11 Feb 14 - A Western Palearctic Mega

After an overnight spotlightling drive we arrived at Oued Jenna (km 191) on the Aoussard Road at first light. During my day off birding on the 9th, I had been looking at Patrick Bergier's excellent Go South website, which is the essential site to check for birding & mammal trips to Morocco & the Western Sahara. A recent update on this site mentioned a pair of Sudan Golden Sparrows had been seen at Oued Jenna on the 1st Feb in a 200 strong flock of Desert Sparrows. When we visited the site on the 8th, Richard & John had seen this flock (while I was sorting out the sound equipment), but they quickly moved off as they were highly mobile. We then focused our attention on looking for the Cricket Longtails. After that we only saw a few individual Desert Sparrows. Having driven through the night, I decided to get a short kip before heading out to look for the Sudan Golden Sparrows. As Richard & John had managed a short nap while I was doing the last part of the drive to Oued Jenna, they went straight out looking. As I was waking up they returned to say they were still around.

Male Sudan Golden Sparrow & Desert Sparrows: The bright yellow colour made them easy to pick out

Keeping on to the Sudan Golden Sparrows wasn't easy as the flocks were highly mobile & birds were quickly dropping down from the grass to feed on the ground or flying off to join other Desert Sparrow flocks. After a while, I picked up the pair in one of the Acacias. As I was watching them, I realised there was a second male & when the flock flew to another Acacia, a third male also flew out. Therefore, I had 2 additional males as well as the original pair & I had just found 2 more Western Palearctic rarities. When I mentioned this to Richard & John, they said they had thought that there was more than 1 male, so we agreed to a team find for the extra birds.

Desert Sparrow: 2 males feeding on the ground

Desert Sparrow: Male showing its wing pattern

Desert Sparrows: No yellow Sparrows in this flock

Sudan Golden Sparrow: Male. They are right on the edge of their range in the Western Sahara with their range being Mauritania to Senegal & Burkina Faso and across to Sudan & North Ethiopia. However, I suspect their rarity level of about 1 small party a year in the Western Sahara, would probably prove they are more regular if there were more birders going to the Western Sahara

Sudan Golden Sparrow: The female is to the right of the obvious male & there is a second male more hidden in the bottom right of the photo. When they flew a third male also flew out with the party, making a total of 4 birds

Having had my fill of this bonus World tick, I carried on to explore more of Oued Jenna. Frustratingly, I saw a Dove fly out of the area & into Acacias on the other side of the road which didn't look right for a Collared Dove. We had a good look in the area, but only managed to find about 30 Collared Doves. So, I will never know if I threw something better away as African Collared Doves are occasional rare visitors to Oued Jenna. But there were other interesting birds in the area which we hadn't seen on the 8th, including 2 Great Spotted Cuckoos, a party of Fulvous Babblers & 3 Great Grey Shrikes.

Fulvous Babbler: This is the maroccana subspecies which occurs from Southern Morocco to SW Libya. There are 3 other subspecies across its Sub Saharan range

Great Grey Shrike: This is the elegans subspecies which occurs to the South of the Atlas from Mauritania to the Egyptian Sinai 

It was now late morning & we started the long journey back to Dakhla with a few short roadside stops to look for Dunn's Lark. Unfortunately, we had no joy with the Lark & didn't manage to see any additional species apart from a couple of Temminck's Horned Larks that John found. The wind was getting stronger as we got closer to the Dakhla end of the road & was starting to blow sand onto the road. The highlight of the journey back was some interesting scenery photos.

The wind was starting to blow sand onto the road in a few places

I wonder how old this Acacia was: It seemed to be existing in an area with virtually no other vegetation

The road passed through this sandstone ridge

We also passed this interesting large sandstone rock

As the road drops into Dakhla Bay, it passed over this wide flat sand plain: Soon after it passes the bay where the kite surfers were photographed on the first afternoon

8 Feb 14 - Suddenly Cricket Becomes Interesting

It was an uncivilised 04:00 departure from the hotel. After getting past the 3 police checkpoints we had covered the first 50 kms from the hotel to the start of the road heading inland to Aoussard. This is also known as Awsard, but I will stick to Aoussard in this blog. Soon we were spotlighting on both sides of the road to Aoussard. We managed to see a few Lesser Egyptian Jerboas which are excellent small mammals: they look like a small Gerbil with long legs and an even longer tail. When disturbed they hop rapidly over the ground like miniature Kangaroos. There were also a few unidentified Gerbils and a large African Savanna Hare. Unfortunately, I failed to get any worthwhile photos of these mammals. Despite the early start it was getting light soon after 07:00.

Sunrise over the Aoussard road

A Warning sign: No problems understanding this warning

The sign was right

This sign was trickier: But it means 'Warning - deposits of sand blown onto the road'. Due to the constant strong wind, there were a couple of places where there was sand on the road, but it not enough to be a problem 

As the sun came up, we switched to from looking for mammals to birds. It was apparent as we drove down the road, that the desert in this area was quite variable. In places, it was quite sandy, in other areas more stoney. Also the amount of vegetation changed. This partially explains why the bird & mammal sightings are grouped around certain hotspots along the road. I suspect in some cases that is where people have seen something good & others have focused their attention on the same places on subsequent trips, to the detriment of other parts of the road. This is probably more the case with some of the birds. With the mammals, the searching is by spotlights from the cars and the early trips would have probably covered the road more consistently. However, a lot of the Larks & other desert Passerines, have been found by people walking around & as the road is 140 miles long, I'm sure there are a lot of interesting areas that have never been checked by birders. That said, there are some key areas which are clearly focus points for birds. There is a small waterhole next to a pumping station at Gleb Jidane at km 21 (all distances are from the start of the road) which is well worth a visit. There are also a rubbish tip at km 119 next to a small military post, which was good for Desert Sparrows. Much closer to Aoussard, there are a couple of places where bands of Acacia trees & more luxuriant grassland cross the road. While completely dry while we were there, it looks like there must occasionally be water in this area on the rare occasions it rains. One of these is Oued Jenna at km 192 which is the main birding site along the road.

Closer to Aoussard are these hills: I wonder if birders have ever been able to explore them?

Another hill

As I was reading up about this trip, there were a number of warnings about landlines. The area close to Aoussard had clearly been close to the front line in the fighting between the Moroccan army & the separatists, in the past. As a result there had apparently been a lot of mines laid & never cleared. The general consensus is to the West of Aoussard wasn't mined. Seeing a large ongoing military exercise to the West of Aoussard, was another indication that that area was safe. But beyond Aoussard is clearly a different case as we saw warning signs telling us not to leave the road soon after leaving the town. I've birded in the past close to minefields, in Israel & Zimbabwe, but these have been fenced off areas & clearly signed. Here there is nothing to stop you walking off the road, apart from these few warning signs.

This sign beyond Aoussard is pretty clear

As we were driving towards Aoussard, we saw our first party of Cream-coloured Coursers & some more Hoopoe Larks. We didn't encounter many Cream-coloured Coursers or Stone-curlews, but every time we did, there was always a group, rather than just a lone individual. The following photos were taken between about km 100 and Aoussard.

Lanner Falcon: This is the erlangeri subspecies which occurs in Mauritania, Morocco & Tunisia

Lanner Falcon

Lanner Falcon

Cream-coloured Courser: This is the nominate cursor subspecies which ranges from the Canaries, across North Africa to the Arabian Peninsula

Hoopoe Lark

Bar-tailed Desert Lark

Bar-tailed Desert Lark

African Desert Warbler: Another perfectly camouflaged desert species

White-crowned Black Wheatear: Immature birds, like this one at Aoussard, have black crowns. A quick check of the tail pattern will confirm the solid black is only on the central tail feathers & does not form a strong T shape as found in Black Wheatears

Desert Wheatear: This is the homochroa subspecies which is found as far East as Egypt

Desert Sparrow: Part of the approximately 50 strong flock at km 119. Surely the best looking Sparrow 

Desert Sparrow: Male at Oued Jenna. This is the saharae subspecies with the nominate subspecies being found further South in the Sahara

Desert Sparrow: A pale sandy female showing her wing pattern in a bigger flock of males

Until I read the Punkbirders report, had you asked me if there was anything interesting about the word Cricket, then all I could have to told you about were members of the order Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Crickets & Bush Crickets). I certainly wouldn't be considering that dull game that goes on for days & where half the supporters start praying the weather will force a draw, when their team is losing. But now I realise from the Punks there is also Cricket Longtail. Most birders who have travelled to Southern Europe, Asia or Africa will have come across members of the Prinia & Cisticola family. They are generally dull Warblers inhabiting grassland & scrubby habitats with songs resembling Crickets and Grasshoppers. Not so Cricket Longtail. It was probably the main reason for coming to the Western Sahara & it's a stunning Warbler.

Cricket Longtail: This has a wide range from Mauritania to Senegal & Mali and across to central Sudan & Northern Eithopia. It is right on the edge of it's range in the Western Sahara & as a bonus just into the Western Palearctic

Cricket Longtail: They move around the Acacias in family parties so when you find them you get an excited group

Uromastyx dispar: Please let me know if you believe it's one of the other Uromastyx lizards. This medium sized lizard was enjoying the safety of sitting under the beware of mines sign

Dumeril's Fringe-fingered Lizard

Desert Locust