Saturday 25 August 2018

Western woodland, Aleg

On my return to Mauritania, Mohamed Vall and I went south to Brakna province to see what effect the beginning of the Sahel rains had had on the bird life.

While Nouakchott typically gets 100 mm of rain a year. Brakna gets 200-300mm. Most rain falls in mid July to early October. Several species push up with the rains either to breed or just to disperse.

We used the Medina Hotel, Aleg as our base.  We arrived in Aleg in time to do some late afternoon birding on Friday 10th August. We did not bird the lake but this time chose the western woodland.

  • There were patches of water in the river bed running through the woodland but it was not yet full
  • Rainy season birds were: white-throated bee-eater, blue-cheeked bee-eater, yellow-billed kite and wattled lapwing.  Abyssinian roller was more numerous too but some of this species linger all year.
  • No additions to my Mauritanian list were made but we enjoyed our first "southern" birding for three months.
  • Barn owl was a nice find
On the morning of August 11th, we left at dawn to head further south towards Bogue.


barn owl


greater blue-eared starling

African collared dove

woodchat shrike

spur-winged lapwing

African wattled lapwing

Abyssinian roller

chestnut-backed sparrow-lark

red-billed firefinch



Aleg, west side woodland, Brakna, MR
10-Aug-2018 17:15 - 18:45
African Collared Dove  
Laughing Dove  
Namaqua Dove 
Spur-winged Lapwing  
Wattled Lapwing  
Common Sandpiper  
Purple Heron  
Black Kite (Yellow-billed)  
Barn Owl  
Eurasian Hoopoe  
White-throated Bee-eater  
Blue-cheeked Bee-eater  
Abyssinian Roller  
Woodchat Shrike  
Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Lark  
Western Olivaceous Warbler  
Spotted Flycatcher  
Red-billed Firefinch  

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