Well this was it. THE DAY. Our date with destiny and search for one of the Holy Grail birds of the WP…. Small Buttonquail. Getting here at first light gave us our best shot at nailing it….. To cut a long and very tedious story very short, after a combined total of 12 + hours spent over 2 days, we had a 6 second flight view of a bird that had been calling repeatedly in a hay field as it shot out and flew away.
Now that really undermines our magnificent effort, stamina and sheer tenaciousness for sticking it out. We had checked field after field without hearing any buttonquails, although it was rather amazing to hear so many Common Quails calling. They were practically in every field! So we decided to try the wheat field where we had the calling buttonquail yesterday and staked it out. Hassan had employed the local farmer who owned the field and we stood in a track in the middle of the field, frustratingly having the buttonquail calling from various spots in the field, sometimes seemingly quite close. We waited and waited and some of us had given up. It was 11am, hot, we were all tired and rather bored to be honest. I had literally just said that maybe we should give it up and leave but I’m nothing if not stubborn and Hassan also wanted to give it one last try. So I beckoned everyone to get together for one last attempt and with the farmer’s permission we walked back up the field and suddenly the bird was calling right in front of us. All of a sudden it shot up out of the field and veered left and into dense cover, allowing everyone a decent flight view, revealing its pale flight feathers and small size. YES! We had done it and seen one of the Western Palearctics most wanted, rarest, hardest to see species! I cannot describe the elation and I think a few of the guys were a little stunned that we’d only gone and done it!
After a lovely cup of coffee we headed off to our next hotel in Rabat, about 3 hours away.
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