Natural Selection

Yesterday majored on a Sudan Golden Sparrow site to the north of Tamanrasset. As previously explained my camera was dead, but even though there were lots of birds about it was difficult to get prolonged views. I’ve borrowed one of Nick Bray’s shots to illustrate the blog.

These birds are clearly doing very well in the area. We had about 60 in total at this site, but have gone on to see them at other sites subsequently. There were birds nesting at the main site, where we also heard our first Turtle Doves of the trip. These are so scarce locally now I had basically forgotten what they sounded like.

We then went to a wadi in the hope of sandgrouse and the like. There were none but there were a nice selection of birds inlcuding Desert Larks, Trumpeter Finches, more Sudan Golden Sparrows, Blue Rock Thrush and the like. A family of Rock Hyrax were also a highlight. More were seen today which is when the picture below was taken.

Today began with a circuit near the hotel again. The Senegalese Parrots were more visible than on other days.

As were the Pale Crag Martins, particularly when a couple of them took to resting up on the internal walls of the hotel perimeter.

Outside the hotel itself the birds were generally similar to yesterday, but there was a Black Redstart which is the only one of the trip so far.

The main business of the day was another wadi with running water. In all honesty it was holding far less variety than the site yesterday. It was all feeling very low key until one of the party reported they had seen five Liechtenstein’s Sandgrouse. We all went to the spot they were last seen and eventually all had good views.

The best image I have of a male is at the top of the page. I also like the one below of a female as you can see the position of the eyes on the head giving a wide field of view of potential predators.

The fine lines of birding. If we’d not seen the sandgrouse it might have felt a bit anti-climactic after yesterday, but we did so we continue to have a short break full of wonderful bird and wildlife sightings even if the police escort everywhere takes a bit of getting used to.