Natural Selection

On our final day of birding our numbers were further reduced as one of the group was unwell and stayed in their hotel room. The rest of us had a look at the hotel grounds whilst waiting for our police escort. We had good views of White-rumped Seedeaters as well as the Red-billed Firefinches.

A brief Subalpine Warbler looked like the more expected Western Subalpine Warbler than the candidate Eastern we’d had on the road the day before. It’s a big crop but you can see the extensive red underparts still.

The police were rather more prompt than the day before and we headed south. We eventually reached a very promising looking wadi. There were several Moorhens running across the track in front of us. We also quickly had our first Red-throated Pipits of the trip, and there were about a dozen in total.

The place felt rare but other than a trio of warblers (Western Orphean, female Subalpine group and Blackcap) it didn’t deliver quite as much as the initial promise suggested. There were possibly three figure totals of Chiffchaffs though, they were everywhere.

On the way to the second site of the day we saw some more Liechtenstein’s Sandgrouse close to the road as we passed. Reversing back and staying in the 4x4s we were able to get some superb views.

The second site we visited was a striking valley with amazing rock formations. The picture at the top of this blog is from there, and others follow below. We had yet more sandgrouse here literally as we parked up, as well as last views of other species including Fulvous Chatterer and the ubiquitous White-Crowned Wheatear.

Our flight back to the north wasn’t until two in the morning. We were very indebted to Kareem our local leader therefore who booked hotel rooms in Algiers so we could get a few hours rest from 5am until we had to leave for the airport at 11. At the back end of this time I walked round the neighbouring park for some last birding which included Serins, Common Bulbuls and Cattle Egrets.

I’ve never been anywhere quite like Algeria, and I don’t think I ever will again. It was a fascinating and immensely enjoyable experience. Birders will always go primarily for the endemic Algerian Nuthatch, but it has so much more to offer.