Morocco - January 2025 - Day 4 - Around the Erg Chebbi

Lakes in the desert

We started the day at Auberge Yasmina. Boy what a change! I remembered a medium-sized Riad based around a couple of courtyards with a terrace. What stands there now resembles a castle! A short distance down the track, nearer to the main road, an actual castle is in the process of being constructed, a behemoth of a building with dozens of spires. I didn't remember much around Yasmina in 2013. In 2025 there are a dozen other auberges and camps and surrounding them a small village has grown up. Maybe it was always liike this and I am guilty of romantisicing my prior visit? I am not sure, but either way it is a busy area and has lost the appeal it once held for me. One positive change was that Yasmina was surrounded by a shallow lake, no doubt temporary at this time of year, but the contrast with the orange sands of the Erg Chebbi was extraordinary. This lake held a fair few Little Egret and Ruddy Shelduck, and a pair of Little Ringed Plover were on the near edge with some Pied Wagtails. 

Yasmina

Back on the main road we drove a few minutes north and then turned off on the track to Tisserdmine. We had looked in at this area at dusk the previous evening and had liked the lack of anything. We found a shallow wadi, detected by the presence of plants, and of course this is where the birds were, with a dozen or so Greater Short-toed Lark, two Hoopoe-Lark and a Desert Wheatear. In the lovely morning light we had great fun.

Hoopoe-Lark

Desert Wheatear

Once the sun was a bit higher we went in search of the 9km wadi mentioned by Gosney that we had birded all those years ago. Memories were a little sketchy but we reasoned that it had to be between the two roads that lead down to Merzouga. Here we found more Hoopoe-Lark and more Desert Wheatear, but overall the desert here seemed to have few birds. We wondered if this was a function of the time of year, with only a few resident birds and no migrants yet? Either way it was very hard work and the morning wasn't especially productive.

Given the water at Yasmina we figured that the seasonal lake, the Dayet Srij, south of Merzouga would likely have water in it as well. Indeed it did, and it was absolutely vast. We soon picked up some Greater Flamingos and some Common Shelduck, and Coots, Shoveler and Ruddy Shelduck were very numerous. We ended up driving around the top end, birding where we could. We added five Green Sandpiper, a Greenshank, Little Egret, Black-winged Stilt and a Black-headed Gull. This was all about birding, there was no way to get anywhere near the birds for photography so we didn't bother.

In Merzouga itself we birded the Oasis, the irrigated and cultivated area in the middle of town. We were looking for Babblers but these birds are highly transient and we never found any anywhere. Chiffchaffs, Blackbirds and a Sardinian Warbler were present but overall this Oasis was pretty barren. And that was basically it for the day - some nice photographic opportunities in the morning in the wadi and then the rest of the day spent trying to find more birds.

Morocco - January 2025 - Day 3 - Can I see a bird in Algeria?

The reason for staying in Errachidia was to attempt a silly plan the following day. I had noted some months ago that the N10 road carried on east beyond Errachidia and at a certain point passed extremely close to the Algerian border, perhaps no more than a few hundred metres. If we were to drive along this road and stop at this point then I felt we would be able to see birds in Algerian airspace whilst standing firmly in Morocco....even a single bird would do! The only issue was that for some years now Alegeria and Morocco have not seen eye to eye. Wars have been fought in the not so distant past, diplomatic relations were severed in 2021, and the border between the two countries has been closed for years. Morocco has gone as far as to construct a huge berm, a ditch excavated to create a wall, which runs for 1,700 miles along a vast part of the official boundary. There were said to be land mines, various military bases and observation posts, and rapid reaction forces. I did a bit of research prior to leaving and it all sounded rather unnecessary and intense. The road is open though, anyone is free to drive along it, all we needed was a Pigeon to do the honourable thing...

The yellow star on the right is a reservoir, which was where we were notionally going birding.

We got up early and pointed the Picanto east. Initially there are a series of vast agricultural estates, some developed, some under construction, but gradually these petered out and we were back into uninterrupted desert. There was almost no evidence of military activity at all other than one jeep going the other way at about the halfway mark. We stopped for a bit of photography where opportunities presented themselves, but were otherwise keen on getting to the cross-border birding.

House Bunting

House Bunting

Crested Lark

Black Wheatear

Whilst we had passed through numerous police checkpoints outside towns, the one at Bouanane was the first where we were actually stopped and had documents checked. British passports? How odd. What were we doing out here? Why, going birding at the Barrage Oued Zelmou of course! This the policemen knew about and it seemed reasonable to them, we were allowed to carry on.

We arrived at the sharp dog-leg you can see on the map above, stopped the car and started looking. Nothing. Nada. Not even a fly buzzed. Great. We went a little further and stopped again. A Blue Rock Thrush was perched on the berm itself but that was no good. This we now realised was about two metres high and we were unable to see over it. So I climbed it to scan, poked my head over. I mean why not? It's not as if there are coils of barbed wire, seachlights and scanners. That's Arizona. And anyway, the border itself is still beyond the berm and I was still perfectly properly in Morocco. 

Algeria is the rocky outcrop, this is a few km north of where we stopped. You can see the berm below it.

A dog barked, giving the game away. After a short delay a rapid reaction force emerged from a hut about a hundred metres away, confused. Two people, one in camo, one in jeans and a T-shirt. Carrying no weaponry and wearing flip-flops they ambled over unhurridly. It was all very calm and relaxed, nonetheless we should not be here, it is forbidden, the area is closed, you cannot stop your car, not even a Picanto. My french came in handy at this point, stalling by asking questions about where we were, who they were, where the border was, confirming we were still in Morocco and so on. We are British bird-watchers, we have just seen a Blue Rock Thrush on this wall which is why we are standing here. In fact come to think of it what is this wall? Oh, is that Algeria over there then? Why has this wall been constructed, it seems a lot of work? How long did it go on for? Really, wow? What's the point? It is for your security. Oh I am fine thanks, please don't build ditches on my account. We are going to the Oued Zelmou, do you know it? A Kestrel flew past a demolished bridge behind them with some Pigeons. That way you say? About five minutes? Perfect, well we'll be on our way then, see you later, sorry to have troubled you and keep up the good work. Defend the wall! Job done.

The Barrage Oued Zelmou was actually pretty good birding. Lots of Ruddy Shelduck and various new ducks for the trip list. A pair of distant Greenshank were tough going until they flew and called, and there were lots of Egrets and Herons. We drove back the way we had come. All was quiet once again on the front, the rapid reaction force back asleep in their hut, Moroccan flags hanging limply in the still warm air. We decided against stopping for another go and turned back west. Back at Bouanane the original policemen had been replaced by some new ones and so we had to go through the whole passport check again. Where had we been? Oh just the lake up at Oued Zelmou.... They didn't think to check my eBird map.

So that's the story of how I saw a Kestrel in Algeria. We had a late lunch at Boudenib at a cafe by the side of the road, a ropey-looking chicken that tasted wonderful. My stupid plan had worked. Pointless of course, but one of those things that makes me happy for reasons I find hard to explain. It's not rational but not everything has to be. We now needed to get down to Merzouga, our base for the next two nights. 

Ziz

Heading back the way we came we turned south and drove down the Ziz Gorge, with Brown-necked Raven increasingly common as well as our first Serin. We stopped for some more photography between Erfoud and Merzouga in simply wonderful light, and made Merzouga just as dusk was falling. Our hotel was on the northern edge of town (which will probably be the middle of town the next time I visit), looking out at the Erg Chebbi in one direction and over the twinkling lights of Merzouga in another. We had no travel the following day, the only plan was to try and find birds in the desert. 

White-crowned Black Wheatear

White-crowned Black Wheatear

Juvenile White-crowned Black Wheatear

Merzouga

Riad Caravasar

Morocco - January 2025 - Day 2 - Ouarzazate to Errachidia

We had made it over the mountains, today was the big drive east to Errachidia. We started off around Ouarzazate, visiting a couple of water bodies to try and boost the trip list. The first was a small lake called the Barrage Tarmigte to the south of Ouarzazate, this lies directly underneath a new housing estate - zoned but so far not many buildings. There was plenty to keep us interested as it warmed up - Common Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper and Little Ringed Plover were found around the edges, and our first Ruddy Shelducks were out in the middle. A White Stork flew over, a group of Pied Wagtail included one of the Moroccan sub-species and there were a few Chiffchaff and Stonechat.

Barrage Tarmigte

East of the city we viewed the Barrage Mansour Eddahbi from the northern side. This is a vast body of water that you really need a scope to view properly. Without one we were reduced to scanning the near edges. This netted some Little Egret, several Grey Heron and some Mallard. Further out on the water we were able to identify Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe and Cormorant. Around some unused buildings by the viewpoint we found a Thekla's Lark with Crested Lark, and a pair of White-crowned Wheatear and a Black Redstart perched on the roof. A Slender-billed Gull flew by, I think the only one we saw all trip.

The landscape was epic. We had left towns and villages behind, the lake stretched as far as we could see, and in the far distance were the snow-capped peaks of the Atlas. Bizarre then that at a random roundabout in the middle of nowhere we should find a man selling fresh coffee from a small van. He looked a bit like Jean Reno in Leon and made simply amazing coffee, the best I have had almost anywhere. Perhaps it was the setting?

In Boumalne Dades we had a walk around the Oued Dades, that is to say the irrigated and cultivated valley floor at the bottom of the gorge, surrounded by the town on both sides. Here we found a Hoopoe, two Great Spotted Woodpecker, a flock of Serin, lots of Blackcap and Common Bulbul and our first Laughing Doves.

Boumalne Dades from Tagdilt

The dump at Tagdilt

Mid-afternoon we arrived at Tagdilt, a series of rough tracks heading diagonally southeast from the main road towards the Anti-Atlas across the low plain. This if famously mentioned in by Gosney as one one the premier birding site in Morocco. It is also famously covered in plastic bags due to the open tip just to the east of Boumalne Dades. I have memories of one of the most vile smells I have ever encountered from here on the previous trip, a pile of chicken carcasses that reeked to high heaven but that proved very attractive to a Red-rumped Wheatear due to the mass of flies. We spent the remainder of the day here slowly working the vast area and looking for photographic opportunities. Red-rumped Wheatears continued to enjoy the dump, and we also came across Northern Wheatear, Desert Wheatear and White-crowned Wheatear. Birds were generally few and far between, but gradually we put together a good list. Lanner Falcon was spectacular even if we were too slow with the cameras, and we also couldn't get close to the Greater Hoopoe-Lark that we found close to dusk. 

Red-rumped Wheatear

For me this was the first real opportunity to get to grips with my new camera, and what better to point it at than Wheatears? Whilst most of the birds at Tagdilt that afternoon proved impossible, one of the Red-rumped Wheatears seemed at least partially tolerant of us and so this is where I spent my time. The lens I am using, a Sony 200-600mm f5.6-6.3, is somewhat of a consumer lens versus the Canon primes I used to have. Similarly the Sony A6600 is in no way comparable to the (at one stage) flagship EOS 1DX. Indeed it is not a sports/wildlife camera at all, I had bought it a couple of years ago along with a standard range zoom lens for city breaks and am just repurposing it whilst I get the hang of the new system. AS a result there are compromises all over the place that I am having to get used to, whereas the Canon had none - it had one job to do and just got it done. Then again how many times have you heard it said that a good photographer can make a good image with any camera? I don't think that's quite true with bird photography, there are certain things you need, but I was hopeful that this budget Sony kit had it where it counted. It's an APS-C sensor with a 1.5x crop, so in fact this tiny camera and medium lens in fact is equivalent to 300-900mm. I can scarcely believe it, it is so light and easy to handle yet it has this enormous magnification. It is perfectly easy to hand hold but I decided that with 900mm of focal length that it made sense to use the monopod, my hefty Gitzo 5561T. This is incredibly solid yet packs down really small, and even though the camera is a lot smaller and a lot lighter there is not a lot of weight saving to be had by trading down so I am keeping hold of it. My Canon 500mm f4 and 1DX weighed around 5kg with the semi-permanent 1.4x converter, thus giving me a 700mm f5.6 with no optical drawbacks. The Sony weighs in at 2.8kg and gives me an extra 200mm at the long end at the cost of one-third of a stop at f6.3. Amazing! But would it be capable of the kind of images that I am after? Presumably a zoom lens cannot ever match a prime, and let's not forget that it is a sixth of the price! It was now or never, I'd had several abortive outings as I struggled with making it work like the Canon, but I felt I was beginning to understand it. I have to say the autofocus is exceptional, perhaps better even than my old gear, and this is just a basic model. I have eyes on something rather better but I don't yet deserve it.

Red-rumped Wheatear

As the sun set we packed up and continued east. We had not wanted to drive in the dark however the road seemed to be a lot better than we remembered it and we felt it would be OK if we took it nice and slow. We arrived into Errachidia by about 10pm having stopped for a meal in Goulmina. Long day!

Morocco - January 2025 - Day 1 - The Atlas Mountains

We birded the hotel for about half an hour before breakfast, sadly the Owl was not to be found lounging around in broad daylight. We did find the tree that it had been photographed in though. Nothing special in the grounds, a few African Chaffinch, a very smart African Blue Tit, and a pair of Common Bulbul reminding us where we were. It was cold, extremely cold, and we were glad to get inside for some breakfast, which in most places in Morocco is a sumptuous affair with juices, fruit, dates, pastries, possibly some eggs, and most importantly of all, hot coffee. We noted with some concern that from dawn onwards there had been a steady procession of cars up the mountain towards Oukaimeden, and decided we had better get going before it got too busy.

In summary we should have got up there in the middle of the night. It was awful. Terrible. Since my last visit some years ago there has been more development, with what seemed to us to be permanent stalls lining the road and the car park. People were everywhere, thousands of them, and this was before 10am. Now I am not going to claim that I have a divine right to bird places in glorious solitude, and everyone was having fun, enjoying the snow, taking pictures, going on donkey rides, buying crap, having a drink or a snack and so on. But this was like a carnival of sorts, the whole of Marrakesh seeming to have decamped to the mountains for a day out. Birding and particularly bird photography were out of the question. Despite the hordes we had a tramp around, trying to make the best of it, and remarkably finding a Dipper on the partially frozen tarn that had hundreds of people milling around it. Somehow we also found a pair of Crimson-winged Finch pecking around some low earthern housing on the far side of the stream once we had walked a little further away from the largest crowds. Atlas Shore Lark were actually quite numerous out on the snowy plain, as were Alpine Chough around the restaurants, but not as numerous as people, and we decided that having seen pretty much all the species we had come up for we should cut our losses and leave! Would that we could. The road up to Oukaimeden is narrow and in places rock slides had reduced it yet further. The road was completely blocked by cars and buses still heading up, traffic as far as the eye could see in both directions at a standstill, with a constant flow of mopeds and pedestrians streaming up. It had taken 40 minutes to get from our hotel to the top, it took three hours to get back down again. Three hours! By the time we finally got to the bottom and started heading up the main pass it was half three in the afternoon and the day was essentially over as all we could do was drive in order to get over in daylight. As it was we arrived at our lodgings in Ouarzazate in the dark. Anyway don't go up in winter at the weekend is my firm advice, you may never get back!

We did manage a few photos of a confiding Black Wheatear by the side of the road during one of the interminable periods when we were completely stuck, and further down the road at Sidi Abdallah we found a couple of Great Grey Shrike and a Sardinian Warbler. But we basically spent the majority of day in the car and consequently saw very little. To cap it off our hotel, Bivouac Lots of Stars in Ouarzazate, was pretty unprepossessing and bloody freezing!

Black Wheatear

Bivouac Lots of Stars

Morocco - January 2025 - Arrival and Maghreb Owl

We arrived in Marrakesh at around 6pm and picked up our car, a glorious Kia Picanto. Ideally I would have rented a 4x4, but you could rent a fleet of Picantos for the same money. If you plan on driving on rough terrain withouty one then absolutely the next best thing is the smallest, lightest and crappiest car you can find. The lighter it is the more likely you can coax it over the rough ground, there is less weight on the tyres, and there is less bulk if you need to shift it manually or dig it out if you get stuck. It will also cost less to fix if you get it seriously wrong! The Picanto fitted the bill admirably and we took it everywhere and over almost everything.

Our original plan had been to get as far as Ait Ourir and then cross the Atlas via the Tizi n'Tichka pass, descending into Ouarzazate for some afternoon birding in the desert, but a few weeks before we travelled Mick found some gen online about a regular Maghreb Owl on the road to Oukaimeden. Further research revealed that the bird was being seen from a particular hotel. It was an easy decision to cancel Ait Ourir and instead book Aurocher Oukaimeden, and it was about the same distance as well. Given we would then be halfway towards the ski resort with its unique birds we modified the plan to include Oukaimeden, we would get up there early and bird until around mid-morning before descending back to the road over the Atlas, hopefully still leaving time for the afternoon light. Perfect right?

I estimate that we heard the Owl up towards the left-hand red rectangle to start with. Later on it sat in the marked trees at the top right.

We arrived at the hotel without a problem, stopping just once to withdraw some cash. Overall it was probably about and hour and half from the airport. Marrakesh is not for the faint-hearted, but you leave the craziness behind quite rapidly as you head south. It was a good thing we had booked as the hotel seemed completely full, perhaps to do with the ski season and it being the weekend. It was a very nice setting, on the side of a hill and with multiple levels and gardens, and cost double what every other night cost! The Owl had better be there! We had a nice meal and then set about trying to find it. One observer had been fortunate enough to see it in the daytime from his hotel bedroom window when he looked out in the morning, but we couldn't exactly count on that and wanted to get it under our belts that evening. I had recently purchased a small but very powerful LED torch and we used this to scan the trees both in the hotel garden and on the steep sides of the valley. Eventually we heard it way up the hillside - as you would expect it sounds a bit like a Tawny Owl. A little while later it crossed the valley and sat in some pine trees above the hotel on the road, just about within photographable range. One of us held the torch whilst the other attempted a photo, after which we swapped. At this point I had almost no knowledge about how my camera worked, certainly not in the dark, and it being mirrorless seemingly complicated it no end. I know what to do now, but the time my ignorance was supremely unhelpful and so the photos are terrible. Still, a new bird is a new bird. A great start to the trip.

Morocco - January 2025 - Itinerary and logistics

Morocco, 5th - 11th January 2025

The last time I went to Morocco was in late 2014, a whole decade has passed. Maybe it's because I went three times that year, and also the year before that. I was Morocco'd out perhaps? It was too long a gap. My first trip there in 2013 was the inspiration for this one - that was with Bradders, Mick and Richard. We had driven all the way out to the Erg Chebbi, deliberately arriving at Merzouga in the dark so as to be stunned the following morning. We were. You can read about it starting here.

So the plan was to recreate that trip, this time just Mick and I, to reaquaint ourselves with the various Wheatears and other passerines of the Moroccan desert that lies between the Atlas and the Anti-Atlas. The rough plan was to cross the Atlas on day one and then spend two days getting to Merzouga, a day there, and two days getting back, birding all the way and prioritising photography - this was the first proper outing where I could put the Sony mirrorless through its paces and prove that the limiting factor was me rather than it!

The birding was good but not great, there just didn't seem to be as many birds as I remembered and at many points it was really hard work. We wondered if we were too early, and if later in the year resident bird populations are augmented by migrant visitors. The vast deserts at Tagdilt and around Merzouga were virtually bird free for a lot of the time, and those birds that we did find were very hard to approach other than in a few isolated cases. From a photography standpoint these individuals saved the day.

Logistics

• A six day trip in early January.

• Flights: from Gatwick to Marrakesh on British Airways. Outbound it is an early afternoon flight that gets you there in the evening but without any time for birding, but not so late that you can't preposition into the foothills of the Atlas. The return flight leaves in the evening, more than enough time to cross the Altas in the morning and have some birding time to the north.

• Car Hire: A Kia Picanto from Avis as part of a BA holiday. A 4x4 would have been better, but the prices are astronomical. If you can't or won't stretch to a 4x4 then the next best thing is the smallest and lightest regular car you can get. You will suprised at where you can take it, and you can likely push it out if you get stuck. We treated it rather like a 4x4 and it didn't let us down at all!
• Driving: The Tizi n'Tichka pass over the Atlas and the N10 road are much improved in the ten years since I last drove them. There were also far fewer overloaded and really slow lorries to worry about. Marrakech remains pretty crazy but does not last long.  I would recommend avoiding Oukaimeden at weekends, as the road up to the ski resort is narrow and very crowded. There were frequent police checkpoints that we were generally waived right through, the exception being the one closest to Algeria at Bouanane which took a while but remained very friendly. These always tend to be at the start or end of a town, so always slow down as you approach a settlement. We were also intercepted by Moroccan soldiers on the N17 where it runs adjacent to the Algerian border, and were told that we should not have stopped on this section. Again it all remained very calm and we were were able to make our excuses and leave unscathed.
• Weather: Glorious all week. Cold at night, especially in the Atlas, but very pleasant by mid morning and never too hot. Snow in the high Atlas is not unknown and can block the road for a time, so plan accordingly and make sure you leave plenty of time to get back over.

• Accommodation: We booked the all of the accommodation in advance as we knew where we wanted to be. Merzouga has seen an explosion of tourist accommodation, the once seemingly remote northern Erg Chebbbi is now a thriving village rather than just Auberge Yasmina in splendid isolation. Expect to pay about €40 per night at most places for a twin room, which will likely come with an excellent breakfast. Particular shout out to 'Nomadic Birdway' in Imiter, it was outstanding and Brahim an excellent host.

• Cash: You can't get Dhirams outside the country so you'll need to get some when you arrive. ATMs took our cards no problem. Cash is genuinely needed when you are on the road - coffee and oranges cannot be paid for by card!

• Food: Breakfasts at the hotels were mostly great. In the evenings we found it easy to eat at the places we were staying though there is an obvious tourist markup associated with this. We also ate at roadside cafés a few times, half the cost and just as good. On the road we piled into wonderful oranges brought east from Agadir and sold off the back of trucks, and we also found mobile coffee vans to be a lifesafer, indeed one guy near Ouarzazate made me one of the best espressos I've had anywhere.
• Optics: No scope but one might have been useful a couple of times. This was trip that prioritised photography.

• Literature: eBird, an ancient Gosney guide, and prior experience!

 

Itinerary
Day 0: Arrived in Marrakesh in the evening and then drove about an hour south to the Ourika Valley, staying at the Aurocher Oukaimeden hotel chosen specifically as there had been a Maghreb Owl reported there. After dinner we took a torch and managed to find it! 
Day 1: Morning up to the ski resort at Oukaimeden. Whilst we found all the birds we were looking for it was hell on earth with thousands of day-trippers from Marrakesh. Getting back down was a nightmare with the road reduced to one lane in several spots due to land slip, a nearly three hour traffic jam, much of it at a standstill, to cover what should have taken half an hour. Afternoon over the Atlas via the Tizi n'Tichka pass, then overnight at Ouarzazate.

Day 2: Birded water bodies around Ouarzazate in the morning before heading east to Boumalne Dades. Afternoon at Tagdilt before continuing east. Overnight at Errachidia.
Day 3: We spent the morning enacting a stupid plan to try and see a bird in Algeria, taking the N17 for a couple of hours east to where it runs right next to the border. The border is closed, you can't cross it all, nor even stray near it as we subsequently found out from some soldiers. We birded Oued Zelmou before heading back west and taking the Ziz Valley down to Erfoud and Merzouga. Overnight at Merzouga.
Day 4: All day around the Erg Chebbi. Morning in the desert to the north looking for birds around Tisserdmine, and then the afternoon around the Dayet Srij which had plenty of water in it. Overnight at Merzouga.
Day 5: Early morning at a seasonal lake on the west side of the dunes for Sandgrouse. Then tried the 9km Wadi west of the main road opposite Yasmina. Afternoon back to Imiter and the Tagdilt tracks. Overnight at Imiter.

Day 6: Early morning on Tagdilt again, and then the gorge outside Imiter known as the Falcon Nest Escarpment. After breakfast birded our way west to the start of the Atlas road, finishing at the P1505 loop late afternoon. Overnight at Tisseldei near Amerzgane so as to get over the pass nice and early the following day.

Day 7: Over the Atlas looking for new birds for the list which took all morning. Midday at Ait Ourir concentrating on the dump, and then a short session south of Marrakesh before our early evening flight.