Day1
Well the plane landed just after 12 so by the time we got away from the airport it must have been 1 oclock. So I decided we should head through the mountains towards Soller and cover Cuber res. On the way we stopped off at various watch points to see a Booted Eagle (1) and Griffon Vultures (9) with the odd Firecrest, Serin and loads of Sardinian Warblers calling as we drove through the woody areas. Raven seemed everywhere. Just remember click on the pictures to see full size.
 |
| Raven |
It was quite late in the day once we reached Cubar so I didn't expect much due to the heat and tourist but a good afternoon anyway with Whinchat, Stonechat, Kingfisher, Sardinian Warbler more Firecrest, Raven, Griffon Vulture, Northern Wheatear, Goldfinch, Pied and Spotted fly.
 |
| Whinchat |
The best birds here though were a Black Vulture which flew low over our heads, a pair of singing Blue Rock Thrush and the best bird for me so far were 2 cracking Short toed lark, I had only ever flushed them from fields in Norfolk so it was great to get a better look at them. We headed for our home for the week to check into our hotel at Lago Park, Playa de muro.
 |
| Black Vulture |
Day 2
Very excited to try a new site at
s' Albufera marsh the Depuradora. A Great few ponds which form part of the sewage works aka
Depuradora. The birds here were great. Good views of
Nightingales, Cetti's Warblers, Zitters, Great Reed Warbler, Yellow Wagtails, Reed Warblers, Marsh Harriers, plenty of
House Martin, Swallow and
Sand Martin. Wood Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers and Common
Sandpipers. Hoopoe were everywhere, as were
Collard Doves and
Woodpigeons. Eventually I managed to spot a
juv Woodchat shrike and the best bird so far a lifer in the form of actually seeing a
Moustache Warbler... BINGO! 2
Marble Duck put in a brief appearance for us.
 |
| Purple Swamphen |
 |
| Spotted Flycatcher |
 |
| Hoopoe |
Next it was site seeing around the
aucanada peninsular or that way anyway, not many birds except a couple of
Audouins Gulls and
Yellow-legged Gulls and a
Shag looking very hot.
At some fancy La Victoria Church more Firecrest a few Common Crossbills and we could hear Red-legged Partridge.
We moved onto the main reserve at s'Albufera, talking to an English couple who said they had seen nothing and it was pretty rubbish...they must have high hopes because I saw a shed load of stuff the highlights being Kentish Plover, Wood sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Little Stint (3) Night Heron (5), Squacco Heron, Cattle Egret, Little Egret, Kingfisher, Red nobbled Coot, Garganey, Stone Curlew (50+) and eventually a Glossy Ibis.
 |
| Little Stint |
 |
| Kentish Plover |
 |
| Garganey |
 |
| Little Egret |
 |
| Cattle Egret |
 |
| Cattle Egret |
 |
| Squacco Heron |
We finished up back at Depuradora in the dark where I got my first view of the fabulously tiny Scop's Owl sat on a fence in the headlights, this was my second lifer of the day Wooohoo a stunning tiny Owl. 2 Barn Owl were also sat on fence posts on the road back, its amazing how close you can get to owls here in Majorca, there not bothered by cars at all.
We finished back at Playa de Muro for dinner and a few celebratory drinks.
Day 3
This was picked to be the best day I recon, heading down to Salobra de Campos but not before I got up early to cover the local patch behind the hotel a good area I found a couple of years back when stopping here. Today however it was a bit disappointing with just a few birds an Adult Woodchat Shrike being the pick of a few birds. Hay ho don't matter were off down south for loads a birds..
On the trip down
Red kite, Hoopoe, and Common
Kestrels.
 |
| Hoopoe |
We reached
Salobra de Campos lagoons WOW WOW WOW, why had I not visited this place before, this place had got to be on par with Donana, except Donana the birds are much closer, no matter, the waders were incredible.
300 Kentish Plover, I had stopped counting at that,
210 Avocet, over
200 Greater Flamingos, love Flamingos, loads of
Spotted Redshanks, Black winged Stilts, Dunlin, Little stint, Knot, Grey Plover and
Common Redshank, not forgetting good numbers of
Red Kite, Marsh Harriers and at least 3
Osprey one with a green ring and transmitter, ill ask Roy when I get home for the info of that one. Well thanks to Roy for getting back to me so quickly, this bird is infact a local bird rung and fitted with a transmitter by the local team in the local area.
Also here good numbers of
Yellow Wagtail including a Flava wagtail.
 |
| Greater Flamingo |
 |
| Osprey you can just see transmitter below it. |
 |
| Flava Wagtail |
 |
| Iberian Wagtail? |
Ok a great start but could this day get any better, coarse it could we left the lagoons and headed for
Cap Des Ses Salines and 1km SW of Ses Salines I spotted what looked like a raptor tussling with something so I turned around and what happened next will stay with me forever, a
Kestrel tussling with a
Bee eater, not just 1 but 40 at least, calling and circling over head showing amazingly well and then eventually landing but briefly. We watched this for a good 45 min before we felt we had better get to out next place before running out of time.
So we arrived at C
ap Des Ses Salines where I did a sea watch just for half an hour to pick up 5
Cory's Shearwaters, a couple more
Audouins and a
Yellow Legged Gull.
Returning to the car a slush puppy better off and refreshed I could hear another or the same flock of Bee eaters probably heading out to sea on there journey South. On the drive back a dark morph Booted Eagle or was it a Black Kite? (couldn't stop the car to check) finished our day off well. Had to be the best day of the trip so far.
Day 4
Started early at
Depuradora, nothing new to add except the smell today was ripe. So we got to
Son Real for opening time 10 oclock, far too late ridiculous really it was really hot by now. Still didn't ruin the day, Good views of
Wryneck in fact 3 or 4 Wryneck, 2
Mamora's Warbler or should i say
Balearic Warbler as they are now known, semi singing, down at the beach
Kentish Plovers showed well as did the
Thekla Larks, what a great song, then Superb views of a
Juv Woodchat Shrike but then you beauty my second Target species and 3rd lifer of the tip only a bloody
Tawny Pipit right under my nose whilst taking a picture of the Shrike.. Amazing truly Amazing, I Love Spain. The rest of the day was spent sight seeing..can it get any better than this...
 |
| Wryneck |
 |
| Thekla Lark |
 |
| Kentish Plover |
 |
| Tawny Pipit |
 |
| Woodchat Shrike |
Well the day wasn't over and the night at Depuradora didn't produce any Owls but it did produce great views of a Nightjar again like the Owls it sat on the fence in the headlights of the car for a moment, then flew around the car catching insects attracted by the car lights... Amazing finish to the day.
I need a new target species. Elenoras at Formentor hopefully..
Day 5
So we did manage to get to
Formentor Lighthouse today but not before getting 2
Crag Martins at
Talaia De Albercutx. Then at
Formentor Lighthouse at least 6
Elenoras Falcon all in dark morph but great to watch as they acrobatically tussled in the air. Not a lot else though this time. No Shearwaters.
The crowds were massing by now so we made a sharp exit and headed for the cooler quieter mountains around
Cuber, not seeing a great deal to be honest. A couple of
Giffon Vulture and a 1m
Viperine Snake at the damn before Cuber.
Cuber too was quiet with just a few
Common Redstarts, Pied fly, Firecrest 2 Blackcap, Northern Wheatear and a
Tawny Pipit to show for it.
 |
| Northern Wheatear |
On the way home via
Santa Maria Del Cami we came across a group of raptors, 2
Booted Eagle dark and light phase, 3
Peregrine and 2
Red Kite.. What a display these put on for us.
We returned to
Depuradora which came up trumps again, 6
Marble Duck a cracking
juvenile Montagu's Harrier and just as we were leaving a
juv/1st winter Golden Oriol shot out a bush. There were plenty of Swallows, house and Sandmartins passing through but still no Swifts or Red Rumped Swallows, bugger.
 |
| Marbled Duck |
Hoopoe have been everywhere and are always hard to photograph and these were shot into the sun but I love Hoopoes and so far we have seen loads and loads. 3 in the field I took these from.
Another day quickly ended..
Day 6
This was a day where no birding was supposed to be done so no bins and no scope we headed for the
Caves at Encampanet so we got there did the usual touristy thing then sat on the balcony for dinner and drinks, whilst wait for it.....listening to the bird song, who needs optics. Amazingly I could hear
Bee eaters, probably passing over at height, I could also pick up
Firecrest, Crossbill, Goldfinch, Greenfinch and
Wren whilst all the time being accompanied by 3 or 4
Humming birds Hawk moths.
 |
| Humming Bird Hawk Moth |
In the afternoon we headed for
Arta Mountains and back on track birding, my first
Cirl Buntings of the trip were great. Also here 2 Pale phase
Booted Eagles a
Peregrine and a couple of
Blue Rock Thrush. That was it of real note here.
Back at Depuradora where I found the Scops Owl again and saw the usual waders wagtails and warblers so nothing new to really add. Plenty of Hoopoe activity was great though. Back to the hotel early for a change well 6 o'clock early. Last proper day tomorrow.
Day 7
Started early at
Depuradora where a nice trip tick in the form of a
Bluethroat. A dark phase
Booted Eagle was the only other thing here of note.
 |
| Bluethroat honest top left |
The rest of the day was sight seeing until the evening when I dropped Rachel off and headed for
s'Albufera main reserve, I spent a good few hours here seeing a
Temminick Stint, couple of
Little Stint, Garganey again and a
Marsh Harrier that took 2 Teal and dropped them into the reeds, I cant believe they were dead and so I recon they just hid in the reeds? Good numbers of the usual stuff including 100
Stone Curlew. A hybrid
Spanish x House Sparrow sat on the reeds breifly.
 |
| Juv Night Heron |
 |
| Cattle Egret |
 |
| Red Knobbled Coot |
 |
| Adult Night Heron |
 |
| Adult Night Heron |
 |
| Spanish x House Sparrow |
 |
| Spanish x House Sparrow |
 |
| Black Winged Stilt |
 |
| Spotted Fly |
 |
| Green Sandpiper |
 |
| Fan-tailed Warbler |
I moved onto
Depuradora again for the evening, the
Bluethroat showed again and a
juv Scops Owl was calling.
50+ Starling was a better number than the 1 I had earlier in the week. A
Water Rail finally gave itself up and 2
Woodchat Shrike showed pretty well. A
Tree Sparrow was a bit of a surprise. Otherwise the birds were pretty much what I had already seen. Still a great place and always come up trumps.
 |
| Black-tailed Skimmer |
 |
| Purple Swamphen |
 |
| Cattle Egret |
 |
| Stone Curlew |
 |
| Purple Swamphen |
Today was hometime boooooo... but i did get an hours birding in at the sewage works at
s'Albafura again
Wood Sandpiper, LRP, Black Winged Stilts were the main birds.
 |
| Black Winged Stilt |
 |
| Wood Sandpiper |
 |
| Little Ringed Plover |
 |
| Strange looking Small Copper |
So its been a great week with
122 Species recorded but time to go... for another year at least...
Full Species list below
| Common Shelduck | Tadorna tadorna |
| Gadwall | Anas strepera |
| Common Teal | Anas crecca |
| Mallard | Anas platyrhynchos |
| Garganey | Anas querquedula |
| Northern Shoveler | Anas clypeata |
| Marbled Duck | Marmaronetta angustirostris |
| Red-crested Pochard | Netta rufina |
| Common Pochard | Aythya ferina |
| Tufted Duck | Aythya fuligula |
| Red-legged Partridge | Alectoris rufa |
| Black-necked Grebe | Podiceps nigricollis |
| Cory's Shearwater | Calonectris diomedea |
| Great Cormorant | Phalacrocorax carbo |
| European Shag | Phalacrocorax aristotelis |
| Black-crowned Night Heron | Nycticorax nycticorax |
| Squacco Heron | Ardeola ralloides |
| Cattle Egret | Bubulcus ibis |
| Little Egret | Egretta garzetta |
| Grey Heron | Ardea cinerea |
| Glossy Ibis | Plegadis falcinellus |
| Greater Flamingo | Phoenicopterus roseus |
| Black Kite | Milvus migrans |
| Red Kite | Milvus milvus |
| Eurasian Griffon Vulture | Gyps fulvus |
| Eurasian Black Vulture | Aegypius monachus |
| Western Marsh Harrier | Circus aeruginosus |
| Montagu's Harrier | Circus pygargus |
| Eurasian Sparrowhawk | Accipiter nisus |
| Booted Eagle | Hieraaetus pennatus |
| Osprey | Pandion haliaetus |
| Common Kestrel | Falco tinnunculus |
| Eleonora's Falcon | Falco eleonorae |
| Peregrine | Falco peregrinus |
| Water Rail | Rallus aquaticus |
| Common Moorhen | Gallinula chloropus |
| Purple Swamp-Hen | Porphyrio porphyrio |
| Eurasian Coot | Fulica atra |
| Red-Knobbed Coot | Fulica cristata |
| Black-winged Stilt | Himantopus himantopus |
| Pied Avocet | Recurvirostra avosetta |
| Stone-Curlew | Burhinus oedicnemus |
| Little Ringed Plover | Charadrius dubius |
| Common Ringed Plover | Charadrius hiaticula |
| Kentish Plover | Charadrius alexandrinus |
| Grey Plover | Pluvialis squatarola |
| Northern Lapwing | Vanellus vanellus |
| Red Knot | Calidris canutus |
| Sanderling | Calidris alba |
| Little Stint | Calidris minuta |
| Temminck's Stint | Calidris temminckii |
| Dunlin | Calidris alpina |
| Ruff | Philomachus pugnax |
| Common Snipe | Gallinago gallinago |
| Eurasian Curlew | Numenius arquata |
| Spotted Redshank | Tringa erythropus |
| Common Redshank | Tringa totanus |
| Common Greenshank | Tringa nebularia |
| Green Sandpiper | Tringa ochropus |
| Wood Sandpiper | Tringa glareola |
| Common Sandpiper | Actitis hypoleucos |
| Ruddy Turnstone | Arenaria interpres |
| Black-headed Gull | Larus ridibundus |
| Audouin's Gull | Larus audouinii |
| Yellow-legged Gull | Larus michahellis |
| Common Woodpigeon | Columba palumbus |
| Eurasian Collared Dove | Streptopelia decaocto |
| European Turtle Dove | Streptopelia turtur |
| Barn Owl | Tyto alba |
| European Scops Owl | Otus scops |
| European Nightjar | Caprimulgus europaeus |
| Common Kingfisher | Alcedo atthis |
| European Bee-eater | Merops apiaster |
| Eurasian Hoopoe | Upupa epops |
| Eurasian Wryneck | Jynx torquilla |
| Greater Short-toed Lark | Calandrella brachydactyla |
| Thekla Lark | Galerida theklae |
| Eurasian Skylark | Alauda arvensis |
| Sand Martin | Riparia riparia |
| Eurasian Crag Martin | Ptyonoprogne rupestris |
| Barn Swallow | Hirundo rustica |
| Common House Martin | Delichon urbicum |
| Tawny Pipit | Anthus campestris |
| Yellow Wagtail | Motacilla flava |
| White Wagtail | Motacilla alba |
| Winter Wren | Troglodytes troglodytes |
| Common Nightingale | Luscinia megarhynchos |
| Bluethroat | Luscinia svecica |
| Common Redstart | Phoenicurus phoenicurus |
| Whinchat | Saxicola rubetra |
| Common Stonechat | Saxicola torquatus |
| Northern Wheatear | Oenanthe oenanthe |
| Blue Rock Thrush | Monticola solitarius |
| Common Blackbird | Turdus merula |
| Cetti's Warbler | Cettia cetti |
| Zitting Cisticola | Cisticola juncidis |
| Moustached Warbler | Acrocephalus melanopogon |
| European Reed Warbler | Acrocephalus scirpaceus |
| Great Reed Warbler | Acrocephalus arundinaceus |
| Marmora's Warbler | Sylvia sarda |
| Sardinian Warbler | Sylvia melanocephala |
| Blackcap | Sylvia atricapilla |
| Common Chiffchaff | Phylloscopus collybita |
| Willow Warbler | Phylloscopus trochilus |
| Firecrest | Regulus ignicapilla |
| Spotted Flycatcher | Muscicapa striata |
| Pied Flycatcher | Ficedula hypoleuca |
| Blue Tit | Parus caeruleus |
| Great Tit | Parus major |
| Eurasian Golden Oriole | Oriolus oriolus |
| Woodchat Shrike | Lanius senator |
| Common Raven | Corvus corax |
| Common Starling | Sturnus vulgaris |
| House Sparrow | Passer domesticus |
| Eurasian Tree Sparrow | Passer montanus |
| Common Chaffinch | Fringilla coelebs |
| European Serin | Serinus serinus |
| European Greenfinch | Carduelis chloris |
| European Goldfinch | Carduelis carduelis |
| Common Linnet | Carduelis cannabina |
| Common Crossbill | Loxia curvirostra |
| Cirl Bunting | Emberiza cirlus |
| |
Cuber too was quiet with just a few Common Redstarts, Pied fly, Firecrest 2 Blackcap, Northern Wheatear and a Tawny Pipit to show for it. 
No comments:
Post a Comment