23 Feb 2019: Moulay Bousselham
- vagranttwitcher
- Feb 23, 2019
- 1 min read
“Wherever I lay my hat – that’s my home”. The rented seaside villa in Moulay Bousselham was sheer luxury compared to some of the places my hat hopefully did not pick up any creepy crawlies.
A local bird guide, Hasan Dalil, took us deep into the lagoon of Merja Zerga on his boat. Merja Zerga (30 km²) is a Ramsar site and important staging and wintering place for ducks and waders. I soon ticked a Slender-billed Gull, some Eurasian Oystercatchers, Common Redshank, Common and Little Ringed Plovers, as well as nearly forty Eurasian Curlews. A cloud of thousands of Dunlins performed breath-taking aerobatics as they waited for the tide to go out and the mudflats to appear. On one of the islands Hasan found us a Bluethroat, a scarce winter migrant from northern Europe.
Later, while birding the fringes of a wetland, Mohammed and I were questioned by two very suspicious Moroccan policemen as to what we were doing in the area. There was some discussion about why I was not registered as a foreigner at the police station, but Mohammed was able to talk us out of the situation.
The afternoon was spent on some nearby farmlands searching for the elusive Marsh Owl. In the process I ticked some European Greenfinches and Corn Buntings. We were able to see eight Marsh Owls at Hassan’s secret site, although I fear that they will also disappear in future due to severe habitat pressure by the farmers.
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