A week in Majorca

If you want your life and year lists quickly boosted I recommend a week in Majorca in late April or early May. Not only do you get stunning birds but the temperatures are seriously warmer than they are in Ireland. We stayed for a week in Porte Pollensa within easy reach of the Bocquer Valley which we visited five times. We were a ten minute stroll from La Gola in the centre of the town and a 50 minute bus ride from S'Albufera which must be one of the most stunning reserves on the planet. We were also a ten minute bus ride from L'Albuferata and Can Curasso but due to family matters we failed to get there.

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.

Climbing up

Looking back to Porta Pollensa

Evening stroll

Northern end at the Med

Side of the valley - scan the ridges!!

Over the 5 visits we had an impressive list consisting of red kite, booted eagle, eleanora's falcon (life), yellow-legged gull, woodpigeon, hoopoe, crag martin, stonechat, blackbird, blue rock thrush, sardinian warbler, spotted flycatcher, pied flycatcher, willow warbler, balearic warbler (life),  goldcrest, great tit, woodchat shrike,  raven, house sparrow, serin, greenfinch, goldfinch, cirl bunting, corn bunting and linnet. 

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. 

A lot wetter than it looks

Black-winged stilt

This one missed us

Purple swamphens

Little egret

Lonely purple swamphen

A fifth life tick was provided by Audouin's gulls which were seen every day on the beach at Porta Pollensa. that spent time crusing along looking for scraps left by tourists and were even seen fighting over an apple!

Audouin's gull

2016 list   
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..

Should have waited

Should have waited until I had been to WOW today to update the blog as there is a whole new post as a result of 4 hours this morning. There was a good selection of birds as it was a high tide and the weather was good.  I managed 36 species and others added another 6 that I missed. Highlights included over 100 common terns, 6 arctic terns, 4 sandwich terns, 15 barwits, 12 knot, 12 dunlin, 2 redshank, 260+ blackwit, 2 common sandpiper, 1 whimbrel,  mediterranean gull, 6 swift, 1 ruff with white head feathers and a melanistic black headed gull. Several of the birds were over at the observation room and gave good views.There was one shoveler, two wigeon and no teal. The 40+ total was the result of lingering winter waders, passage waders, newly arrived migrants and resident breeders. There were at least another 2 or 3 residents not observed by anyone eg blackbird, dunnock and blue tit. I think 50 in a day is possible at this time of year.

Common sandpiper

and again

Melanistic black-headed gull

Dunlin

Colour ringed godwit

The godwit was ringed in February 2015 on the River Axe in Devon and was seen at WOW in April and May 2015. It was seen here in late April and again today. It is possible that this bird has been to Iceland and back  last summer. Has it wintered here, on the Axe or somewhere else ? Wherever it wintered it was missed until April 2016 when it appeared back here. Not just birding, engaged in scientific research and adding to the sum of human knowledge.

WOW patch list:    

74 Common sandpiper
75 Arctic tern
76 Swift
77 House martin
 
West Bangor patch list:

61 Swallow

62 House martin 
63 Swift

2016 list 

135 Arctic tern

.......and still they come!

Not a bad couple of weeks as spring migrants continue to appear in the skies above West Bangor and Belfast WOW. The terns were not there last week but have arrived this week. Interesting birds included two oil affected black-headed gulls, a vey mottled ruff and a dunlin. The ruff fooled me as I thought at first it was a spotted redshank, but Chris sorted that one out! The gulls were capable of flight and doing a lot of preening so it was feared that they may not survive. Seeing as we have over 1000 of them that seems ok, but they are amber listed so maybe not so good.

Mottled ruff

Posy dunlin

Oiled gull

Ditto

 

 

 

 

I also had a pleasant walk along the Ulster Way from the Somme Centre to Helen's Bay - 6.5 miles,  and saw my first swift of the year as well as lots of pretty flowers. There were no stunning birds but lots of the expected species and masses of singing blackcaps and wrens.

Open beech forest

Primroses

Lesser celandine

Wood sorrell?

Bluebells

WOW patch list:    

70 swallow
71 Iceland gull
72 Ringed plover
73 Common tern

West Bangor patch list:

61 Swallow

62 House martin

2016 list 

132 Ruff
133Iceland gull
134 Swift

Spring delivers

The Quoile Pondage produced a good range of birds but no swallows or martins. However I was amply compensated by 2 common sandpipers, 1 little egret, 5 herons, 2 common terns and a pair of mergansers plus all the usual suspects.

WOW today had a full and varied list including 1000 black-headed gulls, 500+ common gulls, 40+ redshank en route to Iceland, 1 ruff, 1 barwit, 400 blackwit,  13 whimbrel and a brief glimpse of a ring-billed gull thanks to Stuart McKee. As usual we had over 30 species even though we looked out on arrival and saw only black-headed gulls by the hundred. The terns haven't arrived yet and the island is still taped off. There are also 6/7 Mediterranean gulls around and we have hopes that they will breed.

Distant whimbrel

Blackwit in full breeding dress

I walked the coastal path twice in the last week and added sandwich tern, reed bunting and meadow pipit.

WOW patch list:    

68 Ring-billed gull
69Whimbrel

West Bangor patch list:
58 Sandwich tern

59 Reed bunting

60 Meadow pipit

2016 list 

128 Common sandpiper

129 Common tern

130 Whimbrel 
131 House martin

Know your finches

The WOW feeders regularly have chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch and redpoll. There are also occasional linnets and siskin as well as great and blue tits. 

Nice red redpoll & goldfinch

Chaffinch & redpoll

Greenfinch & redpoll

 

 

........and a nice shoveler

Spring has sprung

At last we have migrants. The Broad Water near Moira last week had singing chiffchaff, swallow and sand martin. Kiltonga near Ards yesterday had singing chiffchaff, willow warbler and blackcap. WOW today had willow warbler and there were sandwich terns at the Kinnegar. The mediterranean gulls are showing signs of nesting and a swallow was observed - but not by me. The tern island has been covered with tape and CDs to keep the gulls from nesting. The trick is to strip it back when the terns arrive but before the gulls can take over. Hopefully Chris will get it right.

View from the roadside hide

Swan nest from the lane hide

Tufted duck from the lane hide

Swift tower is ready for action

WOW patch list:   63 Brent goose

64 Sandwich tern

65 Dunnock

66 Willow warbler

67 Black guillemot

West Bangor patch list:
55 Raven
56 Lesser black-backed gull
57 Goldcrest

2016 list 
123 Raven

124 Swallow

125 Willow warbler

126 Sand martin

127 Sandwich tern

Few migrants as yet

Not a lot to report as I have not been out much or it has been too wet or I have been away from the patches due to family circumstances. I dropped into WOW for pintail and ruff and the blackwits have really oranged up in the last couple of weeks.  Antrim produced a dipper and  I finally managed a lesser black back along the coast, a flyover raven and two garden goldcrests this morning. The feeders are still attracting the female blackcap - it was there today -  and a pair of siskin. I thought they would be away by now. Still looking for curlew, sandwich tern and gannet along the coast, the former might wait till the autumn, but I had the latter two in March in 2015. Hopefully will be out and about this week and clean up on a few migrants.

WOW patch list:  
61 Pintail
62 Ruff

West Bangor patch list:
55 Raven
56 Lesser black-backed gull
57 Goldcrest

2016 list 
122 Dipper