Our ABS Tour to Morocco was a resounding success and enjoyed by all of the 18 members who accompanied the first overseas tour by ABS. Not only was the tour a success for those accompanying us, but it also contributed €1.659,03 to our conservation fund thus making all the hard work arranging the tour a very worthwhile exercise.
And for something completely different and deviating from my normal meanderings I, along with 18 members of the Andalucia Bird Society, had popped across to our neighbours in Morocco for a 10-day wildlife extravaganza. It was a journey of discovery for many members visiting this wonderful country for the first time. We began in Marrakech and traversed the High Atlas Mountains, ascending the Northern Atlantic side where lush greens framed distant snow-capped peaks and crossing the high pass, we descended the southern slopes where vegetation was influenced by the dry Sahara. Soon, we were in the northern extremity of the Sahara Desert with ribbons of Palm Trees that followed river systems from the snow melts of the high mountains and from there we made our way across open landscapes of stone desert punctuated by steep mastiffs of crowned mountains before passing over another mountain range to descend into the wonderfully picturesque Draa Valley. The ABS tour was a wonderful experience for members and an opportunity to appreciate what a diverse and scenically stunning country Morocco is.
Here are just a few photos of some of the target birds we all saw on the tour.
There were so many birds we marvelled at on our tour with 140 species being seen and enjoyed. Hopefully, the tour will herald another visit sometime in the future.
Article: Peter Jones
Photos: Pieter Verheij and Peter Jones