The Boquer Valley is a breeding area for birds and also a short cut for migrants, so anything can and does turn up there. We did a dawn chorus, a full walk from end to end and three evening walks in the lower part.The lower farmed part of the valley has a wide range of smaller birds while the more deserted upper reaches are good for raptors. All in all a pleasant way to spend an hour in the late evening.
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| Climbing up |
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| Looking back to Porta Pollensa |
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| Evening stroll |
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| Northern end at the Med |
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| Side of the valley - scan the ridges!! |
We arranged for half a day at S'Albufera not realising how big it is. It would take a full day to do it justice and as there is a lot of walking hiring a couple of bikes would get you round quicker. We intended to get to San Bosc as well but had no chance once we realised how vast the place is. If you look at a map we only scratched the surface around the information centre. A massive thunderstorm forced us to sit in a hide for the best part of an hour so we lost a bit more time there as we had to close the shutters to keep the rain and hail out. Despite this we had an impressive list of 42 species. The highlights were two life ticks in marbled duck and red-knobbed coot, good views of purple swamphen and stone curlew which I have seen briefly before, and a long list of year ticks or birds I had not seen for a while: little bittern, cattle egret, purple heron, glossy ibis, marsh harrier, avocet, black-winged stilt, kentish plover, common sandpiper, hoopoe, nightingale singing, cetti's warbler, reed warbler, and raven.
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| A lot wetter than it looks |
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| Black-winged stilt |
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| This one missed us |
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| Purple swamphens |
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| Little egret |
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| Lonely purple swamphen |
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| Audouin's gull |
136 Audouin's gull (L) 152 Purple swamphen
137 Yellow-legged gull 153 Avocet
138 Hoopoe 154 Black-winged stilt
139 Sardinian warbler 155 Stone curlew
140 Spotted flycatcher 156 Kentish plover
141 Pied flycatcher 157 Nightingale
142 Serin 158 Cetti's warbler
143 Cirl bunting 159 Reed warbler
144 Woodchat shrike 160 Red kite
145 Corn bunting 161 Booted eagle
146 Marbled duck (L) 162 Eleanora's falcon (L)
147 Little bittern 163 Balearic warbler (L)
148 Cattle egret 164 Crag martin
149 Purple heron 165 Blue rock thrush
150 Glossy ibis
151 Red-knobbed coot (L)
The total for the week was 64 species which we can do in a
day around Strangford, but given the family constraints we did pretty well, and
it will be a long time before I manage 5 life ticks and 25 year ticks in Europe
in a week!
Obviously no changes to the patch lists but the visit to Majorca put patch listing on the back burner for a week. Hopefully I will be out in the next day or two to add the odd tick - WOW tomorrow, then a visit to Bolton and then back to the NDCP..
