birding sites in
Morocco: the deserts
more Morocco sites other destinations the book the DVD e-store
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Without travelling too far south from Ouarzazate you can reach Agdz (pronounced Ag-dez) and visit a nearby oasis where sandgrouse sometimes come to drink and the Tizi-n-tinifift where the martins are said to be Rock Martins
All the sites in this section are treated, in detail and with precise maps and directions, in my book ‘Finding Birds in Morocco: the deserts’
If you have any information which you feel would help to update the book, please email me at dave@easybirder.co.uk and I’ll add your observations to these pages
To view more sites in Morocco’s deserts click here
Agdz
In 2009 there was too much water around for this site (site 4 in my book) to be attractive enough to sandgrouse but in other years it has been excellent.
The view from the car park at Tizi-n-tinififft. Even if you’re not convinced about the Rock Martins you can still enjoy the view...
...or species such as Desert Lark, Trumpeter Finch and Black Wheatear by the roadside
Updates
March 2011 (D Gosney et al)
The reason you might be unconvinced by the ‘Rock Martins’ at site 5 is that some of the martins here are definitely Crag Martins. But that’s a good thing because it gives you a chance to pick out the Rock Martins with more confidence (greyer above, lacking the obvious dark underwing coverts). We only had a few martins here in late march but they were about 50:50 Crag:Rock.
En route to Agdz on the road from Rissani we also had a Tristram’s Warbler (at ‘Rissani 126’) and a flock of 25 Brown-necked Ravens at the town dump just east of Tazarine.
