27 Feb 2019: Teenager Ambush

South Africans develop a special radar for a mugging, and my radar was pinging incessantly in the Park Forêt Diplomatique outside Tangier. Early in the morning I was the only person on the beach, except for three teenage boys walking nearby. Clearly a tourist, with a pair of bins around my neck and a nice camera in my hands, I must have given the impression of being a lucrative target. Having found two Great Cormorants and a Common Kestrel on the coastline, I turned inland to bird the natural cork and oak forest of the park.

Common Kestrel, Tangier, Morocco

The teenagers used classical ambush tactics, two of them came up from behind, and one suddenly appeared some yards in front of me to cut me off. Their only miscalculation was that between them and the path I was following was a low wooden fence they had to cross. So I ran – fast – back past the rear teenagers to my car. Realising that their ambush had failed the teenagers disappeared into the forest. The strange thing about this attempted mugging was that no one uttered a single word, it all happened in total silence.

Black Redstart, Tangier, Morocco

Later, in another part of the forest, I managed to tick a Eurasian Blackcap. Just another day in Africa…