Common Chameleon

Common Chameleon, Chamaeleo chamaeleon, (and to a far lesser degree the African Chameleon, Chamaeleo africanus) is found in many Mediterranean countries. This one was picked up (literally) in Morocco where they are associated with the devil and a great deal of folklore. 

Osprey

"2010-kabini-osprey" by Yathin S Krishnappa - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

Osprey may seem like an odd choice from here on the Moroccan coast, but we saw one atop its lookout by the side of the lagoon this afternoon from the boat. Its Latin binomial is Pandion haliaetus. I chose it because it is possible that this bird spent its summer in the UK, migrating as it does to breed in northern Europe.
Ospreys are unusual in that they can reverse their outer toes, like owls, to allow it to grasp prey with two talons in front and two behind. They are also unusual in being a single species found across the globe, although subspecies are recognised in most taxonomies.

Barn Swallow

"Rauchschwalbe Hirundo rustica" by Andreas Trepte - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Commons

I chose the Barn Swallow, Hirundo rustica, today because there were large numbers over the house here in Morocco. Their chattering calls reminded me of spring back home, as did the weather: 20 degrees centigrade and blue skies.

White Stork

"Ciconia ciconia - 01" by Carlos Delgado. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

This is a common bird too: White Stork, Ciconia ciconia. It has a predilection for building its enormous nest atop minarets and mobile phone masks. The nests are so huge that other birds nest within the superstructure; a nice example of commensalism. The species is migratory, flying to southern Africa for the winter. They can form impressive flocks crossing narrow points during the passage, forced as they are to travel over land as much as possible due to their reliance on thermals.

Common Bulbul

http://peterbeesley.blogspot.com/2012/02/common-burlbul-morocco.html

I am struggling to find a non-copyright photo of a Common Bulbul, Picnonotus barbatus, but there are some lovely images on this blog.
I too am in Morocco and this bird is a common visitor to the garden where we're staying. Its calls and song are loud and easily recognisable. The following recording was made in Oualidia where we are the guests of my old chum James (see Firecrest) at his remarkable villa overlooking the lagoon.

Cream-Coloured Courser

"Cream-coloured Courser" by Shah Jahan - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0

Although I didn't manage to decent picture of the adult birds and have used one from the interweb, the one of the babies was taken on the way back from the Chiggaga dunes in eastern Morocco. Ahmed, our driver, stopped and picked them up for a minute to show us. 
They are Cream-coloured Coursers, Cursorius cursor. I'd never seen one before but my brain must have absorbed their image and name from the bird books I've looked at over the years because the name 'courser' came immediately to mind. 
There are other coloured coursers, of course, but they are not named by their colour, if you see what I mean. (e.g. Temminck's courser.)

Dromedary camel

"Camel, NSW, 07.07.2007" by Jjron - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3. 

Most people know that this is a camel, and that there is another camel with two humps. This is the dromedary camel, Camelus dromedarius, which is native to the Middle East and the horn of Africa. It has been widely domesticated in dry regions. The other is the two-humped one, C. bactrianus, which is found in Central Asia.
They both belong to the genus Camelus. The family they belong to is Camelidae and this contains four other species all from South America: llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuña. The family is part of the same order as the one sheep belong to: Artiodactyla or even-toed ungulates. 

I'm posting this as we've all just come back from Morocco where we drove from Marrakech out over the High Atlas to Skoura, Zagoura and a night camping (or should I say 'glamping') in the Dunes of Chiggaga.

Unfortunately internet connection was virtually non-existent so I had pre-prepared some posts which I managed to publish from Zagora as a 'batch'. 

More unfortunately I got food poisoning yesterday and still feel very poorly! So this will be all for today and I'll catch up with two tomorrow.