We had made it over the mountains, today was the big drive east to Errachidia. We started off around Ouarzazate, visiting a couple of water bodies to try and boost the trip list. The first was a small lake called the Barrage Tarmigte to the south of Ouarzazate, this lies directly underneath a new housing estate - zoned but so far not many buildings. There was plenty to keep us interested as it warmed up - Common Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper and Little Ringed Plover were found around the edges, and our first Ruddy Shelducks were out in the middle. A White Stork flew over, a group of Pied Wagtail included one of the Moroccan sub-species and there were a few Chiffchaff and Stonechat.
East of the city we viewed the Barrage Mansour Eddahbi from the northern side. This is a vast body of water that you really need a scope to view properly. Without one we were reduced to scanning the near edges. This netted some Little Egret, several Grey Heron and some Mallard. Further out on the water we were able to identify Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe and Cormorant. Around some unused buildings by the viewpoint we found a Thekla's Lark with Crested Lark, and a pair of White-crowned Wheatear and a Black Redstart perched on the roof. A Slender-billed Gull flew by, I think the only one we saw all trip.
The landscape was epic. We had left towns and villages behind, the lake stretched as far as we could see, and in the far distance were the snow-capped peaks of the Atlas. Bizarre then that at a random roundabout in the middle of nowhere we should find a man selling fresh coffee from a small van. He looked a bit like Jean Reno in Leon and made simply amazing coffee, the best I have had almost anywhere. Perhaps it was the setting?
In Boumalne Dades we had a walk around the Oued Dades, that is to say the irrigated and cultivated valley floor at the bottom of the gorge, surrounded by the town on both sides. Here we found a Hoopoe, two Great Spotted Woodpecker, a flock of Serin, lots of Blackcap and Common Bulbul and our first Laughing Doves.
 |
| Boumalne Dades from Tagdilt |
Mid-afternoon we arrived at Tagdilt, a series of rough tracks heading diagonally southeast from the main road towards the Anti-Atlas across the low plain. This if famously mentioned in by Gosney as one one the premier birding site in Morocco. It is also famously covered in plastic bags due to the open tip just to the east of Boumalne Dades. I have memories of one of the most vile smells I have ever encountered from here on the previous trip, a pile of chicken carcasses that reeked to high heaven but that proved very attractive to a Red-rumped Wheatear due to the mass of flies. We spent the remainder of the day here slowly working the vast area and looking for photographic opportunities. Red-rumped Wheatears continued to enjoy the dump, and we also came across Northern Wheatear, Desert Wheatear and White-crowned Wheatear. Birds were generally few and far between, but gradually we put together a good list. Lanner Falcon was spectacular even if we were too slow with the cameras, and we also couldn't get close to the Greater Hoopoe-Lark that we found close to dusk.
 |
| Red-rumped Wheatear |
For me this was the first real opportunity to get to grips with my new camera, and what better to point it at than Wheatears? Whilst most of the birds at Tagdilt that afternoon proved impossible, one of the Red-rumped Wheatears seemed at least partially tolerant of us and so this is where I spent my time. The lens I am using, a Sony 200-600mm f5.6-6.3, is somewhat of a consumer lens versus the Canon primes I used to have. Similarly the Sony A6600 is in no way comparable to the (at one stage) flagship EOS 1DX. Indeed it is not a sports/wildlife camera at all, I had bought it a couple of years ago along with a standard range zoom lens for city breaks and am just repurposing it whilst I get the hang of the new system. AS a result there are compromises all over the place that I am having to get used to, whereas the Canon had none - it had one job to do and just got it done. Then again how many times have you heard it said that a good photographer can make a good image with any camera? I don't think that's quite true with bird photography, there are certain things you need, but I was hopeful that this budget Sony kit had it where it counted. It's an APS-C sensor with a 1.5x crop, so in fact this tiny camera and medium lens in fact is equivalent to 300-900mm. I can scarcely believe it, it is so light and easy to handle yet it has this enormous magnification. It is perfectly easy to hand hold but I decided that with 900mm of focal length that it made sense to use the monopod, my hefty Gitzo 5561T. This is incredibly solid yet packs down really small, and even though the camera is a lot smaller and a lot lighter there is not a lot of weight saving to be had by trading down so I am keeping hold of it. My Canon 500mm f4 and 1DX weighed around 5kg with the semi-permanent 1.4x converter, thus giving me a 700mm f5.6 with no optical drawbacks. The Sony weighs in at 2.8kg and gives me an extra 200mm at the long end at the cost of one-third of a stop at f6.3. Amazing! But would it be capable of the kind of images that I am after? Presumably a zoom lens cannot ever match a prime, and let's not forget that it is a sixth of the price! It was now or never, I'd had several abortive outings as I struggled with making it work like the Canon, but I felt I was beginning to understand it. I have to say the autofocus is exceptional, perhaps better even than my old gear, and this is just a basic model. I have eyes on something rather better but I don't yet deserve it.
 |
| Red-rumped Wheatear |
As the sun set we packed up and continued east. We had not wanted to drive in the dark however the road seemed to be a lot better than we remembered it and we felt it would be OK if we took it nice and slow. We arrived into Errachidia by about 10pm having stopped for a meal in Goulmina. Long day!
No comments:
Post a Comment