Saturday 17th May 2025: Morocco
As we like to do, we started the morning with a pre-breakfast stroll along the beach. Low-flying Pallid and Common Swifts filled the air as they scythed the skies, screaming and swooping to their nest sites in the derelict buildings, Yellow-legged Gulls loafed on the beach, mainly juveniles, with noticeably dark mantles.
The morning was once again dedicated to a fruitless search for the elusive Buttonquail, but luckily some other fine birds provided some interest. At our first stop, we scoured the alfalfa crop, a real butterfly magnet, with hordes of whites and clouded yellows nectaring on the tiny flowers. Then we patrolled the adjacent stubble fields, noting Crested Lark, and Zitting Cisticolas around the fields. A Red-rumped Swallow sped through, chasing insects, together with regular Barn Swallows. In the distance, a small flock of Bee-eaters wandered across the sky. Returning to the bus, a Turtle Dove purred from the hedgerow, and a beautiful golden Serin perched just above our heads, singing continuously.
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| Serin |
Our second stop was beside some dancing fields of wheat and already harvested squash fields. A Hoopoe in flight was seen by some, a brief whirr of black and white wings. A Kestrel and Hobby both passed over the fields as we searched, and a striking swallowtail butterfly parading the field margins added some further interest. Returning to the bus, a noisy burst of song from a small bush caught my attention, and on closer inspection, the red eye of a Sardinian Warbler revealed its identity just before it flew off into the distance.
Our third and final Buttonquail stop was adjacent to an area of old saltpans, carpeted in red sedum. The pans looked dry initially, but as we explored, we noted at the back dirty pools and ditches remained, although unfortunately these were again littered with plastic waste, a consistent problem in many parts of the country. The pans proved very productive for birds, with around eight Kentish Plover, foraging in the distance, but gradually moving closer. Black-headed gulls flew over, and we watched a Little Tern hunting, bill pointed downwards before plunge- diving to catch a fish. In the back pools we spotted several Black Winged Stilts, a Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Little Egret and a few summer plumaged Turnstones, it felt a bit like birding in the UK! At a small pool close to the beach, we also added a few Dunlin.
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| Colourful salt pans |
In the adjacent bushes, a southern Grey Shrike pair were nesting. These were seen carrying food, and I also watched one aggressively chasing after a lark, then later appearing to attack a striped snake as it crossed a muddy track. A Collared Pratincole soared overhead, long wings pointing backwards in its characteristic tern like flight.
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| Grey Shrike |
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