We left Merzouga and started our two-day drive to Agadir on Morocco’s Atlantic Coast. We drove the the Draa Valley, sandwiched between the High Atlas and the Anti-Atlas Mountain Ranges. We would be driving about six hours, with only infrequent brief stops along the way. On the way, Matt spotted a raptor and we pulled off to get a look at a distant Egyptian Vulture. Around 4 pm we arrived at our inn, the Dar Al Fourssane, locate in a rural setting on a small farm. Across the major road was a small lake named Tifratine. We were able to get in about two hours of birding before dinner. We had great looks at a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Little Ringed Plover, Thekla’s Lark, and a Eurasian Kestrel nesting on the side of our inn.
That evening, we had dinner in the courtyard while one of the many Peafowl maintained by the inn strutted by. Matt was not impressed. The next morning I did a little birding around the inn before breakfast and came across this House Bunting greeting the rising sun with its song.
After breakfast we continued our drive toward Agadir, soon leaving the Draa Valley, crossing the Anti-Atlas Mountains into the Souss Valley. We didn’t make many stops on the way, but did encounter a Barbary Ground Squirrel by the side of the road and a Western Orphean Warbler in a grove of Argan trees. We arrived in Agadir around 3:30 pm.
