We finally went to Mauritania, we have been wavering back and forth weather we should go here or not, eventually we decided for. It’s not an especially easy country to visit, logistics are difficult. Through a friend of Markus Craig, who joined us for this trip, Rob Tovey who lives in Mauritania, we got in contact with a Dutch guy called Just, running a hostel called Bab Sahara in the city of Atar. Anyone who ventures to follow us here, and go for the WP price birds in northern Mauritania should get in contact with Just. It’s not possible to rent a car, you have to get hold of a good 4WD such as a Landcruiser, and getting a good driver is invaluable. Just arranged this for us in an excellent way. We met up with our driver, Sidaty, at the airport and spent the first night in Nouakchott at a decent hotel. Early in the morning we headed towards Iwik, a small fishing village in the Banc d’Arguin National Park .
Banc d’Arguin is mostly famous for its impressive amount of wintering waders. From a WP lister point of view it also holds a healthy population of Grey-hooded Gulls.
As well as two species of cormorants, the Reed Cormorant.
More complicated are the White-breasted Cormorants that breed by the thousands in Banc d’Arguin. They are not easily distinguishable from the Marrocanus ssp of Great Cormorant. Possibly more research is required to determine which is what here. There were thousands of Cormorants, all looking like this adult.
The Banc d’Arguin was truly an interesting place to visit, the rich sea meets the barren desert, and the shores were teeming with waders. The large flocks of Spoonbills, White-breasted Cormorants, Great White Pelicans and Royal Terns flying by.
Ruddy Turnstones in particular were abundant.
This is possibly also the easiest place in WP to see the Royal Tern.
Migrating Black terns were a bit unexpected.
There are decent sleeping and eating facilities in the little fishing village of Iwik. We had a nice fish meal for dinner prepared by the villagers and slept in a small house. No need to camp.
The borders of WP are essentially the 21st latitude, with an exception for the islands outside of Banc d’Arguin. Thus, nothing on the mainland is tickable, only birds over the ocean and on the islands. We also, must not be on the mainland. So are the WP rules and we abide by them.
Next target was a small wadi just south of Choum. Pierre-Andree Crouchet recently found Blue-naped Mousebird there, and we just followed his footsteps. Easy.
The area of these Mousebirds was very barren, with vast areas of rock. A wadi with sparse trees and bushes held the birds.
This is the habitat of Lichtenstein’s Sandgrouse, the third time we see this beautiful Sandgrouse this year.
The distances of Mauritania are huge, the country is big. Driving between the sites take time, long time. And every little stop takes time, if there ever was a time to quote the Douglas Hofstadter theorem it is now. It goes: Everything takes more time than you would expect, even if you consider Hofstaders theorem. Next target was an area north of Oudane, close to the famous Eye of Sahara. The Auberge Bab Sahara was ideally situated in between, and it was truly a relief be welcomed there with excellent food and some home brewed cold beer. Thanks Just!!
The drive to Oudane was also a long drive on a dirt road. Once we reached the wadi, which is just north of the 21st latitude we started to search for African Grey Woodpecker that was recently seen there by Pierre-Andree. Birding in the wadi was good in general, lots of good WP birds. Sudan Golden Sparrow was the most common bird with large groups seen all the time. Cricket warbler was also there, not as common though.
Also common was the western variant of Eastern Olivacious warbler, a.k.a Saharan Olivacious warbler, as well as many Isabelline Warblers, Namaqua Doves and Western Orphean Warblers.
A Fennec Fox had it’s den close to our camp, certainly the cutest fox.
Another rare WP bird that was common in the wadi was the African Collared Dove. The call was unmistakable and it’s easy to distinguish from European Collared Dove.
However, it was the woodpecker we were searching for, not the regular WP birds. The bird was not easy to locate, and just before sunset Mårten has the bird on playback, he never sees it, but it responds to tape. We were all searching in larger and larger circles, and gathering the group took some time. Eventually when all 4 of us were gathered at the spot where the woodpecker responded, we could not relocate the bird before the sun set. It was a pretty frustrated group that went back to camp for dinner. We did enjoy the beautiful desert sunset though. No denying.
Woke up before sunrise to pursue the search for the Woodpecker. Went back to the crime scene and playbacked the call. No response. Again, started to search the area in general. This time together though, since the batteries of the Walki-talkies were dead. Finally we connected with the Woodpecker – which this time did not respond to playback at all.
We decided to do some additional birding further up in the wadi, and found one additional African Grey Woodpecker there. This upper area is smaller, and for the benefit of other WP listers trying to find this bird, the upper area is probably the best bet.
With the Woodpecker secured we had lunch and decided to go back. Waiting for our driver, Sitatty to fix some broken tires in the village of Oudane, just outside the WP border we hung out in the shade, enjoying the Black Scrub-robins.
