Saturday 30th April must rank as the best day of bird watching I have yet had in Libya. The journey was to Wadi Ghan reservoir which is in the foothills of the Jebel Nafusa directly north of Gharyan. After turning off the main Tripoli to Gharyan road to the right, we headed up towards to wadi ghan. However way before we got there the 15 kilometres of road to the reservoir held a few real surprises. We found an occupied white stork nest and there was a least one nestling.
Why?
A medium size colony of storks is known at Al Marj in the north east of the country. One of two other nests have been reported in the desert towns between Kufra and Benghazi. There have also been reports of occasional nesting attempts in Tripolitania. But to actually see one was breathtaking. It is on the known flight path from Gharyan to east of Tripoli past the airport to Garabolli (where I saw one the week before) and then on to Italy. Well this couple of white storks clearly decided they didn't need to leave Libya. Their nest is close to Wadi Ghan's copious supply of fresh water. April has also been much cooler and wetter than usual so prehaps also contributed to their decision. The nest is clearly new for this year.
Another view of the white stork's nest
Also in this area were groups of trees. Many trees contained a passage migrant or two. The most common bird was spotted flycatcher. The other common migrants were wood warbler and icterine warbler. This was the first time I had seen the latter bird in Libya. Near-by on the ground and on low vantage points where still plenty of whinchat.
spotted flycatcher - road to Wadi Ghan reservoir - April 30th
I had seen no corn bunting until this day. There are documented to winter in Tripolitania but I had not seen any all winter. And yet at this late stage I saw one singing strongly from a high wire. Prehaps they breed here? They certainly do in Cyrenaica near Benghazi. Another bird which I was surprised to see this late on was house martin. Two or three of these were seen flying around here.
Other birds in the area (but in different habitats) were the all the year round species- hoopoe, desert grey shrike, laughing dove, kestrel, spanish sparrow, crested lark, thekla lark, spectacled warbler, fulvous babbler and of course black wheatear. The latter bird is a marker for the Jebel Nafusa and its foothills. You don't see it on the plains. As soon as you reach 200 metres, up it pops.
This area also had summer breeders also. These were bee-eater and more black eared wheatear. Nesting behaviour of a small number of male and female black eared wheatear was obvious.
local black eared wheatear - road to Wadi Ghan reservoir
When we reached Wadi Ghan reservoir the excitement didn't finish. We walked round the left of the reservoir away from the picnicking families. We soon found small green midi wadis (it had rained recently). In the scrub we saw quite a few streaked scrub warbler. These birds are bold. They came within two metres of me.
I am fairly confident the sub species here is inquieta NOT saharae as is reported in the guide books and on the net. In my experience, saharae is found west of Tripoli (near Farwa for example) but south and east of Tripoli we get inquieta.
Another common bird in the area is the desert lark. This bird too was bolder than I had expected.
trumpeter finch- wadi ghan reservoir- April 30th
I was loathed to leave the reservoir behind but on the way back we saw a little owl ( a very common bird in Tripoltania), kestrel and a long legged buzzard all north of Azizia on the way back to Tripoli.
little owl - north of Azizia - April 30th
This had been a very special day. The next day I took a short walk in Janzour where I live. My only surprise here was to see two northern wheatear still in the country. Otherwise it was a very ordinary day compared with the day before!
Very good.
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