Morocco

The second leg of our Corsica & North Morocco trip with Zoothera Birding began in Casablanca. We landed at 9.30 pm local time, now the same as UK time and after collecting our bags met up with our guide and went to the hotel, arriving at 11pm.

Thursday 7^th

A leisurely 7am breakfast in the hotel and left with our bags packed at 8.30. We drove south to the buttonquail area, stopping for a coffee en route. 

Notice in the cafe

By the time we arrived it was already quite hot and there was no sound of any buttonquails but we did hear three Common Quail and a whole host of new trip birds such as Little Owl, Great Grey Shrike, House Bunting and Crested Lark.

Searching for buttonquail

Crested Lark

House Bunting

Great Grey Shrike

We also checked an adjacent lagoon which had a nice selection of waders on it and three Collared Pratincoles were flying around. By now it had got really hot and the bird activity had died down so we decided to drive back and check in to our hotel and have a siesta.

We left at 5pm and headed back down to the quail area for an evening session. We walked around a few fields and finally heard a Small Buttonquail calling in a wheatfield so at least we knew they were around. It wasn’t responsive and didn’t call for long so we left after a couple of hours and went back to the city. 

White Stork

Turtle Dove

More Spotless Starlings; we didn't see any Common Starlings on the trip

We went out looking for a restaurant for dinner and didn’t like the look of the fast-food one on offer so found an alternative. It took a long time for the food to arrive but it was nice.

Friday 8^th

An early start, meeting at 6am for the last session down at the quail fields. We split into two groups to try each side of the road. We heard one calling briefly and there were also quite a few Common Quail calling. We met up with one of the locals and went to a few fields with him then ended back at the same field as yesterday where one was calling. We spent a long time at this field, listening to it call and just as we were about to leave, the local man said it would be OK for a few people to walk into the field. We stood watching and it suddenly jumped up and flew low across the field to the far side! We’d invested about 10 hours but finally managed to see one of the rarest breeding birds in the Western Palearctic.

House Bunting

Great Grey Shrike

Thekla Lark

Western Black-eared Wheatear

We drove into town for a celebratory coffee then carried on driving north towards Rabat, stopping for lunch along the way. We checked into our city hotel mid-afternoon and had a rest until the evening and headed out to a bar for pre-dinner drinks then back to our hotel for a very bland dinner.

Rabat city wall

Not just sold in Rick's bar

Saturday 9^th

Our earliest start since the first day as we met up outside the hotel at 05.10 and then drove for an hour to a large area of low scrubby hills. With the wind blowing it was quite cold as we walked up the track looking for spurfowl. Nightingales were singing from almost every bush and Turtle Doves purred away behind them. A Booted Eagle kept watch from the hillside and a Cape Hare scampered down the track. After a while we started to hear Double-spurred Francolin then eventually saw a couple in the open although they were fairly distant. This is virtually their last outpost in the Western Pal but they’re reasonably common elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Cape Hare

With the main target achieved we drove to the nearest down and had an excellent breakfast sitting outside a café.

We visited a lake where there were various ducks including White-headed, Marbled and Ferruginous Ducks, along with Red-knobbed Coot. Booted Eagles and Black Kites flew around close to us. In the adjacent scrub were African Blue Tits and African Chaffinches.

White-headed Duck

Black Kite

Marbled Duck

Booted Eagle

Mediterranean Turtle

We went to a service station for lunch and found a couple of large pools at the back which held at least 100 Glossy Ibis and the bizarre sight of a Cattle Egret raiding leftovers.

Cattle Egret

It was then time to head over to Merja Zerga. I last visited this site over 30 years ago and saw Slender-billed Curlew, a species now sadly declared extinct. We picked up a local guide and he showed us a Marsh Owl, another widespread African species but only found here and a few other spots inside the Western Pal.

Marsh Owl

White Stork

Estuary at Merja Zerga

There was a little time to look at the estuary nearby and we saw a distant flock of Greater Flamingos, a variety of gulls and a Hobby flew over. We then headed back to our hotel in Rabat for dinner then went out to the bar for a beer.

May 10^th

We left the hotel with bags packed at 8am and headed up to the Atlas Mountains. It was a long way and we arrived just before 11. 

Futuristic building or Morocco's space rocket?

The scenery had changed and our first stop was by a rocky slope where we saw a pair of Atlas Wheatears. 

Atlas Wheatear

We went for a walk around a pine area and saw Melodious and Western Subalpine Warblers, Moussier’s Redstart and Long-legged Buzzard.

Melodious Warbler

Moussier's Redstart

Long-legged Buzzard

Woodchat Shrike

Further along the trail there was a Levaillant’s Woodpecker and quite a few butterflies.

Queen of Spain Fritillary

Comma

Clouded Yellow

Lizard

There was also a troop of Barbary Macaques. 

Barbary Macaque

We went into town for lunch and some Alpine Swifts were flying around. 

Local mosque where we lunched

We went to another wooded area, this time it was deciduous trees where Atlas Flycatcher was our last target bird. It didn’t take long to find some and we also tracked down a Tawny Owl that called; this was previously split as Mahgreb Owl but recently re-lumped.

Levaillant's Woodpecker

Atlas Flycatcher

Common Redstart

Tawny Owl

Mid-Atlas Forest

We drove a short way to our hotel, a nice but slightly rustic place and had a little walk around, seeing a Hawfinch. 

View from our hotel balcony

Our hotel

Our hotel - English translation 'The Damn Git'!

Hawfinch

After dinner we went owling but heard nothing; the only thing of a note was a rubber-necker driving past us who drove into the crash barrier watching us instead of the road!

Monday 11^th

Our last day and a fairly leisurely one as we’d seen all our target birds. Breakfast was at 7 then we packed up and drove to the same two spots as yesterday morning. Good views were again obtained of the Atlas Wheatear, along with Moussier’s Redstart and a couple of Spectacled Warblers, the last new bird of the trip.

Atlas Wheatear

Spectacled Warbler

Moussier's Redstart

At the second site we split into two groups and did our own thing. We refound the singing Western Orphean Warbler; there were actually two and most of the rest of the group came round to see them. 

Lizard

Melodious Warbler

Western Orphean Warbler

Serin

We went back to the hotel to pack and get ready for our flight home and then drove towards Fez. We stopped for lunch before ending up at the airport a bit early to check in for our RyanAir flight to Stanstead. Once checked-in we grabbed a bite to eat and then boarded our evening flight, landing at 10pm. We had a cab booked to take us back to East London.