Some 40 Alpine Chough were keeping to skies near to Tizi NTichka while on the deck below them were over 150 Chough feeding in the fields
I started my return drive towards Marakech but not before I looked at the small pool nearby at Tarmigte. On the water there were 3 Pochard, 3 Pintail, 6 Mallard and 3 Coot. A lot for a pretty small pool.
From Quarzazate on the N9, I started the 100s of S bends in the High Atlas Mountains. I thought of stopping to look for Rock Sparrow but was distracted by large numbers of Chough feeding in the nearby fields. I got out the car and head Alpine Chough above and saw at least 40 birds spiraling. I got good flight views but they never came down on the deck to join the same 150+Chough that I saw on my ways to Quarzazate over a week ago. Ten minutes up road and it looked an ideal area for Rock Sparrow. Jumped out the car and there in the field were Spanish and House Sparrows and over 20 Rock Sparrow! Pretty good! They were suddenly scattered by a male Sparrowhawk and they all flew into a tall tree. And that's where they stayed for the next twenty minutes. With the Chaffinch, they did a lot of flycatching and keeping cool from the sun behind branches of the tree. Serin were also in good numbers as well as Black Redstart and Chiffchaff.
Alpine Chough came down low but never touched down like the Chough feeding at the road side
Male African Chaffinch
The Rock Sparrows stayed high in the tree and I had to move on
Male Sparrowhawk
Great song but he looks nothing like his dad!
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