Tunisian travels

About fifteen years ago I took an interest in birding. There was an elderly lady in Swarthmore, Helen McWilliams, who asked me on several occasions to come birding with her.  She showed me wood ducks nesting in the Crum Creek and short-eared owls perched in a spruce tree in Newtown Square.  Since then I have gone on several Eco-tours where birding is one of the focuses.  It is a great hobby to mix in with botanizing.  I find that on some of these trips it is so bird-centric that I find myself taking a rest and doing a little botanizing instead.

At the end of March earlier this year I wanted to try an exclusively birding holiday.  Several of my other trips to places like Madagascar, Belize, Peru, Brazil, etc. were a nice mix of birding, botanizing and looking at other natural wonders, but I wanted to see if an all birding adventure was too tedious.  In October-November of 2007 I had traveled with Naturetrek, a British Eco-tour company, to Madagascar.  From their website I could see that they did a lot of birding trips.

I based my choice on not so much the destination but the price and when I had a stretch of time to get away.  My final choice was Tunisia. As far as my list of places I would like to go this was not even in the top 20 let alone on any list whatsoever. 

This tiny northern Africa country is nestled between the massive countries of Algeria and Libya.  To the north it has a very Mediterranean climate and in the very south you find yourself in the great sand dunes of the Sahara.  While it is considerably small compared to the neighboring nations it is very rich from both a botanical and birding point-of-view.  Many species of birds which winter in more southern parts of Africa fly through Tunisia on their way to Europe and more northern destinations during their spring/summer migration.  There are 358 species of birds and 2,200 plant species, many of which are rare or endangered.

In the north the lay of the land is not that different to many of the landscapes of Italy.  There are rolling hills and valleys.  There are many vineyards and groves of almonds, olives, date palms and capers.  During the first part of our trip we explored the shores of Lake Ichkeul.  The lake itself was covered with Flamingo.  Surrounding the lake were craggy hillsides where we saw the North African Little Owl perched, as well as, one of three Mabrebian endemics (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia), the Moussier’s Redstart.  The plants were very interesting too, including, Cerinthe major, Silybum marianum, Glaucium flavum and the towering and architectural, Ferula communis (see image).

Equally spectacular to the northern part of Tunisia is the southern tip, the Saharan Desert.  As we headed south soon the asphalt road simply disappeared and we were driving across majestic soft pink dunes that extended seemingly forever.  We drove for a few hours and eventually entered the Jebil National Park.  Here the bird life was very specific to this climate, such as, Desert Sparrow, Desert Warbler, Temminck’s Horned Lark and the Cream-coloured Courser.  For me, this was the most exciting part of the trip.  The light, the plants and pure geography of the desert was magical.  At night we stayed in a tented Bedouin-style camp.  Upon arrival at the camp there was an incredible blue hue cast across the dunes for as far as the eye could see.  Upon closer examination I could tell it was a member of the Boraginaceae. I now think it is Echium plantagineum (see image) or something similar.

While it is not always possible to give an equally critical eye to both botanizing and birding, it does make for an interesting past time.  For me a when I am making by bird list (and birders are all about making lists) I like to include notes on the habitat, as well as, a list of plant species.

I look forward to future trips to countries ‘off the beaten path’ where I can make both lists of birds and plants. - Andrew