Mallorca at Last

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Ibiza this morning and after a short flight we arrived in Palma on the beautiful island of Mallorca. Pretty soon we were of on the 45 minute drive to the top of the island and had lunch in a small restaurant near Alcudia where we planned our first birding excursion of our time here. Just a few kilometres away along a lane surrounded by a beautiful pastoral scene of flower-filled meadows was an area known as Depuradora de S’Illot. 

It's a good view from the viewing tower...

Our arrival was greeted by a singing Common Nightingale and a good omen indeed! A viewing tower overlooks a few man-made lagoons and the surrounding meadows. A pair of Eurasian Stone-Curlews were scoped in one such field as they did a change-over at their nest and was a great sight to see. Around the pools were numerous Common Shelducks, Gadwall, Mallard, Green Sandpiper,Little Ringed Plovers and other common birds. Over the vast reedbed several Western Marsh Harriers were patrolling, but a Collared Pratincole flying around above us was a bit special. 

Collared Pratincole

Moving on to S’Albufera Nature Reserve we visited a couple of hides overlooking the Sa Roca lagoon and spent  couple of enjoyable hours watching all of the activity. 

S'Albufera

There were a couple of stunning Glossy Ibis present, at least 8 Wood Sandpipers, a Green Sandpiper, another Collared Pratincole, fly away view of Great Bittern, Purple Heron, Red-crested Pochards and a Western Swamphen amongst others.

Glossy Ibis

Moving on to the other side the hide we visited was really good for views of Pied Avocets with chicks, and we watched in horror as a pair of Black-headed Gulls had to be continually fought off by the adults as Avocet chicks were on their menu! 

We witnessed a constant aerial battle to save the Avocet chicks

Pied Avocet and Kentish Plovers

Pied Avocet chick

There were 18+ Wood Sandpipers here too, along with 2 summer-plumaged Spotted Redshanks, Dunlin, 2 Marbled Ducks, a Western Osprey eating a fish on a post, Eurasian Spoonbill, and on the main channel were numerous Red-crested Pochards and a Red-knobbed Coot.

Red-crested Pochard

Walking back to the car, a pair of Black-crowned Night-Herons were spotted in the bushes, breeding plumaged Little Egret was seen with red feet and blue skin around the eye and lots of the usual finches were flying around.

After dinner we enjoyed some views of Eurasian Scops Owl in the grounds of our finca and a Western Barn Owl flew over us giving its eerie screech call.

Ses Salines

Spent the morning at Ses Salines which turned out to be a rather chilly affair with light to moderate easterly winds and cloud making a huge change from the warm sunshine we’d become accustomed to. 

Hide at Ses Salines

From the hide we encountered a number of scarce and uncommon birds for Ibiza with Purple Heron, Great White Egret and a drake Common Pochard being most notable and very good records here. But it was the superb Marbled Duck feeding with a Gadwall that drew most attention and certainly got our pulses racing. This a rarity on this island and a bird I was personally very pleased to find here. 

Marbled Duck - a rare bird in Ibiza

There were also more Greater Flamingos than on our previous visit, at least 7 Pied Avocets, Little Ringed and Kentish Plovers and as we drove around the other side we had really great close looks at a stonking breeding-plumaged Common Greenshank.

Common Greenshank

  

Greater Flamingo

At the beach a Common Cuckoo was perched on a gate, a couple of European Turtle Doves were nice to see and hear and we also saw Whinchat, Northern Wheatear and European Pied Flycatcher. Returning to the hide a stonking male Common Stonechat got us all excited for a bit as it looked for all the world like an Eastern Stonechat, but the west Mediterranean birds look superficially similar…… My thanks to Daniel Lopez-Velasco for info on this.

West Mediterranean Stonechat

So by now it was getting late and we returned to the villa for lunch and had a leisurely afternoon and an early finish.

Ibiza: Sa Talaia - Es Vedra

We had a bit of a later start this morning before venturing over to Sa Talaia. It’s just a short 15 minute drive firstly on paved road and then after the turn-off up and along a dirt track through the forest. Our first stop beside some fields was good for views of another Balearic Warbler and Balearic Woodchat Shrike before driving up the steepest section and into some really good forest. 

Balearic Warbler

Balearic Woodchat Shrike

Unfortunately there weren’t any Balearic Crossbills present, but we had maybe 3 different Eurasian Hobbies flying over on their way north. A spritely Common Firecrest gave superb views here and showed nice and close before we drove on further to the end of the road. 

Common Firecrest

The panoramic views here are always a crowd pleaser and that included the noisy gang of Spanish hikers! But you can see both east and west coasts from here and today the weather was so clear that the Spanish mainland was on view. 

I love the views from up here...

So, after pending some time admiring the scenery we headed back down and decided to go towards the coast.

Another dirt track took us to a look-out opposite the mightily impressive towering cliffs of Es Vedra, and what a view this is. It’s a tricky, bumpy drive down to this point but definitely worth the effort when you see something as impressive as this and the sea was a stunning deep blue this morning. 

The towering cliffs of Es Vedra

Watching Pallid Swift...

Scoping the island revealed the first of a steady stream of Booted Eagles that had made the crossing from North Africa and were heading to the mainland. At first we had a group of 14, followed by smaller groups of 6, another 6, 7, and 4 crossing the sea towards the Spanish mainland. Then thermalling kettles of 10 at a time beside the tall cliffs made for an impressive site. It was whilst scoping one such ‘kettle’ that an Eleanora’s Falcon was spotted amongst them. Showing a long tail and swept-back scimitar-shaped wings we enjoyed repeated views of this truly awesome falcon flying around the eagles. This was a pretty early record of this species as they usually arrive a touch later in the month. An Eurasian Crag-Martin swept past us along the cliff top a few times, there was a pair of Blue Rock Thrushes, at least a single Pallid Swift was present in a newly arrived flock of Common Swifts and a Northern Raven was seen.

So by now it was early afternoon (where had the time gone?) so we returned to the villa for lunch and a siesta before heading to the north-west side of the island. Returning to Estabell again we found a few Spotted Flycatchers with a group of European Pied Flycatchers, Whinchat, Tree Pipits, Common Redstart and Thekla’s Larks, oh and a calling Common Cuckoo but not much else. A drive along the north coast was quiet so we returned to San Antonio de Portmany for dinner and a few well deserved drinks!

Day 2: Formentera

Another beautiful day dawned in Ibiza and the Villa Rosa birding posse set out on the Ibiza-Formentera ferry this morning. The weather was typical Mediterranean in spring with crystal clear blue skies and a sea so azure it could almost melt your heart. As we left Ibiza port we had great views of the old town, along with Audouin’s and Yellow-legged Gulls, plus a Pallid Swift amongst the Common Swifts. 

Ibiza Town and Dalt Vila from the ferry

View from the ferry

View towards Ibiza

It’s only a 30-minute crossing and on this perfect morning there wasn’t too much shearwater activity although we did pick up a few distant Scopoli’s Shearwaters. Upon landing in Formentera we drove some 25 minutes to the far eastern side of this lovely island and based ourselves for much of the day at Far de la Mola. 

Far de la Mola

This huge promontory reminds me of Portland Bill a little bit and we were hoping for some migration magic. As the winds had been switching between easterly and south-westerly I had high hopes of some migrants but initially it wasn’t looking too promising. After half an hour we headed across some fields with low bushes and found the area to be alive with birds! We were almost immediately into double figures of Common Redstarts with a sprinkling of Northern Wheatears, along with Willow Warblers before Mike exclaimed he had a Bluethroat. And oh boy what a great bird. The totally blue throat and lack of a red or white spot meant it was what HBW refer to as an Iberian Bluethroat (ssp azuricollis) and what a cracker! 

Our first view of Bluethroat

Iberian Bluethroat - check out the lack of a spot on the throat

We watched it feeding in the field against a stone wall for ages, with Iberian Yellow Wagtails, groups of Greater Short-toed Larks, numerous Balearic Woodchat Shrikes, some resident Thekla’s Larks and Sardinian Warblers, and at least 4 Blue Rock Thrushes vying for our attention. 

Greater Short-toed Lark

There were also numerous Linnets, EuropeanGoldfinches and European Serins singing and flying constantly around us and the setting was totally mesmeric. Just perfect in fact. We spread out a little in the hopes of finding more goodies but the late morning hour meant activity was dying down and apart from some Red-legged Partridges and a migrating Booted Eagle we had to content ourselves with the commoner migrants. The Bluethroat was refound a little later and showed very well at much closer range and we found it really hard to pull ourselves away from such a stunner. 

We drove to a nearby village for a spot of lunch and coffee before returning to the headland. Taking a different route we walked along the rocky path and into a grove of pine trees hoping to find something sheltering in the shade of these large trees. 

Common Firecrest

There were more redstarts and even a European Pied Flycatcher but not much else, apart from a confiding Common Firecrest that we watched for some time and a Peregrine Falcon circling overhead. 

Far del Cap de Barbaria

So we drove to Far del Cap de Barbaria, a headland facing due south on the other side of the island. There’s totally different habitat here with low scrub and rocky open ground. It was 5pm by now and a little quiet apart from another Balearic Woodchat Shrike. Just inland the vegetation is better with more bushes, fields and trees and around one meadow there were at least 4 Whinchats, as well as yet more Common Redstarts and even a Balearic Warbler. 

Whinchat

Leaving here we drove around Estany Pudente, a series of salt pans and lagoons. We were able to pull up alongside a few Kentish Plovers and got a few nice photos. 

Estany Pudente

There were also Common Redshanks, Common Greenshanks and a few Black-winged Stilts to look at before heading back to the port and onto the 7.30pm ferry back to Ibiza. It was a beautiful sailing and the water so very calm allowing superb views of many Scopoli’s Shearwaters close to the ship. 

Scopoli's Shearwater showed well from the ferry this evening

A group of Balearic Shearwaters flew quickly past the bow and across the calm waters before we reached Ibiza and our waiting dinner. Quite a day really!

Balearic Spring Migration Tour.

With the first southerly winds of the spring and the warmest day of the year so far greeting the arrival of our group we headed the short distance to Ses Salinas. And what a difference a day makes, as yesterday and the preceding week had been dominated by very cool weather and gale force NW winds. So with renewed vigour and a spring in our step we began birding on the party island of Ibiza! 

Things began slowly as there wasn’t too much to see from the hide but we enjoyed views of Iberian Yellow Wagtails, including some incredibly bright individuals. Several displaying Zitting Cisticolas were pretty close and we even scoped one bird, whilst a very smart-looking Sardinian Warbler was nesting in a nearby bush. Out on the saltpans were over 50 Greater Flamingos, newly arrived from who knows where? There hadn’t been any here just 2 days ago! Common Shelduck numbers have been gradually increasing and today over 70 were present, along with Gadwall, Mallard, and both Kentish and Little Ringed Plovers. Driving out of the site got us close to a Woodchat Shrike of the badius race and is a potential split as Iberian Woodchat Shrike, plus a couple of Red-legged Partridges. We then drove around to the other side and in no time at all were watching the endemic Balearic Warbler singing from his song perch. 

Balearic Warbler

 We enjoyed first class views of this much-wanted bird for a good 10 minutes, as well as a pair of high-flying Western Marsh Harriers and several flyby Mediterranean Shags before walking back to the car and driving to our base for the next 4 nights at the fabulous Villa Rosa. 

Over lunch and a siesta we heard some migrating European Bee-eaters somewhere in the distance and wondered if we’d ever catch up with them…? So we drove down to the nearby harbour at 4pm and spent a very enjoyable hour watching and photographing up to 30 stunning Audouin’s Gulls. This is a really fine bird whether you’re into gulls or not and when they are a mere 2 metres away from you then you can’t fail to be impressed. I don’t know of anywhere else you can get such outstanding views of this charismatic gull. 

This must be the best place to see Audouin's Gull

In my opinion this is a sexy bird and at this time of year they are getting rather frisky as breeding is imminent, combined with all sorts of other behaviour as they scavenged from a fishing boat to their raucous call we had it all. Moving on to a viewpoint looking up to Cap Negret we scoped some distant Scopoli’s Shearwaters and found a pair of Blue Rock Thrush. 

Moving on to an area of meadow, orchards and agriculture just inland from the NW coast, this is a little migrant trap in the right conditions. Our arrival in this picturesque area was greeted by a large flock of hirundines, comprising mainly of Barn Swallows but with several pretty Red-rumped Swallows and a couple of CommonHouse Martins as well, plus a calling European Turtle Dove that flew alongside one of the meadows. We stopped beside one field to look at a pair of Thekla’s Larks and in doing so found ourselves amidst a fall of northerly-bound migrants. The fields and meadows hereabouts were full of Common Redstarts and everywhere we looked there were male redstarts either in the trees or feeding on the ground. A flock of Tree Pipits were also here, along with several male Pied Flycatchers, Willow Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Turtle Dove and a cracking pale-phase Booted Eagle. We also heard European Bee-eaters from somewhere in the distance and then spotted them flying across the valley so decided to go and look for them. Admittedly it was a bit of divine inspiration to turn right and not left at a junction resulted in us finding the flock and watching them feed over the orchards and scoping one beautiful perched individual. Also in the area was European Robin, Song Thrush, many displaying European Serins and other common birds. So a very good day on this highly underwatched island and we were all excited to see what tomorrows excursion to Formentera would bring.