MOROCCO

OUR inaugural tour to MOROCCO provided us with some outstanding birding and wonderful experiences in this exotic, vibrant and richly diverse country. The full tour report will appear soon, but amongst the many highlights, despite it being a bit early for migrants, were some very showy Desert Sparrows, singing Black-crowned Tchagra, 200+ Bald Ibises flying in over a sparkling Atlantic Ocean, several flocks totalling over fifty Cream – coloured Coursers as we drove through the Sahara Desert in full bloom, two Houbara Bustards, nest building Brown-necked Ravens, twelve Crowned and 35 Black-bellied Sandgrouse, hundreds of Trumpeter Finches, Red-rumped, Mourning, Desert, Black and White-crowned Black Wheatears, Desert, Bar-tailed, Thick-billed, Hoopoe, Temminck’s Horned, Shore, Short-toed and Lesser Short-toed Larks, displaying Levaillant’s Woodpeckers, an amazing count of fifty Crimson-winged Finches, Bonelli’s Eagle, Marbled Ducks, Wrynecks, Golden Eagle, Barbary Falcon and Barbary Partridges, but whilst hugely impressive, the birds alone don’t do the tour justice, as how can one begin to describe the glorious weather, the colours and smells and in particular the sight of the desert stars to those who have not had the good fortune to have witnessed them? We will be returning in February 2008 with dates to be announced in the near future – I cannot recommend this tour highly enough, so if it does appeal, please book very early as it is sure to be extremely popular again.