Morocco Day Three

Cream-coloured Courser 

Thick-billed Lark 

Bar-tailed Desert Lark 

Hoopoe Lark 

Berber shepherd in hamada desert 

Lesser Short-toed Lark 

Crested Lark

Red-rumped Wheatear

 

Today was spent exploring the hamada desert around Tagdilt Track near Boumalne du Dades. Got a few WP ticks including Pharoh Eagle Owl, Red-rumped Wheatear and Thick-billed Lark. The hamada environment is all 'below the knee' with clumps of desert vegetation concealing a wide range of desert specialities including Temminck's Larks, Bar-tailed Desert Lark, Desert Lark, Crested Lark, Thekla Lark, Thick-billed Lark, Skylark, Short-toed Lark, Lesser Short-toed Lark, Cream Coloured Courser, Black-bellied Sandgrouse and Trumpeter Finch.

We had a look at a few farmsteads which act as good migrant traps- a few migrants heading towards Europe including Redstarts, Ring Ouzel, Tree Pipits, White Wagtails, Bluethroat, Chiffys, Subalpine Warbler, Swallows, Sand Martins and Pallid and Common Swifts.

Morocco day two

Trumpeter Finch 

Desert Wheatear 

East of Tizi n Ticka 

Moth sp? Eublemma sp, Purple Marbled? 

Lizard sp?

Spent most of today making our way to the eastern stoney deserts. Had a few stops on the way and got a couple of WP ticks- Barbary Falcon and Moussier's Redstart to add to Levaillant's Woodpecker, House Bunting and Common Bulbul that I got yesterday. Loads of new sub-species but will do a seperate post about that later.

A good introduction to Moroccan desert specialities today. In one of the first areas of stoney desert (Hamada) that we arrived at this evening we had Desert Lark, Trumpeter Finch, 'Desert Grey Shrike' (elegans), Desert Wheatear, White-crowned Black Wheatear, Spectacled Warbler and Thekla Lark.

Tomorrow we're spending the day exploring more of the desert for additional specialities.

Morocco Day One

Atlas Mountains from Oukaimeden 

(African) Crimson-winged Finch R.s.alienus/aliena

Levaillant's Woodpecker 

'Atlas Horned Lark' E.a.atlas

House Bunting 

Crocus sp. 

Narcissus bulbocodium 

High Atlas Day Gheko? 

Mountain settlement 

Goats

 

'Doing' Morocco at the moment. Spent today in the Atlas Mountains and foothills from Marrakesh. Highlight of the day was bartering for a fossil from a street salesman that started at 50 quid and closed at 2 pound and 5 p.

First Butterfly

Small Tortoiseshell  

Colt's Foot 

Wigeon and Shoveler- looks like a bit of a wildlfowl influx

 

Good to see a bit of sun today and some more signs of spring.

Very Quiet

Lapwings- about 35 still around 

30+ Gadwall hanging in there 

'The Valley'- an elusive Stonechat in here somewhere 

View over south-east corner with the missing elders

 

 

Very quiet at the moment at Beddington. Wildfowl numbers are down, not much hope for migrants in this persisent north east cold wind so stuck between winter and spring with winter birds clearing out and spring birds yet to come in.

The ringers had their worse day with only three birds in the nets this morning.

I had a quick look around the mounds and southern lake- 1 Jack Snipe, 10 Snipe, 2 Green Sandpiper, 35 Lapwing, 30+ Gadwall, 10 Shoveler, 30+ Teal, 4 Shelduck, 10 Grey Heron, 25 Tufted Duck, 1 Peregrine and 1 Kestrel.

 

Unfortunately the elders in south east corner have dissapperaed following recommendation by English Heritage to fell them in relation to damage risk to the SAM site (there's a Roman Villa hidden under the sludge beds in this area). Four Long-eared Owls and three Woodcocks were flushed out during the demolition!!



In Search of Monteiro's Petrel

The documentary 'In Search of Monteiro's Petrel which featured our 2011 birding team was broadcast on Sunday in Portugal and attracted 700,000 viewers. We're going out again this year (see here): http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/azores-pelagic-expedition-2013.html

Beddington Farmlands Gulling Highlights

The end of an era on the Horizon
The decision regarding the development of an incinerator at Beddington Farmlands will be made in the next few weeks and looks pretty much a done deal. This means the end of the Gull era at Beddington is on the horizon- possibly within five years. That means we've got five years to find an American Herring Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Bonaparte's Gull, Armenian Gull, Great Black-headed Gull etc etc.

With the end in sight it's also an opportunity to reflect on what has been found since tipping commenced (in 1998). Top prize goes to the Glaucous-winged Gull in April 2007 (a first for Britain which had been seen earlier in the west country) and second prize might be another Glaucous-winged Gull- a first-summer bird seen in April 2009 which is still under consideration by the BBRC.  Other highlights have included two 'Kumlien's Gulls', three juvenile Sabine's Gulls (together) and a bag full of Caspian Gulls, Iceland Gulls (33 records), Glaucous Gulls (21 records), Yellow-legged Gulls, Mediterranean Gulls, Little Gulls, Kittiwakes and plenty of headaches, hybrids and unknowns.

Here's a few personal highlights:

Second-winter Iceland Gull, one of thirteen Iceland Gulls recorded in the winter of 2011/2012 

First-winter Caspian Gull- a Beddington speciality  

First-winter Kumlien's Gull, present from November 2011 into 2012 

Putative Glaucous-winged Gull/ Pacific hybrid (210409)- still in circulation with the BBRC 

Putative Baltic Gull (191211)- can these be 'done' without a ring to confirm? 

Adult Mediterranean Gull- a regular winter visitor and post breeding migrant 

First-winter Glaucous Gull- a near annual winter visitor 

Iceland Gull with Herring and Black-headed Gulls 

Adult Yellow-legged Gull (top- with adult Herring Gull) 

Adult Caspian Gull (off centre bird) 

Juvenile Sabine's Gull, October 2007

and here's the big one that got away -(apart from for two fortunate observers, Garry and Johnny) :



Third-summer Glaucous-winged Gull 180407 (Garry Messenbird)