Morocco ~ 4th - 11th Jan' ~ '25

Morocco ~ 4th - 11th Jan' ~ '25 

Flight & car booked with British Airways to Marrakesh landing at 18:30 and the plan was to drive an hour to Ait Ourir ready for the next morning ..... But ...!!

I was on Flickr and saw a post from Brendan Ryan with a Maghreb Owl he had seen in the grounds of Aurocher hotel on the way up to Oukaimeden, a quick message to Jono and a new plan was underway, cancelled the original hotel, booked Aurocher which was 90 minutes from the airport ..

4th January

We arrived about 21:30 ish at Aurocher and had a very late evening meal before going out with fingers & toes crossed about 10 minutes in and we could not believe what we heard, way off in the distance a Maghreb called and it got closer & closer until its next call which was behind us in the trees high above the hotel on the road, On went the torch and their it was, both of us went straight to panic mode, back to the room grabbed the cameras and came back to it still in the road side trees before gliding over our heads ...

5th January

As it was only 30 minutes drive up to Oukaimeden it seemed stupid not to go up, Ohhhhh it most defiantly turned out to be a bad idea, I was last up here in 2018 and they have ruined it, at the ski resort with containers all along the road selling everything from peanuts to ski's, it was like a Boot Sale in the snow ..

That's the last time i'm going up in winter ..

We had a good bit of birding before starting down and that's where the nightmare began, 100's of mopeds, cars, vans and coaches going up with plenty trying to escape down resulted in road blocks, one was for 15 minutes without moving so we got out and did some Black Wheatears, it took just over 2 hours 30 minutes just to get to the hotel where we started and now we have a 4 hour drive over the Atlas Mountains and out towards Ouarzazate our place for the night was Bivouac Lot of Stars ..

6th January

The morning got off to a good start at Barrage Tarmigte a wetland area with multiple small pools seeing 19 species best being Common Snipe ..

Then it was a location on the massive Barrage Al Mansour Ad Dahbi out through Ouarzazate on the eastern side off the RN10 at Eddahbi - nord - est, another 19 species with notables like Great Cormorant, Slender-billed Gull & Thekla Lark ..

A couple more sites on route before having 3 hours driving the many tracks of Tagdilt, 15 quality species in total with notables of Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Lanner Falcon, Temminck's Lark, Greater Hoopoe-Lark & Red-rumped Wheatear it definitely was good to be back out here ..

The sunset over Tagdilt then it was a 2 hour drive towards Errachidia for a night at Auberge Tinit ..

7th January

Today was 5 hour round trip out east on the N10 which was a new region on the Morocco map and it was close enough to the Algeria border for Jono to get pigeon on his Ebird Algeria List on route were some good stops for photography using the car as a hide ..

We went out as far as Barrage Oued Zelmou before turning back a few stops along the way then on to the RN17 through Erfoud to our place for two nights at Riad Caravasar on the outer edge of the magnificent  Erg Chebbi ...

8th January

Sunrise and we are at Yasmina sadly we left it to late and it was fully booked to stay here, this is the first time I've seen the lake either side of Yasmina, it was stunning with the dunes ...

Tisserdmine area was next we walked a vast wadi with Desert Wheatear & Greater Hoopoe-Lark best of, and then closer to the dunes at another ebird pin for Sandgrouse we tried a few sites throughout the trip failing to see crowned or spotted ..

The large lagoon south of Merzouga, Dayet Srij whilst the light was harsh produced 14 species in 90 minutes like Northern Shoveler, Greater Flamingo, Black-winged Stilt & Greenshank we drove as much of the track around the lagoon as it has plenty of hidden bays worth taking a look at ..

9th January

 An hour at first light hoping for some Sandgrouse to fly in at (31.184, -4.036), not visible from the main N13 road but its a very large flooded area, No grouse ... We did see 9 species ..

It was a 4 hour drive back towards Tagdilt for the afternoon light driving the tracks looking for photo opportunities, Red-rumped Wheatear & Temminck's Lark was most obliging ..

We were staying the night in Imiter at Nomadic Birdway, for a morning back out on Tagdilt ..

10th January

The owner Brahim of Nomadic Birdway asked to join us for the morning pre-breakfast session first out on Tagdilt, driving the many tracks but again it was the dump area which had the close birds for some photography ..

Brahim said he knew a location for Maghreb Wheatear at the Falcon Nest Escarpment, we tried here on our way out for PEOwl, this time we went down in to the wadi finding Pharaoh Eagle Owl, Lanner Falcon and Maghreb Wheatear ..

After breakfast we had another long drive towards our last nights accommodation staying at Maison d'Hotes Irocha, Tisseldei a small village at the base of the Atlas Mountains, its a good place to stop overnight ready for the drive over the pass the following morning ..

We stopped at a few places on route the best one was off the main N9 road turning onto the N10 then turning onto the P1505 which loops back to the N9, as mentioned in the Gosney Guide Book trying some great desert areas with the idea that we were just to early in the year finding 7 species in nearly 2 hours, Blue Rock Thrush & Maghreb Wheatear being the notables ..

11th January

Nice early breakfast, the pass was clear of snow so we started our way over, stopping many times, Aguelmouss was a good stop with notables like Black Wheatear, Crimson-winged Finch & Rock Bunting ..

Once over and down towards Marrakesh we tried a Ebird pin for Fulvous Chatterer at (31.571, -7.909) with no luck but we did see 34 Maghreb Magpie !!, Great Grey Shrike & Moussier's Redstart..

All that was left now was the drive to the airport ..

We failed to get 3 of our target birds Crowned & Spotted Sandgrouse more luck than anything else as we were in great habitat on a few occasions, so probably should of got a guide, and the other one we were to early for which was Atlas Wheatear ..

Finished the trip on 96 species ..

Morocco List is at 144 ..

They will have to wait until the next trip to Morocco ..