Fiche de renseignements - Go-South

Pharaoh Eagle Owl with three chicks at a different location from the well known site. The big
advantage was that we simply got out of the car and saw the birds. We paid him 150 MD. On
the way back to Rissani we found a pair of Moroccan White Wagtails (race subpersonata)
upstream from the river that is crossed when coming into Rissani. In Rissani we added Bluecheecked
Bee-eater to our list.
The final stop of the day was at Auberge Le Caravane, which is situated about 1 km from the
famous Auberge Yasmina and Morocco’s biggest sand dune system, Erg Chebbi. We
immediately found its owner Ibrahim (phone 00212 666 039175, kadi1974@hotmail.com),
who is said to be one of the most reliable guides for the endangered Houbara Bustard. This
enigmatic species was hunted close to extinction by Saudi falconers in the 1980s but in
recent years birds have been regularly seen in the stony desert north and east of the Erg
Chebbi. We paid 250 MD per person for dinner, bed and breakfast. Our final arrangement
was to pay Ibrahim 1400 MD for a four-wheel drive tour if we saw the bustard and 500 MD if
we failed.
14.04.
On the following morning we went out with Ibrahim’s brother at 05:30 a.m. Ibrahim was busy
and we had had no contact details to reserve him in advance. Ibrahim told us he had seen a
bustard four days ago. Despite carefully searching the stone deserts north of Erg Chebbi
until 09:30 a.m. we were not able to find our target bird. By this time it was clear that we were
out of luck and we returned in poor spirit to the auberge, where a large breakfast cheered us
up. Birds seen on the drive included 5+ Cream-coloured Coursers, 8+ Hoopoe Larks,
which we heard singing everywhere, 2 Desert Larks and 4 Brown-necked Ravens. We
twice heard Black-bellied Sandgrouse calling, but couldn’t locate them.
After breakfast we left the auberge and found at least 20 Brown-necked Ravens feeding in
the rubbish close by. We visited the Spanish ringing station at Auberge Yasmina but
migration was very slow and not many birds were caught. At 12 o’clock we tried the Desert
Warbler site described by Dave Gosney about 8 km west of Auberge Caravan. We started to
search for this bird about 600 m east of the GPS point 31.2415 N, 4.0834 W and were very
surprised to find a pair of African Dunn’s Larks at close range. This species is restricted to
the southern Western Sahara and according to Patrick Bergier this is the first record for
Morocco apart from the Western Sahara. I immediately sent a text message to Patrick
Bergier and on the same day some other birders were able to twitch the lark. Exactly at the
GPS point a singing African Desert Warbler and another bird (probably female) were
located.
African Dunn’s Lark, Merzouga area,
14.04.2010
13
In search of African Desert Warbler,
Merzouga area, 14.04.2010
Our next stop was the famous Auberge Derkaoua, which used to be the place for Egyptian
Nightjar. We searched the wadi north of the auberge for this species and Sahara Olivaceous
Warbler but in vain. Our search was complicated by the onset of a sandstorm, which lasted
until night time. The situation was the same at Auberge Tresor, the most reliable place for