Majorca 2017 was just as good as 2016, but with better birds
and more of them. We had a car for a few days and were able to get a bit
further afield to Lluc Monastery, Cuber Reservoir, Cap Formentor, Albuferata,
and Son Real as well as the local stuff round Puerto Pollensa. We also had
longer at Albufera but still didn’t get round the long walk. There is so much
to see there you could spend most of the day in one or two hides.The migration was in full swing and the weather was kind for birding. Most of the good bird pictures were taken by my good friend and birding pal David (Dusty) Miller who has a better camera and more patience than me. Thanks for the memories!!
Several evening visits and a dawn chorus to the Boquer Valley
produced spotted and pied flycatchers,
woodchat shrike, blue rock thrush, wheatear, serin, crag martin, whinchat,
black redstart and cirl bunting.
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| Looking towards Puerto Pollensa from the Finca terrace |
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| La Finca, the terrace is in front. |
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| Woodchat shrike by David Miller |
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| Blue rock thrush by David Miller |
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| Cirl bunting by David Miller |
Can Curassa gave good views of
spotted redshank, common sandpiper and yellow wagtail plus our
first singing
nightingale.We took the bus there, birded for an hour, lunched at the restaurant and walked back along the beach road. The inland lanes might have offered a better alternative but not the Audouin's gulls.
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| Can Curassa |
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| Audouin's gull by David Miller |
Next day we took a bus to Cala de San Vincenc and walked out to the
headland and back. Stunning views plus osprey,
shag, and redstart.
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| Cove Blanc looking east |
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| Cala de San Vincenc bay |
The same evening we went to the front for coffee and an ice cream and walked
up through a small local park to get back to the hotel. As you can see from the
photographs it is only about 200m long and 50 m wide and is an urban
environment with dog runs, playground, exercise equipment etc., but it was
dripping with warblers. I have never ever seen as many.
Having read about
“falls” of birds on the east coast of England where there are so many birds you
don’t know where to look I finally experienced something similar for myself.
The birds were mainly
willow warbler and chiffchaff but there were also
garden warblers, whitethroats, spotted and
pied flycatchers, wood warblers and redstarts. I literally had no idea
where to look next and every time I focused on something another bird moved and
caught my eye. An English birder who was also there said it had been like that
for three days. Later in the week it still produced birds but less numbers and
less variety.If you are fortunate enough to be there in April or May and are staying at that end of the resort it is worth checking. It runs towards the coast from the Boquer Valley roundabout.
Next day we picked up the car and headed for the mountains. We had been warned about the MAMILs but were totally unprepared for the sheer numbers of them. We reckoned there were 7 - 800 crawling up and about 3 - 400 zooming down. Some even passed us on the way down. The visit to Lluc took us into the mountains and we were
rewarded with booted eagle, black
vulture, more nightingales and
two firecrests at close range in the botanical garden
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| Lluc monastery |
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| Botanical garden |
By the time we arrived at Cuber it was 3.00pm so our walk
was short on small birds apart from even more nightingales. We did however see more small eagles, red kite and raven. Unfortunately vultures eluded us.
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| Cuber reservoir |
The next day was spent at Albufera which delivered in
spades. The egret roost on the way in had
cattle
egret, little egret, squacco heron and night heron. The full list is in the
2017 firsts but the highlights were
osprey,
all three plovers, stone curlew, little stint, green sandpiper, cetti’s
warbler, reed warbler, great reed warbler, and collared pratincole.
A late
lesser
kestrel over the hotel was the icing on the cake.
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| Cattle egret by David Miller. Taken on the way in |
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| Red-crested pochard on the Gran Canal behind the hides |
The following photos were all taken by David Miller from the Es Cibollar hides. I had to be brutal in selection as David had quite a few images.
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| Black-winged stilt |
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| Common sandpiper & Kentish plover |
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| Curlew sandpipers and Kentish plovers |
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| Green sandpiper |
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| Little stint with ringed plovers |
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| Spotted redshank |
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| Three good ticks, avocet, stilt and spotshank. |
We then moved to the Es Colombars hide where we had not been in 2016, Again all the photos are David's.
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| View from the hide looking north to the power station |
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| Gadwall |
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| Little egret |
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| Pochard |
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| Marbled teal |
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| Little ringed plover eyeing a passing chopper |
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| Stone curlew |
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| Stone curlew |
We then legged it back to the Sa Roca hides with a few stops en route and were fortunate to connect with the bird of the day and a squacco heron.
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| Collared pratincole |
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| Squacco heron |
All this and we still haven't done the long walk round the perimeter or found the Son Bosc deck. Nothing else for it we will have to do a return visit. PS on the way out we came across this as well.
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| Osprey |
Cap Formentor gave us
pallid
swift, but we were a little early for Eleanora’s falcon. However the views
are stunning the sky was blue and the sea was azure. The views are mine by the way, I can get views but not birds.
On our last day we visited Son Real – a sort of folk museum
with added birds. We had brilliant views
of hoopoe, whinchat, serin and sardinian
warbler, plus a couple of tortoises at the water hole. On the way home we
detoured to try and find the way to Son Bosc and Depuradora. We missed the
viewing platform but a couple of English birders put us on to bee-eater, turtle dove and thekla’s lark
in the 5 minutes we were there.Again all the photos are David's
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| Hoopoe behind the ofices on the way to the dolmen |
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| Linnet at the "Big sink" |
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| Sardinian warbler (F). Apologies to those who heard me call it a lesser whitethroat!! |
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| Serin near the offices |
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| Spotted flycatcher at the "big sink" |
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| His name is Speedy |
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| Distant whinchat |
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| Pied flycatcher |
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| Oi flycatcher, are you havin' a barf? |
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| Thekla lark |
The total for the trip was 87 species of which 49 were 2017
firsts. No lifers this year but hey, you can’t have everything!!
2017
133: Swift
134: Red kite
135: Yellow-legged gull
136: Audouin's gull
137: Crag martin
138: Sardinian warbler
139: Spotted flycatcher
140: Pied flycatcher
141: Woodchat shrike
142: Blue rock thrush
143: Spotted redshank
145: Yellow wagtail
146: Nightingale
147: Wheatear
148: Hoopoe
149: Serin
150: Osprey
151: Redstart
152: Whinchat
153: Garden warbler
154: Whitethroat
155: Wood warbler
156: Black vulture
157: Firecrest
158: Marbled teal
159: Red-crested pochard
160: Night heron
161: Cattle egret
162: Squacco heron
163: Kentish plover
164: Red-knobbed coot
165: Purple swamphen
166: Black-winged stilt
167: Stone curlew
168: Collared pratincole
169: Little ringed plover
170: Little stint
171: Green sandpiper
172: Reed warbler
173: Great reed warbler
174: Lesser kestrel
175: Pallid swift
176:Marsh harrier
177: Curlew sandpiper
178: Bee-eater
179: Thekla lark
180: Turtle dove
181: Cirl bunting
182: Booted eagle
