I saw this Corvus ruficollis and its partner on my recent trip into the Sahara desert. According to the IUCN website, the population is increasing. However, according to the same website numbers of mature individuals is unknown. Science needs to be based on facts, not wishful thinking. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22706064/118783085#population Many thanks to the excellent birders on birdforum.net for their help with the ID.
The world’s presumably smallest waterfall Temekerest is fairly close to Tamanrasset – and it’s not quite as underwhelming as it sounds. Actually, it’s really exciting. Imagine you’ve been driving through parched landscapes for roughly two hours, seeing very little but bare rocks and the odd acacia tree, trees which are usually decorated with plastic bags.
Every now and then you can also see the plant, apple of Sodom, whose sap can make you blind but whose leaves apparently can be cooked and eaten. We didn’t try either of these though.
Then you turn into a wadi which is sandy and sprouts more trees. Not a drop of water is anywhere in sight. Just more plastic. And possibly some travellers.
You get out of your car and walk towards the hills. Make sure to have covered every bit of skin from the sun. Then notice how the smell has suddenly changed. Listen to the tinkle. Appreciate how the vegetation is completely different.
Be also on the lookout for wildlife. Wheatears and dragonflies come very close and you might see a vulture or a raven flying by. You’re unlikely to see gazelles or cheetahs though because they were used for target practice.
Once your adventure has exhausted you, your fabulous guide will have prepared a picnic. Finally, on your way back keep on the lookout for hyrax and other wildlife. You’ll notice the plastic anyway.
I’m not quite sure that this is indeed Poecile palustris and not a Willow tit – let me know in the comments if I got it wrong. The species is facing many dangers: habitat loss and fragmentation, agricultural intensification and increased pressure from predators to name but a few.
In the middle of December, husband and I visited the town and area of Tamanrasset, which is about 1600km south of Algiers right in the middle of the Sahara desert. From Tam to the south, Mali or Niger, it is about 500km and the next bigger Algerian settlements are Djanet, at a distance of roughly 700km east and In Salah, the same distance north.
Tam is on a volcanic plateau at an altitude of circa 1300m, which makes it mild in winter during the days and bearable during the summer months. The nights can get freezing. The views are amazing and much more varied then I had expected. The volcanic area is called Hoggar and it is a National Park.
If you’re Algerian, visiting this amazing place is expensive but not complicated. As foreign nationals, there were some bureaucratic hoops for us to jump through. This is unfortunately rooted in recent history. About a decade ago, several tourists were kidnapped in the area. The government eventually stopped the kidnaps and introduced a policy of escorting foreigners. I’d love to show you a photo of our dozen or so guards but it’s not allowed to photograph anything relating to police, gendarmerie or military so you’ve got to take my word for it. The escort was organized by our travel agency and our fabulous guide, Mouloud, did the daily communication – meeting in the morning, confirming places to go, making sure we got back to the hotel in the evening.
To be able to do so, we had to provide all our paperwork a fortnight or so in advance – in our case residency permits, work permits, passports, flight details and hotel reservation. If you’re planning to visit anywhere in the wilaya (district) of Tamanrasset, you have to do this. Your travel agency should tell you what paperwork needs to be done and you need to be good at doing things in advance and possibly chasing up. Algerians are lovely people; the red tape, however, is atrocious.
The basic rule is you go on a day trip and you’re escorted back for the night. We even had the guide taking us out for dinner and souvenir shopping. It was a wee bit like North Korea but having said that – I think it’s great that one’s being protected. The only place where one can go for an overnight stay is Assekrem (more about that in a future post) because there’s an outpost for the gendarmerie.
If you want to do anything special like birdwatching, be aware of a few things regarding optics. Don’t bring binoculars into the country. If you can afford it, buy a pair in Algiers or Oran – I don’t think you could get them easily anywhere else. I’ve been assured by a local judge that possessing binoculars isn’t an offence but I’m not a legal authority so exercise caution. Regarding lenses for the camera, my longest is 300mm and so far no one has complained. However, when it comes to anything bigger you might or might not get into trouble with the authorities and I’d go to great lengths to avoid that. The rules with the escort might also influence early morning hours – you need to be either a really skilled negotiator to get sunrise observation or accept that this is something you do in Djanet, Ghardaja or Bechar.
When it comes to food and drink of course you need to be aware that you’re still in a predominantly Muslim area although there’s a very different feel compared to the north of Algeria. There’s no alcohol available in restaurants. For vegetarians, Algeria can be slightly problematic: Aw, there’s just this little bit of minced meat on the egg, so it’s not really meat, surely not a problem? Thankfully, Mouloud the great guide was also really good at keeping us fed!
Another typical experience is Sahara tea which is green tea boiled and mixed with sugar. Health and safety warning: a lot of sugar. My estimate is 100ml of tea contain two or three heaped table spoons full of sugar. The tea is prepared on acacia wood which smells divine. If you’re feeling tired after a long day’s work or a few minutes’ stroll in the heat (the tourist experience), this is the best thing to revive your spirits.
I saw this Acridotheres tristis perched on a temple in Thailand. These relatives of starlings are labelled as invasive species and even a pest in many parts of the world. I wonder if those Homo sapiens realize their own destructive effect.
This Gallinula chloropus was taking a bath in the London WWT centre, which is definitely worth a visit. Although regionally extinct in Equatorial Guinea, the species is not under major threats in other areas. I’d love to write such words more often!
I encountered this Gyps himalayensis on the internet while classifying images taken by motion-activated camera-traps for the Camera CATalogue (part of Panthera) in the Zooniverse, a citizen science platform. That means, I didn’t take the photo and the rights are with the researchers who work on the project.
But I was so impressed by the bird and the picture I just had to learn a bit more. These vultures are among the biggest birds in the Himalayas and they are threatened by dead livestock which had been treated with diclofenac (an anti-inflammatory drug) when still alive. On top of that, they are being poisoned by pesticides, fungicides and herbicides and their habitat is shrinking.
Here’s to hoping that one day I’ll see a real one and take my own photo.
Spocki's World 