18^th March

Glossy ibis

The plan for the day was to chill out, rather apt as it was a cold and overcast day at the hotel. We read books and did other things until about midday when we decided to go out to the bird sanctuary area south of Agadir – Souss-Massa. We realised that it was late in the day and our chances of seeing much was limited, but if you don’t try... As we entered the park area we were stopped by “guides”. We had read elsewhere that you didn’t need a guide which was true, but after discussion with Mustafa he said that was so but if you wanted to get around the whole part you needed a guide. I tested him on English names for birds and he produced a booklet with them in which satisfied me that he knew something. We agreed a price as we only had about 2 hours to see anything given our late start. 

Little owl

Over the next few hours we saw “Flying Martinis” (Mustafa meant Martins flying – we think??), Little Owl, Glossy Ibis, Cormorant, Grey Heron plus other small raptors, the thing we wanted to see was the Bald Ibis, we went all over the place including long periods on the dunes looking for them. We saw some in flight on a couple of occasions, but didn’t get closer than that – very frustrating!! As time was getting on we wanted to head back as the light was fading.