Marbled duck and black-crowned tchagra in Morocco

This video says about itself:

Footage of Marbled Duck taken in Almeria, Spain, by Speyside Wildlife guide, Mark Denman. There are currently less than 100 pairs in Spain and Mark’s Speyside Wildlife group saw 4 during their trip in January 2010!

16 December 2010.

After yesterday, today we are on our way to Souss-Massa national park, not far south from Agadir.

Spotless starlings near houses.

As we arrive in the coastal dunes area, a group of over twelve black-bellied sandgrouse. Both males and females. Then, stray dogs arrive and make the sandgrouse fly away.

As we approach the national park: great tit sound. Moussier’s redstart.

House buntings near a farm.

A black-headed gull.

In the water: coot and moorhen.

A common bulbul in a treetop.

A blue rockthrush.

Two black-crowned tchagras in a tree.

Cattle egrets follow a tractor on a field on the other side of the water.

Two little grebes are swimming close to a landing where common sandpipers are resting.

In a shrub, a cirl bunting.

A spotless starling and common bulbul in a palm tree.

This is a spotless starling video, recorded in Spain.

A dark clouded yellow butterfly.

A blackbird and a chaffinch near a farm.

At 12:50, we arrive at the official national park entrance.

On a sandbank, a grey heron and a juvenile spoonbill.

A hummingbird hawk-moth near flowers.

Two bar-tailed godwits on a bank.

A greenshank. Greenshank photos: here.

Two oystercatchers between a grey heron and a great cormorant on a sandbank.

Sanderlings running along the high tide line on the beach.

Many antlion made insect traps in the sand along the footpath.

On our way back, we see nine marbled ducks, and a ringed plover, on a sandbank.

A little owl on a rock. Little owl photos: here.

Six greenshanks on the other side of the water.

October 2011: Staff at Natural England‘s Holkham National Nature Reserve have discovered what is thought to be only the second established breeding area in Britain for the mysterious yet savage antlion, an insect whose larvae excavate cone-like pits and lurk in wait for other insect prey. And its numbers on site appear to be increasing: here.

Aberkane, M., Chettibi, F., Bakhouche, B., Draidi, K., Bouslama, Z. & Houhamdi, M. 2013. Breeding ecology of the Marbled Duck Marmaronetta angustirostris at Boussedra march (Annaba, Northeast of Algeria). Annals of Biological Research 4 (10):103-107. PDF.

Etayeb, K. S., Yahia, J., Berbash, A., Wattier, R., & Brochet, A.-L. (2014). First Breeding Evidence of Marbled Duck (Marmaronetta angustirostris) in Libya. Waterbirds 37(1): 107–110. doi:10.1675/063.037.0114: here.