We arrived at Marrakech Airport late in the evening of the 4th and the only bird seen were spotless starlings, which had gathered in enormous clouds around a crane and the floodlights at the airport, creating a remarkable spectacle as the sun set.
The next day was spent wandering around the busy souks of the old town of Marrakech, where birdwatching was not a priority. I did however see a new bird from my bedroom at the riad we were staying in, made remarkable by the fact that it had no windows to the outside. It was a house bunting, which appeared to live and nest inside the hotel, feasting on the remains from breakfast.
The only other birds of any note seen during the morning were common bulbuls, a kestrel and my first Moroccan blackbirds. In the evening, however, we were treated to a stunning spectacle as dozens of white storks returned to their nests on the ruined walls of the old palace. Unfortunately our camera had packed up, so I missed the opportunity to take some great photos of the storks on the palace with the Atlas Mountains in the background. It was one of the great birding sites I have witnessed. Near the palace, we saw some other birds of interest, including great views of a kestrel, a fly-past little egret and hundreds of little swifts.
The next morning, we visited the Majorelle Garden in Marrakech. I was hoping to find some better birds here, but the best we could find were several blackcaps and a woodpigeon, not to dissimilar from Dorset! That all changed, however, when a parrot flew into a tall palm tree, disturbing the blackcaps. Knowing that the only naturalised feral parrots in Morocco were ring-necked parakeets, which this certainly wasn't, we knew the bird must have been an escape. We later identified it as a Senegal parrot, presumably a bird brought up by traders from the Western Sahel, which escaped and is now thriving these gardens. It was certainly an unexpected sight!
We then headed up to the foothills of the Atlas for an afternoon's walk. On the way we saw a southern grey shrike and some magpies of the northern African race, which have a small patch of bare blue skin behind their eyes. At Oued Ourika, there were dozens of cattle and little egrets and some grey herons.
Our first birds of the foothills were an African blue tit and Iberian chiffchaff, both new birds for me, and the chiffchaff was not at the normal time of year. The blue tits are now classified as a separate species from the one found in the UK, and show a stronger blue than our ones. As we continued to walk, better birds began to appear, a lanner falcon and a sparrowhawk flew past. Soon, a pair of Bonelli's eagles drifted over, a new species for me, and certainly the bird of the trip. We then saw some African chaffinches, perhaps a future split from the normal European chaffinches. Another new species for me, the European serin, began to appear, mostly birds flying overhead. We then saw some white wagtails and coal tits. Soon, we came across a great group of hawfinches, a real suprise, and one I had only recently seen for the first time in the UK. We then flushed a small flock of barbary partridges, my first of the species, and another first was a cirl bunting which flew over. As we returned, we came across a large group of serins flitting among the trees very close to us, which ended a great walk.
The next day, we drove to the Atlas. At a stop on the way, we found a lesser kestrel. In the garden of the house we were staying in, there were some more African blue tits and chaffinches, as well as coal and great tits. A walk further up into some conifer forests brought some great birds, the best of which were dozens of firecrests and Atlas crossbills, as well as short-toed treecreepers and black redstarts, hundreds of red-billed choughs flying over, which were disturbed by a golden eagle, always a truly stunning bird to see. My only new bird was the rock bunting, several of which we found by a little stream. Later on we saw some flyby grey wagtails.
The next morning, we headed back up to the hills, seeing a Maghreb wheatear along with the same species as yesterday, and later we found a great spotted woodpecker in the village of Imlil.
We then headed back to Marrakech to catch our flight back to Gatwick. I did, however, manage to add two species to my trip tally on the return journey with a water pipit and two black wheatears, which was my final new species of the trip.
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