Desert Wheatear

Arriving from the second half of October onwards, Desert Wheatears tend to mark the conclusion of the autumn period in Britain. There have already been three this early November, including the extremely tidy male pictured above at Reculver, Kent.

With Sunday free and having not seen a DW in Britain since the female I ticked while dipping Chimney Swift on Holy Island in 2005, I met up with Rich and headed down to Kent for an hour or so in the company of this bird. The light was grey and flat but the bird made up for it, despite the seemingly endless procession of lens wielding admirers parked flat on the beach about ten metres from its favoured rocks. This species has a habit of being pretty fearless and so it proved; though not bothered by humans, it wasn't quite as ridiculous as the Lowestoft bird looked! You'll notice that the DW is facing left in every shot - all thanks to a light but persistent southwesterly.

More wheatear pics on my Flickr pages:

Having had our fill and taken enough photos to add to the ridiculous total already taken by others, we headed down to Dungeness for the afternoon. The best bird was a brief first-winter Yellow-legged Gull but we did speed by a Great White Egret, which was mincing around in the usual corner of ARC Pit.

Brief (shite) Desert Wheatear vid:

Morocco, 24th June - 1st July

Late on Sunday evening, I arrived back from a typically exhausting trip to Morocco. I've visited the country twice before (April 09 and July 10), although still hadn't seen several of the more localized species which occur within its boundaries. Accompanying me were Dan Pointon and Will Soar, who had both visited on one occasion previously.

Prior to our visit, I had targeted seven species and a further two subspecies which I had not been previously. Just two of these species were not observed; details of each can be found below. If anyone wants further details (and GPS) for these or other species, please do not hesitate to email me.

*Marsh Owl: three birds seen on the west side of Merja Zerga during the evening of 25th.
*Double-spurred Francolin: three seen in flight c.2km north of Ben Slimane during the morning of 26th (JJ only), while at least two were heard at the traditional spot at Sidi Yahya on 1st July.
*Fulvous Babbler: remarkably, I had not seen this species on either of my two prior Moroccan visits despite searching. Once again, they proved relatively difficult to pin down, although we eventually located a family party of at least six individuals on the western outskirts of Errachidia.
*African Desert Warbler: several birds were seen in the 'usual' wadi c.5km along the track to Cafe Yasmina, by the 'Yasmina 9km' sign.
*[Western] Mourning Wheatear: a first-summer male was located in the hills c.14km west of Tinghir on 28th. This has been a regular spot for sightings during spring 2012. A male was also seen distantly in the gorge c.2km west of Imiter on the same day.
*[Pharoah Eagle Owl]: although there was plenty of faeces distributed all over the regular sites west of Rissani, we failed to find the species there. We also failed at the Mourning Wheatear site above, although finally connected with a single adult in the gorge south of the main road c.2km west of Imiter on 28th.
*[Saharan Olivaceous Warbler]: we found this striking race of Eastern Olivaceous Warbler to be fairly common across the southeast of the country. First seen in the Ziz Valley north of Errachidia on 26th, we also found plenty in the lush wadi c.20km west of Errachidia, as well as near Rissani. They were also abundant in tamarisks at Barrage El-Mansour, Ouazarzate at dawn on 29th, with many singing.
African Dunn's Lark: we could not locate the regular bird(s) at the Desert Warbler site; presumably they disperse following the breeding season.
Egyptian Nightjar: despite intense searching of the wadis north of Auberge le Tresor, we could not locate any birds. Striking a piece of rotten luck, we found that the hotel at Derkaoua (quoted as almost guaranteed at dawn) was closed, and no nightjars were found in the area.

Adult Marsh Owl

First-summer male Western Mourning ('Maghreb') Wheatear...

Three studies of adult Pharaoh Eagle Owl: surely a good species?

Little Owl in the early morning light at Barrage el-Mansour, Ouazarzate.

Temminck's Lark east of Boumalne du Dades. It appears to have been a great year for the species.

Crested Coots enjoying some of Pointon's biscuit supply at Dayet Aoua.

Three Royal Terns on the Oued Souss at dusk on 29th.

Record shot of one of the many Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters seen in the southeast of the country.

 

Saharan Striped Polecat