As an academic I have been fortunate to travel to lots of places for conferences, and much of my world birding has been done by tacking a day or two onto the start or end of the conference. Over the years I have used conferences to bird in New Zealand, Austria, Chile, Japan, USA, Taiwan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, and even bits of the UK and Australia — never enough time for a clean-up job, usually just a taster, but often chances to target a few iconic species.
In October of this year I had back-to-back conferences in Milan and Marrakech, so decided to use the weekend in between the two gigs for some birding in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. This was not my first time to Morocco — In 2012 I did a dedicated long-weekend trip to the deserts in the south east with Steve Young (report here) but although we drove through the mountains to get east, we didn’t have time to get high enough for a few of the specialties. The first weekend of October, after ECCV and before MICCAI, was therefore a chance to have some targeted birding for a small list of high quality birds.
The birds I needed (yes, you read that right, “needed”) — Crimson-winged Finch, Levaillant’s Green Woodpecker, Tristram’s Warbler — were all available in or near the ski resort town of Oukameiden at 2600m a.s.l. Highest on my wanted-list was Crimson-winged Finch. These striking high-altitude specialists are present all year round near the town but are considerably easier in winter when their foraging range is reduced by snow, and they are regularly seen on roadside verges in the town itself. However my visit was in the autumn, so I knew I would have to spend time driving and walking the vast open spaces around the small resort.
Accommodation in Oukaimeden itself is quite expensive, especially by Moroccan standards, so I opted to stay in Ourika about 30 km away. The road may be only 30km, but it’s slow, windy and full of roadworks, taking an hour or more for the journey up to Oukaimeden. The poorly named “Top Ourika” hotel was reasonable but not without issues as a base for birding, and if it really is “Top” I hate to think what the others are like. I also found out too late that it is cash-only, but I did manage to effect a direct bank transfer to avoid having to drive back into Marrakech to top up the cash reserves at an ATM.
My car was booked with Green Motion Car Rental. After a ridiculously long wait through immigration, I bought a local SIM (local cash only, but worth it for google maps and ebird access!), then struggled to find my transfer from the airport to the rental company base in amongst the crowd of tour-leaders wielding hotel and tour group signs. I battled my way through the throng and eventually spied someone half asleep with a small “Green Motion” sign near the car park. Once we were in his vehicle for the short transfer, the pickup was very smooth and the car itself was cheap and adequate. They encouraged me to take a video of the car, and this was very useful on my return since I could easily prove some damage to the front right of the vehicle was pre-existent.
After buying snacks and water at a servo, I was on my way, using google maps to navigate away from the busy metropolis up into the mountains to the south. Roadside craft shops dotted this main tourist route into the mountains.
It was late afternoon by the time I had found my way to Oukaimeden and started to explore.
I managed to find a few low priority lifers such as African Blue-tit, African Chaffinch and Atlas Wheatear as well as some other range-restricted birds like Horned Lark (Atlas subspecies). Not a lifer, but Moussier’s Redstart is a cracker and I had regular sightings of this small, pretty North African redstart. After a super-early morning flight and lots of driving I hit the sack back at the hotel very early.
The hotel had been reluctant to do early breakfast, agreeing to deliver some bread and coffee outside my room. But when I awoke the next morning, even this minimal fare didn’t appear, and then worse, I discovered that the carpark had been locked overnight and there was no way to open without a staff member. I spent nearly 45 minutes after dawn walking around trying to find someone and making calls to the reception number to rouse anyone. Eventually a staff member who was not even very apologetic arrived and slid the gate open. I could finally head up to Oukameiden again. Ah well…
Nevertheless I had a great time up here, finding all of my targets over a couple of days of fairly relaxed birding. Best of all, at a lookout behind the town I stumbled on 3 Crimson-winged Finches in lovely morning light and spectacular scenery (31.200302, -7.869763).
Several Black Wheatears flitted about buildings opposite the dam at the village entrance, and hundreds of chough of both species Red-billed and Alpine fed on the pastures and wheeled in large columns overhead (at one point along with a Long-legged Buzzard (Atlas subspecies)). Also Thekla Lark, Rock Bunting, and Black Restart. It was not such a good day for one of the Horned Larks feeding above the dam. When the flock took off and flew directly over my head I was horrified when one flew straight into the overhead powerlines, and dropped like a stone right at my feet, neck broken, probably already dead by the time it hit the ground.
A few km below Oukaimeden there is an ebird pin labelled “Oukaimeden Park”. I made repeated visits and picked up some new birds for the trip including Firecrest but dipped on my main target here, the green woodpecker, despite returning several times. Mid-morning Sunday, I was back at Oukaimeden Park still thinking this was my best bet for LGW. As I dozed in the car, contemplating my next move, I heard a quiet knocking sound and instinct told me I should have a look. On the mossy green forest floor about 20m away a Levaillant’s Green Woodpecker had materialised from nowhere and was unobtrusively feeding (31.230074, -7.822175)
An other spot visited multiple times (and driven past even more) was the upmarket and expensive Aurocher Hotel. I did have a few Red Crossbill, Sardinian Warbler and was almost certain I heard LGW, but I also noted the turnoff here leading ultimately over a pass to the town of Asni. Scanning up the slopes from the turnoff the habitat looked good and again my instincts were right. I walked up a rough track from 31.264643, -7.836107 and after flushing a pair of Barbary Partridges and seeing another lovely male Moussier’s Redstart I relatively easily tracked down several of my third target, Tristram’s Warbler. Cirl Bunting and Eurasian Jay (black crowned) made this a particularly birdy spot.
The other bird we were unable to go for in 2012 was the staggeringly ugly but also staggeringly rare Northern Bald Ibis. A management plan has enabled them to recover somewhat from a parlous state in 2012, and I felt confident I could pick up this additional Moroccan specialty lifer with a drive to the coast. In the end it proved harder than I expected, and a did a lot of driving back and forth along the coast north of Agadir, near Tamri. But I did eventually connect with one, and only then (always the way) they became “easy” and I found several more without trying.
Once I’d had my fill of the Ibis, I still had a couple of hours of daylight. Rather than returning immediately to Marrakech (the sensible, non-birder’s option) I checked ebird to see if there was anything else available nearby or en route back to Marrakech. The options were possible Marbled Teal back in Agadir (to untick plastic birds from UAE), or a detour north for a special raptor, not a lifer but one I had never photographed. I decided on the latter, and at Oued Ksab near Essaouira I was very glad to find a few Eleanora’s Falcons hawking over the small estuary, along with Osprey, Glossy Ibis, Greater Flamingos and various waders and gulls.
As the sun tracked lower in the sky I finally set off for Marrakech, arriving back to my swish accommodation, the the riad Les Deux Tours, after 19.30 tired and hungry.
Immediately though, I was forced to think about birding again.
It was not until I had left the mountains that I realised that the local version of Tawny Owl has now been recognised as a full species, Magreb Owl. Not having seen this was blotting my so-far cleanup of the local specialties, but I was resigned to missing it. That is, until, as I trudged up to my room after the long haul home from the coast, I heard one call seemingly from somewhere in the extensive hotel gardens.
I had to get a dinner order in before the restaurant shut, so I sat at a table with my camera, bins and torch, ignoring the sideways glances of the corporate city honeymoon couples and tables of rich tory boomers loudly bemoaning the fact that dear Rishi was no longer in control of the country. I ordered a cocktail to celebrate a good day while I waited for my fish tagine, which turned out to be spectacularly good.
As soon as I’d finished I wandered off towards the “back” of the compound in the direction I’d heard the call. There was response to my playback! And gradually I was able to isolate it was coming from a tree that was, annoyingly, just outside the hotel compound behind a high stone wall. There was very little space from which I could view the tree without intruding into some poor punters’ rooms. I manouevred as best I could but no amount of shifting could get me a view to the bird, which continued to sing unprompted. In the end, yet another long day in the car was catching up with me, and I realised the bird was immobile, impossibly out of sight and the tree inaccessible. I gave up, resigned to a “heard only” lifer. This would be good enough for some but disappointing for me.
Birding is a bit like golf — the perfect round is almost impossible; there will always be one shot you could’ve played a bit better, one hole for a bogey spoiling an otherwise perfect round. So it is with birding — an otherwise clean-up trip ruined at the last by a bird I hadn’t realised existed until 48 hours earlier. But that is far to negative for the new 2024 me, determined to see a half-full, not half-empty glass. And in this instance it was a lot more than half full — a fabulous cheeky conference trip with quality birds in amazing scenery!
