Birding Trip Report for Tunisia - 19th-26th
December 2004.
Ken Tucker,
ken.tucker@btinternet.com
The
holiday was booked fairly last minute with Thomas Cook for £219 per person half
board at the Hotel Jinene,
Driving
Although
we had been advised that driving here was difficult, it was much less stressful
than expected and even driving at night (often strongly advised against) was
not too problematic. Other road users were quite amazing (especially overtaking
skills, use of lights/horn, distance from bumper), but we drove defensively and
had no problems. I felt happier driving here than I did in
People
Very
friendly, helpful and welcoming everywhere. Can hassle you to buy things, but
in a very relaxed way and left well alone after a couple No thank you’s in
French. On one occasion boys hassling me did interfere
with my birding (see 23.12.04) but on no occasion did I feel unsafe or
threatened. Helps a lot if you speak a little French (or
better still, Arabic).
Birding
I
used the range of trip reports easily available on the net. The sites I visited
are generally well know and referred to in these other reports so have not
given detailed directions unless something has changed.
Birding
was easy, although I did miss a couple of species
which I thought were almost definite (marbled duck and red-rumped wheatear).
Views were generally good to excellent but I often spent a little less time
with each species than I would have liked as there was often somewhere else to
move on to. I was on holiday with a non-birding partner and there were other
things we both wanted to see. Distances are relatively large and I think we
could have done with an extra couple of days in the desert areas of the south
(perhaps staying at Matmata for two nights and exploring the area around
there). This might have made for a more relaxing holiday with more ambling and
less dashing. I am not, however, disappointed with the experience. It was one
of the best holidays I’ve ever had… even without considering the birds which
were superb in themselves.
Other
practicalities
The
weather was far from warm, despite forecasts of 19oC before we left
Take
a toilet roll wherever you go! Toilets were generally the sit down, rather than
squat variety but were generally disgusting and often without paper or a flush
that worked.
Food
was generally good and very cheap. We avoided the salads and drank only bottled
water and managed to avoid any serious stomach upsets.
Itinery
19.12.04 Flew Gatwick to Monastir arriving after
dark.
20.12.04
Drove south to El Jem and then on to Matmata.
21.12.04
Matmata to Zaafrane then into the
22.12.04 Journey back to Zaafrane by camel before
driving on to Nefta.
23.12.04 Nefta to
24.12.04
Time spent at Sebkhet Halk el Menzel and hotel.
25.12.04
Drove to Cap Bon and back
26.12.04
Shopping in
20.12.04
Around
the Hotel
I
got up early and took a walk to the sea and back. Birds seen in and around the
hotel included;
Collared dove
Laughing dove
Sparrows (no pure house sparrows and only one or two which
might pass as Spanish… most were somewhere in between)
Sardinian warbler
Serin
Southern grey shrike
Spotless starling
Many
gulls passing north included a few slender-billed
as well as one sandwich tern.
El
Jem
We
left the hotel around 11am and drove off to El Jem. This took a little over two
hours as we needed to get water and food and find our way out of
Black redstart
Serin
Laughing dove
Fan-tailed
warbler - one behind the
museum.
Thyna
(south of Sfax) and on to Matmata
Because
of our rather late start, there was no time to stop but a lot of waders and several flamingoes as we drove by.
Arrived in Matmatta after dark and stayed at the Hotel Sidi Driss. This is one
of the locations where Star Wars was
filmed (the first one which is now episode 4) and much of the set is still in
place. It is an underground troglodyte hotel, was relatively clean (not for the
fastidious) and cheap. Dinner (3 course), bed and
breakfast (bread and coffee) was 17TD each (about £8.50). It was a real
experience staying here and highly recommended.
21.12.04
Mamata
I
woke to a strange nasal-sparrow type call and went out into the central
courtyard to discover a couple of house
buntings as well as ‘Italian’ and Spanish sparrows. At breakfast we
decided to join a party consisting of two Australians and four Canadians who
had paid a guide to take them to Douz for a camel ride, doing some sight-seeing
on the way. The others wanted just a couple of hours on a camel but we were
particularly interested in spending the night in the desert and we negotiated a
price of 50TD each (£25), leaving in the afternoon and back by the following
lunch time. As it turned out, our guide just took us to the ‘camel point’ in
Zaafrane and handed us over to the guides there which is what we had intended
to do anyway… so you might be able to get a similar experience more cheaply by
doing this.
A
stroll around Matmata before we left produced excellent views of some key
species just around the buildings. The Galerida
were not especially difficult to separate here, but after Matmata, I tended not
to bother trying too hard;
Moussier’s Redstart 1 male.
Thekla
lark - common around the edges
of town.
Crested lark - one in the ‘town square’.
House bunting - common
Black wheatear - common
As
we left Matmata in the car, I spotted an over-flying raven which was almost certainly brown-necked, but we were
unable to stop.
Drive
from Matmata to Tamezret
Black wheatear - several
Tamezret
This
Berber village was very interesting and I would recommend a visit to the Berber
museum here. The custodian gave us a very interesting talk. Birds around the
village included;
Black wheatear - several
Moussier’s redstart - 1 male, 1 female
House bunting - common
Mourning wheatear - several pristine males
Douz
We
stopped here for something to eat. House
bunting was common about the town.
Zaafrane
We
drove on to Zaafrane through the huge date palm oasis. Laughing dove was common here. We stopped at the Syndicat d’Initiative
‘camel point’ just beyond the town. The noise of so many camels was an
experience in itself! Here we waited for our camels to be arranged.
Birds
here;
Laughing dove
Crested lark
S-g shrike
Sparrows
Desert wheatear
We
should have left by 3pm but did not actually get underway until almost 4pm.
This was really too late (as our camel guide agreed) but didn’t really detract
from the experience - we just had to do some of the travelling in the dark. It
was just the two of us and our Bedouin guide and we trekked for 2.5-3 hours
into the desert to a small oasis with tents where I would imagine a lot of
people would stay at high season (about 12km south of Zaafrane). As it was, it
was just the three of us. We arrived in the dark, collected firewood, were
cooked for beneath the bright full moon (a simple vegetable stew) and our guide
made a flat bread in the hot sand and ashes. Very ‘touristy’, I’m sure… but
another
Birding
from the back of a moving camel isn’t really possible, using binoculars.
However, I did manage good views of;
Fulvous babbler - a (noisy) party of 6 or 8 around some little
vegetable patches just south of Zaafrane. I was able to watch these while our
guide dug up some food for dinner!
Tristram’s warbler - 1 male scolded us from bushes as we trekked by.
Many other probables were seen (but could also have been spectacled or desert
or…?).
Desert wheatear - common, mostly female types.
22.12.04
Oasis
in the Sahara, south of Zaafrane
An
early morning walk as the sun rose over the apparently endless dunes revealed;
Moussier’s redstart - 3 males, 1 female
Fulvous babbler - 2
S-g
shrike - 2. The birds around this area were variable, perhaps
a little paler than those in the north, definitely some with more white in the
wing, but essentially pretty similar to ‘algeriensis’ and probably
intermediates between that form and ‘elegans’.
Spanish sparrow - several most like this species.
Tristram’s warbler - 1
Sardinian warbler - 2 (and other ‘Sylvias’ which
were not identified due to skulking. 1 appeared to be spectacled and a couple
of others were probably further Tristram’s)
Camel
ride back to Zaafrane
This
was very peaceful and very special. It also almost
yielded a most unexpected species. Birds seen included;
Stonechat - common
Fulvous babbler - a few birds heard only
Hoopoe lark - 3. One seen extremely well
trotting and flying around the camels. This bird was only 2 or three
hundred yards south of the Syndicat.
The
almost was Houbara bustard. I believe this species is very rare indeed
in
Syndicat
d’Initiative, Zaafrane
Kentish plover - 3 running around the camels!
Marshes
just north of Zaafrane
We
stopped here in the car to gather ourselves together and flex our legs as we
could barely walk after our camel rides! There was little open water visible.
Marsh harrier - 1
Fan-tailed warbler - 1
Pools
north of Blidette (also sp. Blidet)
We
decided not to try to find the marshes (and potential marbled duck) in the
immediate area of Douz and instead went north as we wanted to get to Nefta
before it got dark and there was quite a lot of suitable habitat along the way.
We stopped wherever possible to look across the various marshes we passed but
never did find marbled duck. The only water which held any birds of note was
the large lake north of Blidette;
Little stint - several
Wood sandpiper - 1
Kentish plover - common
Grey heron - 6
Shelduck - 9
Black-winged stilt - 12
Ruff - 2
Chott
el Jerid
We
continued
Ruddy shelduck - 1 pair
Black-winged stilt - 4
On
the chott itself were;
Little stints - a handful
Kentish plover - a handful
Green sandpiper - 1
Nefta
A
walk around the town and oasis in the hour or so leading up to dark;
House buntings - common
Laughing dove - common
Chiffchaffs - common
Some very pale, sandy-coloured bats.
We
stayed overnight in the Hotel Habib. The cheapest hotel in town… and you could
tell! The proprietor was so incredibly friendly and helpful and there was a
shower in the room, which we welcomed. However, there was no bar (contrary to
as mentioned in The Rough Guide) and
it was rather noisy at night. The flushes on 2 of the 3 toilets did not work, but
it hadn’t stopped people using them (don’t think about this for too long). Our
stay here was yet another memorable experience and more interesting than
horrifying… but one night was enough.
23.12.04
Nefta
to Metaloui
North
of Tozeur;
White-crowned black wheatear - 2 or 3 seen from the car
Mourning wheatear - a few seen from the car
Gorges
de Seldja
While
my partner took the tourist train through the Gorges de Seldja (The toilets at
the station in Metaloui were immaculate! This may not seem important to you
now, but at the time…), I was dropped off to explore the desert here for
larks and other specialities.
Coming
from Tozeur, the road to the gorge is on the left immediately before entering
Metaloui. A short way down this track, and before the gorge, it forks with the
right-hand fork sign posted to Seldja. I was dropped at this fork and almost
immediately connected with desert lark
off toward the right within a fenced area.
After
about ten minutes two boys (about 14 years old) appeared and hassled
me for some time; wanting to show me the mountain and gorge and wanting to know
what I was doing. I explained I was looking for birds and at first they thought
I wanted to eat them (understandably, really). They followed me around trying
to get gifts/cigarettes/money from me and generally frightening away the birds.
Unfortunately, I had left almost everything in the car and had nothing with
which to pay them off. After about 30 minutes they could see they weren’t going
to get anything and wandered off towards the gorge. I managed about another
30-40 minutes of birding before they returned with four friends and did not
leave me for the next 2 hours during which time I saw almost no birds. If I
were to return here I would;
·Certainly take sweets, money, pens or pencils (or
other gifts) and give them to get the boys to leave me alone (perhaps only
giving them once they had sat away on the side of the road for an hour or so!).
The problem with this is that they would come to expect these things from birders
and the problem could become worse.
·Alternatively, as the boys had demonstrated that
they used little spring-traps to catch songbirds, they might well know the best
areas for particular species and could be paid for showing them to you
(especially if you can show them in a field guide). In this way they might find
you species like thick-billed lark which occurs here but which I failed to see.
This could certainly prove beneficial to both parties (and perhaps even the
birds if they were given some monetary rather than culinary value!).
·A third option would be to find the area around the
gorge so that you can identify the habitat, and then drive a few miles back in
the direction of Tozeur where there was plenty of similar habitat away from
human habitation (especially if you can find another watercourse as this
probably is what attracts some of the species to this area).
I would like to stress
that at no time were the boys threatening and I did not feel unsafe. We even
had a bit of a laugh at times… but after almost 3 hours of it (and seeing my
available time slipping away) it became very frustrating. If anybody visits
this site and tries any of the above, I would be very interested to hear their
success.
When
the boys were not present, birds were seen;
Desert Lark - about 30 in total on the flat desert, the hilly
bits to the right of the gorge between the road and train track and on the
out-wash from the gorge itself.
Crested lark - several
Mourning
wheatear - about 7. Mostly males. Scattered but mostly close to entrance to gorge and small hills and
gullies to the right.
White-crowned black wheatear - about 8 but only 2 with white crowns. Others
were definitely this species and not black wheatear (which I did not see here).
Scattered but mostly close to entrance to gorge and small
hills and gullies to the right.
Lesser short-toed lark - 3 associating loosely with desert larks.
Trumpeter finch - 1 very drab bird on the
out-wash.
Crag Martin - several patrolling the hillside/gorge.
Moussier’s redstart - 1 male, 1 female
Kestrel - about 4 which all appeared to be common kestrel.
Blue rock thrush - 1
Metaloui
to
I
ran out of time at Seldja and we began the long drive back to
Fulvous babbler - 2 seen fling between
bushes just north of Gafsa
Brown-necked raven - 2 flying and perched beside the road just north
of Gafsa. I expected to see more of this species and almost didn’t connect with
them. If this is a species you would particularly like to see it might be wise
to try the dump in Douz (which I didn’t but it is somewhere north of the zoo, I
believe) and not just rely on bumping into them.
Hoopoe - 2 near Kairouan
23.12.04
Hotel
Jinene,
Common crane - 109
coming in off the sea and heading inland at about 9.30 am.
Other
common species were seen as on the first morning.
Decided to take it easy today after all the driving
of previous days. We visited
the salt lake just north of El Kantaoui and south of Hergla (Sebkhet Halk el
Menzel). Stopped at three points around the edge:
1.
Where the road north from El Kantaoui meets the lake;
Black-necked grebes
Great crested grebes
Flamingos
Mediterranean gull
Slender-billed gull
Whiskered tern
Avocet
Kentish plover
Dunlin
Little stint
Ruff
Spotted redshank
Fan-tailed warbler
Marsh harrier - 1
Northern raven - 1
S-g shrike
Little egret
Grey heron
2.
Inland from this point along the south side of the lake to the raised area
sign-posted ‘Sky Fun’. Much of the same here plus;
Skylark
Crested lark
Spoonbill
3.
Continue along this road to a town called Sidi Bou Ali. Here follow the A road
(not the motorway) north and shortly after the town, before a bridge over a
stream it is possible to park on industrial land between this bridge and the
motorway bridge. On the stream between the two bridges I saw;
Great white egret - 4
Marsh sandpiper - 5
Greenshank
Redshank
Spotted redshank
Common sandpiper
Little egret
Other
reports recommend walking down beside this stream to the edge of the salt lake.
I did this (over an hour’s walk) and saw little new and although there were
good close views of some species, they were only as good as at point 1. Species
added here;
Wood sandpiper
Curlew
Golden plover
Slender-billed gull - not new, but large numbers seen well
On
the other side of the ‘A’ bridge, things looked more promising (reed-fringed
pools) and I saw some good birds although not the marbled duck I was hoping
for;
Marsh harrier - 1
Duck sp. - 3 flew out of the reed and quickly disappeared.
They were not marbled duck but I was not quick enough to see what they were.
Avocet - 1
Black-winged stilt - 20
Snipe - c60
Fan-tailed warbler
Coot
Moorhen
Kingfisher
Drive
back round the north of the salt lake to Hergla
On
this drive there were quite a few distant flocks of cranes and some flying
overhead;
Common crane - c300
Hotel
Jinene - beach and around
The
hour or so leading up to dusk produced;
Caspian tern - 1 north
Black redstart
Little
owl - 1 on the old buildings between
Hotel Jinene and Dreams Beach Hotel. This was not a sandy-coloured bird but did seem a little paler than
birds back home - larger white spots and edges, perhaps?
24.12.04
Enfidha
- The little swift stake-out (also called Enfidaville)
The
church-museum was easy to find but as most other winter visitors have
discovered, the birds were not. We did not see them and I wonder whether they
leave the country during winter (contrary to the literature) or at least head
up into the hills.
Immediately
north of Enfida on the A1
Over
fields just north of the town I stopped the car to watch a large raptor;
Long-legged buzzard - 1
House
martin - 12. A surprise find as I was scoping the buzzard.
Having just left Enfidha immediate thoughts were of little swift, but alas, no.
A1
north of Enfida between posts for
Another
stop for a large raptor wasn’t a raptor at all;
Night
heron - 2 adults roosting in
small grove of Eucalyptus trees.
Pools
on Cap Bon peninsula between Nabeul and Menzel Termime
We
had decided to visit Cap Bon on Christmas day. The drive was a very long one as
the road along the south of the peninsula is extremely slow from the A1 through Hammamet to the other side of
Nabeul. Unless you particularly wish to see these pools, it was much quicker
coming back along the north coast to the A1 through Soliman and Grombalia. I
would recommend this route for going to and from the Cap. We seemed to spend
most of the day driving and little actually seeing or doing things. Next time I
would spend a night in a hotel in the area.
The
pools - these looked good, but we only stopped to look at a few;
Flamingos
Black-winged stilts
Shelduck
Green sandpiper
Kentish plover
Little stint
Caves
and surrounds at Cap Bon (El Haouaria)
Chaffinch - 1 male 1 female ‘African’ type.
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Little Owl
Robin
Moussier’s redstart - pair
Stonechat
Black redstart
Blue rock thrush - 1
Northern
peninsula road from El Haouaria to Aissa
Black-shouldered kite - 5 seen easily and well from the car.
Viewpoint
above Korbous
We
drove from a village called Brij along the road to Korbous looking for habitat
which might have been suitable for Tchagra and bulbul. Just before the road
drops down to the sea and Korbous there are pull-ins near a small, square,
white tower on the right. We stopped here and took a walk through the scrub for
about 40 minutes. I would be surprised if our target birds were not here… but
we did not see them;
Sardinian warbler - a few
Blackcap - c10
Song thrush - c30
26.12.04
Our
final day - mostly shopping around Sousse and Monastir
Common swift - 1 over the medina in
Caspian tern - 1 flew south past the Monastir peninsular as we
wrote postcards along with Med gull and sandwich terns.
Audouin’s Gull - 1 as for Caspian tern
Summary
A superb holiday in a truly wonderful country. The scenery was stunning, there were so many
quirky and memorable experiences and the people in particular were so friendly
and helpful. I would recommend a trip to anyone who is just that little bit
more adventurous than your average package holiday punter. However, compared to
the adventures of many birders, it’s a walk in the park. I saw 95 species in
total (see below), 14 of which were new, but don’t just go for the birds!
|
|
English
Name |
Scientific
Name |
No
of days on which it was observed (max=7) |
|
1 |
Great Crested Grebe |
Podiceps
cristatus |
1 |
|
2 |
Black-necked Grebe |
Podiceps
nigricollis |
1 |
|
3 |
Northern Gannet |
Morus
bassanus |
1 |
|
4 |
Great Cormorant |
Phalacrocorax
carbo |
4 |
|
5 |
Black-crowned Night Heron |
Nycticorax
nycticorax |
1 |
|
6 |
Little Egret |
Egretta
garzetta |
2 |
|
7 |
Great White Heron |
Ardea
alba |
1 |
|
8 |
Grey Heron |
Ardea
cinerea |
3 |
|
9 |
Eurasian Spoonbill |
Platalea
leucorodia |
1 |
|
10 |
Greater Flamingo |
Phoenicopterus
ruber |
3 |
|
11 |
Ruddy Shelduck |
Tadorna
ferruginea |
1 |
|
12 |
Black-shouldered Kite |
Elanus
caeruleus |
1 |
|
13 |
Marsh Harrier |
Circus
aeruginosus |
2 |
|
14 |
Long-legged Buzzard |
Buteo
rufinus |
1 |
|
15 |
Common Kestrel |
Falco
tinnunculus |
3 |
|
16 |
Moorhen |
Gallinula
chloropus |
1 |
|
17 |
Coot |
Fulica
atra |
1 |
|
18 |
Common Crane |
Grus
grus |
1 |
|
19 |
Black-winged Stilt |
Himantopus
himantopus |
3 |
|
20 |
Avocet |
Recurvirostra
avosetta |
1 |
|
21 |
Ringed Plover |
Charadrius
hiaticula |
2 |
|
22 |
Kentish Plover |
Charadrius
alexandrinus |
4 |
|
23 |
European Golden Plover |
Pluvialis
apricaria |
1 |
|
24 |
Northern Lapwing |
Vanellus
vanellus |
1 |
|
25 |
Little Stint |
Calidris
minuta |
4 |
|
26 |
Dunlin |
Calidris
alpina |
1 |
|
27 |
Ruff |
Philomachus
pugnax |
2 |
|
28 |
Common Snipe |
Gallinago
gallinago |
1 |
|
29 |
Black-tailed Godwit |
Limosa
limosa |
1 |
|
30 |
Eurasian Curlew |
Numenius
arquata |
1 |
|
31 |
Spotted Redshank |
Tringa
erythropus |
1 |
|
32 |
Common Redshank |
Tringa
totanus |
1 |
|
33 |
Marsh Sandpiper |
Tringa
stagnatilis |
1 |
|
34 |
Greenshank |
Tringa
nebularia |
1 |
|
35 |
Green Sandpiper |
Tringa
ochropus |
2 |
|
36 |
Wood Sandpiper |
Tringa
glareola |
1 |
|
37 |
Common Sandpiper |
Tringa
hypoleucos |
1 |
|
38 |
Mediterranean Gull |
Larus
melanocephalus |
4 |
|
39 |
Black-headed Gull |
Larus
ridibundus |
4 |
|
40 |
Slender-billed Gull |
Larus
genei |
2 |
|
41 |
Audouin's Gull |
Larus
audouinii |
1 |
|
42 |
Lesser Black-backed Gull |
Larus
fuscus |
2 |
|
43 |
Western Yellow-legged Gull |
Larus
michahellis |
4 |
|
44 |
Caspian Tern |
Sterna
caspia |
2 |
|
45 |
|
Sterna
sandvicensis |
3 |
|
46 |
Whiskered Tern |
Chlidonias
hybridus |