Africa has once again positively surprised me. Morocco much different from my previous trips to Africa, Tanzania or Botswana. Those who would go on safari in Morocco would quickly realise that this is not Africa. The animals so associated with Africa are no longer here. Instead, it is possible to travel along comfortable tarmac roads and enjoy camel rides or snowboarding on snow or sand, if you prefer. On snow, this is made possible by the high Atlas Mountains where, even in March, there was enough snow to keep the slopes crowded. On sand, in the Sahara, riding conditions are year-round. My account, observations of photographing in Morocco relate to a week's stay in the country and driving from Marrakech, through the Atlas mountains to the desert area near the Algerian border. In total, we drove just under 1,500 kilometres and, for a birding trip, we spent a lot of time in the car. Morocco is a beautiful, picturesque country and a lot of landscape photos were taken during the trip. It is a pity that in places this beautiful landscape is becoming increasingly obscured by plastic rubbish. We also managed to see Marrakech on the way back. It makes a very positive impression, a clean, well-kept city with lots of greenery, which in this latitude, requires a lot of work. The old town of Marrakech impressed me enough with its otherworldliness that I decided to set up a separate gallery 'Marrakech Medina'. Unfortunately, in this beautiful friendly city, serving delicious 'tajines' and all sorts of sweets, this positive perception of Marrakech is overshadowed by the enormity of the animals held in captivity in the old town as a tourist attraction. Apart from the Black Kite, which persistently tries to free itself, through monkeys, and finally rattlesnakes and cobras. The snakes, after the tourist has paid, are teased to show their aggressive pose. The snake's owner then takes a photograph with the customer's mobile phone, but prefers to remain at a safe distance, as if it turned out that the snake does not have its venom teeth pulled out after all. The uproar and noise accompanying this spreads across the square, attracting even more attention from other passers-by.
Encounters with birds were not at all easy to come by in Morocco. Here, of course, the guide came to the rescue. After driving several hundred kilometres, we arrived at a place where it was easier to meet birds. In the Atlas Mountains, several species commonly found there could be photographed without hindrance, provided that other tourists did not inadvertently frighten the birds away. It was worse in the desert. There, we had to walk quite a lot in search of birds, of which there were not many. Sometimes it was possible to find a single individual, less often two or three birds that were feeding on the ground and by approaching slowly, it was possible to reduce the distance and then take photographs. In such a mountainous and desert country it is difficult to have a rich species list. A total of around 50 bird species were encountered. The most difficult encounter was with raptors. I was most surprised to see a Booted Eagle over the old market in Marrakech. It was the only sighting of this majestic bird during my entire week in Morocco.
I decided to add a guide text to the Desert Sparrow, as I often stopped at the Desert Sparrow, among others, when browsing through the Collins bird guide. It was in my photographic plans, like many more species in the book, and quite unexpectedly I managed to photograph it in Morocco. Although it was not easy. If it hadn't been for a hint from the guide, this encounter probably wouldn't have happened, as I had only seen it once in the desert. We arrived in the early hours of the morning at a place where birds appear by the tents of people camping in the desert (gallery 'Sahara-photo 60s'). They appeared for a while, a few photos were taken and then they flew away. My legs gave out. All this after sitting in the car for two days to reach the Sahara? Consternation about what to do, as we were still supposed to be looking for sandgrouses in the morning. Fortunately, after 20 minutes the birds flew back. There were eventually three or four individuals including one female. Within a few minutes there were enough pictures to create a gallery initiating this new species of sparrow on my website.
Traditionally, in the information of each gallery there is a list of new galleries and those in which there were changes after the return from Morocco. The list is also a collection of links to these galleries. If there is a T in brackets behind the name of a particular species, there is a text attached to the gallery, and if there is a V, the gallery has an audio recording. For a quick overview of all bird galleries created and altered after photography in Morocco, simply search in your browser in the tab on the right for "keywords" and find "Morocco-birds" there.
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