After a fabulous three-week trip to Morocco with A. & M. Tiefenbach, which produced sightings of most of the target species and some western palearctic rarities such as Cape (Kelp) Gull Larus dominicanus vetula, I spent five relaxing, frisbee-playing days back home in Graz. Now I’m in the West Nile Valley/Egypt for the upcoming four weeks, monitoring bird migration in the western desert.
The warm welcome on my first visit to the land of pyramids & pharaohs included the confiscation of my whole optical and photography equipment on arrival at the airport of Cairo. Birders, be warned! Officials of the customs authority highhandedly decided that the usual binoculars, scopes, cameras and lenses (all!) were night vision equipment and could therefor, in times of revolution, not be brought to the country. All efforts, also by the management floor of the New & Renewable Energy Authority (thanks at this point!), who commissioned the project I’m working for, failed and the equipment will most likely stay with the dear customs authority for my whole time in Egypt (I hope at least this goes well and the box will still be there when I go home). So, sadly no new bird photos. My heart is bleeding when I see Pied Kingfishers hovering above river Nile on eye-level in sweet morning light..
At least I can use the time and start uploading pictures from Morocco. You can find the highlight observations of the Morocco trip on go-south.org (entry from 22 February 2012) as long as I’m working on the trip report.
