We enjoyed a fabulous tour full of specialities and some great migration spectacles.
A respectable tally of 128 birds and 10 mammals.
Just some of the highlights included: Golden Nightjar, African Dunn’s Lark, Sudan Golden Sparrow, Cricket Warbler and African Royal Tern. Plus numerous migrating Bluethroats, Subalpine Warblers, Wrynecks, Redstarts as well as a couple of surprises in the form of a Spotted Crake and a Great Bittern! Mammals were exceptional too with great views of Sand Cat, African Wildcat, Fennec and Ruppell’s Fox and Atlantic Hump-backed Dolphin!
A good selection of reptiles were also seen including Sand Viper and Spiny-tailed Lizard.
Many more highlights can be seen at:
http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/western-sahara-birding-specialities.html
Includes a sound recording of the Golden Nightjar.
 |
| Male Sudan Golden Sparrow - one of five birds seen in Oued Jenna |
 |
| Male Sudan Golden Sparrow - Oued Jenna |
 |
| Dunn's Lark - Distributed along S edge of Sahara in SW Western Sahara, Mauritania, N & C Mali, S Niger, NC Chad and C Sudan. Split from "Arabian Lark" (Eremalauda eremodites) found in Middle East: Jordan, N & C Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, S Yemen and SW Oman. Sporadic breeding in S Israel and Syria. Cited from HBW Alive |
 |
| Cricket Warbler by Tour participant Peter Alfrey |
 |
| Tree full of Desert Sparrows - The flocks were quite amazing with over 400 birds seen in one day! |
 |
| Male and Female Desert Sparrow near Derraman |
 |
| Pharaoh Eagle Owl |
 |
| Sand Viper on the Aousserd Road by tour participant Peter Alfrey |
 |
| Birding the Aousserd Road |
 |
| Fennec Fox by tour participant Peter Alfrey - Check out those ears! |
 |
| Caspian and "African" Royal Tern - Dakhla Bay |
 |
| Atlantic Hump-backed Dolphin by tour participant Peter Alfrey - Really exciting to see this critically endangered mammal. This species is endemic to the tropical to subtropical west coast of Africa, from the western Sahara to Angola. It is a shallow water specialist and there have been very few records reported from WS in the last couple of years. |
 |
| Birding Dakhla Bay |
 |
| The erlangeri race of Lanner Falcon is a true stunner |
 |
| Lanner Falcon over Oued Jenna |
 |
| Lanner Falcon |
 |
| "Desert" Grey Shrike, Oued Jenna |
No comments:
Post a Comment