingos, of Ruddy Shelduck with one Common Shelduck tagging along. A Black-necked Grebe was a nice surprise and after along the shore we found more species. Gull-billed and Common Tern (singles of each), Black-headed and Yellow-legged Gulls, Black-winged Stilts, Pied Avocets, Kentish Plovers and three Curlew Sandpipers. A Booted Eagle circled over us, a White Stork dropped in and we found seven Grey Herons and a Little Egret.
the entrance way through the gates to cafe Ysmina was flooded and impassable!
Our day went downhill from there! We drove into Rissani to buy our lunch supplies and then took the ‘Tourist Route’ around the town. We ate our lunch under the shade of a large palm tree before walking a while looking for target species. We found Magreb Lark quite easily, we also found several Turtle Doves, Collared Doves and laughing Doves. The Saharan Olivaceous Warbler could be heard singing from the tamarisk trees, we got fleeting views of one of them.
the Magreb Lark, used to be called Long-billed Lark
The rest of the time in Rissani was spent searching for the Fulvous Chatterer, we never had a sniff of one, not a peep, it was as though they had disappeared off the face of the earth! We gave up at 4pm and headed for Dunes.
We spent our last hour on the terrace or walking around the pool at Café Yasmina, we saw plenty of species but none of them new for the list. I was disappointed in missing the Chatterer, hey, ho, we still have time to find one tomorrow.