Majorca September 2013

Never Mind The Balearics

Thekla lark

In September Jenny and I headed off to the Balearic island of Majorca for a week, having not taken any time off since March.
One of the things that I had wanted to to do upon returning to live in Europe was catch up with some of those species that had eluded me in the past, and to fill in a few gaps in my European list.
So with that in mind I was quite keen to go on a few shorter holidays where birding would be kept at a sort of minimum but I could still get something out of it!
I considered Fuerteventura for the chat and bustard, Corsica for the nuthatch and finch and Majorca also potentially held two world ticks - Balearic warbler and moustached warbler.
Given the opportunities for good walks, decent food and overall relative cheapness we opted for the latter.

Son Real at dawn

We chose as our destination the small resort of C'an Picafort in the north-east of the island. The main reason for this was due to the town's location; immediately bordering the Son Real Nature Reserve, an excellent spot for looking for migrants and in particular one very special sylvia warbler and the close proximity to the world famous S'Albufera reserve just to the north.
With a bit of luck and effort I could feasibly bag my two ticks without it getting in the way of Jenny and I enjoying a chilled out break...

Audouin's gull

Of course, trying to be so prescriptive about birding really never works for me and of course I was out with my bins at every available opportunity. In fact I visited Son Real on pretty much a daily basis (getting in there in the early morning before the tourists and sun pushed the birds to cover).
Son Real was a pretty great spot, reached on foot in a few short minutes from our apartment. Practically the first birds I'd see every day were smart Audouin's gulls as they patrolled the surf or checked out the beach for bits of hot dogs or whatever else was lying around.
Turnstones, common sandpipers, Kentish plovers and yellow-legged gulls were frequently encountered as I walked toward the scrub.

The commonest passerines in this area were stonechats and Sardinian warblers, both of which were truly abundant. Spotted flycatchers were pretty numerous too, the majority being of the nominate race although I did see a few individuals of the distinctive Majorcan subspecies; less streaked with a notably paler forehead.
Thekla larks were easy to see and their distinctive calls became characteristic of the Son Real scrub. Other birds seen here included good numbers of linnet, a few hoopoes, serins, northern wheatears, chiffchaff, willow warbler, common whitethroat, blackcap, firecrest and a single pied flycatcher plus two wrynecks.

Red-knobbed coot

All the woodchat shrikes seen here were of the western Mediterranean island race badius.
Though of course, the star of the show was Balearic warbler. Given that it was late summer / early autumn these birds were not too obliging and spent a great deal of time skulking around in the undergrowth, but once the call was committed to memory I found several. A little pishing seemed to do the trick and I got excellent views of a couple of birds.

In all I paid 3 visits to S'Albufera and although I got brief and highly unsatisfactory views of my moustachioed target on the first two attempts it took until my third before I was blessed with good views of the warbler.
Having tried to see moustached warblers in various bits of Spain, France and beyond I have to concede that I let out an audible profanity of delight when I finally clinched this bird - thankfully no one else was stood on the bridge at the time!

Red-crested pochard

Of course this vast reserve is an amazing place and is home to countless classic southern European species. Along with loads of waders, including black-tailed godwit, curlew sandpiper, little stint, black-winged stilt, kentish plover, ruff and green sandpiper among others.
We also got views of stone curlews, squacco herons, night herons, greater flamingo and a single great white egret among the numerous little egrets. I saw just one little bittern, a cracking male.

Purple swamphen

Cetti's warblers vocalised from every bush, ditch and tree, often giving superb eye level views. 'Yellow' wagtails were relatively numerous, and at least one male was of the iberiae form. A few migrants including reed warbler and whinchat were also spotted around the site.
This reserve is justly renowned as a site for red-knobbed coot, red-crested pochard and purple swamphen and these threatened species put on a good show.

While on the island we chose to only use public transport but given our location this presented us with no problems. Once day we hopped on a bus to Port de Pollença from where we walked up the Boquer Valley.
Known to birders as a great place for migrants and as a site for viewing Eleanora's falcons.
Being late morning when we arrived we didn't expect to see much in the way of songbirds and consequently we came across just a few wheatear, whinchat, spotted flycatchers and the ubiquitous Sardinian warblers.

Squacco heron

There were loads of crag martins whizzing around and we soon picked up the first of several booted eagles cruising along the cliff tops.
While scanning the massive ridges I noticed a very large dark bird heading our way. It was clearly a black vulture, and as it came nearer we got pretty good views of it as it circled overhead, at one point being mobbed by an Eleanora's falcon! The last black vulture that I saw in Europe was in this very same valley more than 20 years ago, so I was more than a little pleased to add this unexpected bird to the holiday list!
All in all, considering that this wasn't a birding trip as such, it was a great week with some fabulous birds thrown into the mix.
Now I just need to figure out where I can get to next to fill in some of those gaps...