Mallorca 2017 (2 Viewers)

Female Monty through 1st thing this morning, port de pollensa.

andyadcock said:

Thanks Martin,
did they eat it or was it territorial?

A

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Andy, see below, copied from Joseo's post 662:
Montagu's harrier killed by peregrine
Today in the Tower of Albercuix, we have observed one of the scenes that have most impressed us in the 15 years that we got there up Formentor to follow the migration of raptors.

With our telescopes have located a beautiful orange young montagus harrier, which we have followed as it came toward us, closer and closer, when we were going to start to take pictures, the couple's local Peregrine Falcon that nest in those cliffs, has begun has attack him, after 7 or 8 attack the female, more stout than the montagus has caught it and killed it while they were falling vertically, to leave it deposited in a rock.

They have been hard moments of anguish, seeing as the montagus didnt get able to escape the falcons attack until he is dead.

We all know that nature is life and death, but scenes so leave you very badly.

Had a great week but time to leave, sorry for clogging up the site but seen lots of birds, although it will now really kick off. Missed the Honey Buzzards which just didnt happen but the variety and quality of other birds more than made up for it. See you all next year and ill add my blog with pics in due coarse.

Hi Craig, thanks for all your posts, I, and I'm sure others, very much enjoyed them! Safe journey, see you next time, Mike.

Mike Montier said:

Hi Craig, thanks for all your posts, I, and I'm sure others, very much enjoyed them! Safe journey, see you next time, Mike.

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Very kind thanks mike.

This evening near llenaire hotel 2 Rollers. Red throated pipit from Cillobar 2. Depadura had 1 Gull billed and 2 Whiskered tern.
Elsewhere friends had Caladra lark at Porto Colom and believed by its behaviour it may have been feeding young.

We had another good day in the field today. An early start in the Bocquer paid off when two Swedish birders put us onto a cracking singing Balearic warbler. We also had a booted eagle being mobbed by a peregrine, blue rock thrush and crag martins there.

After lunch we went to Es Blanquer, where just after 3pm we had six red-footed falcons in one view! (An adult male, a juv male and four females). It was brilliant to watch them acrobatically catching insects. We also had two thekla larks and a stone curlew there.

This evening at S'Albufera we had 5 glossy ibises, 4 marbled duck (Sa Roca), 3 moustached warblers and the wandering escaped golden eagle. From the first platform on the track to Ses Puntes we has a strongly singing Savi's warbler. We first heard it just after 7pm, and it was still going strong when we left at 7.40. During that time we only saw it once - singing from a reed stem looking north and to the right of the obvious dyke running away from the platform.

Stew

kevinh said:

This evening near llenaire hotel 2 Rollers. Red throated pipit from Cillobar 2. Depadura had 1 Gull billed and 2 Whiskered tern.
Elsewhere friends had Caladra lark at Porto Colom and believed by its behaviour it may have been feeding young.

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Oooo bugger RT pipit id liked to have seen that.

The calandra lark was seen near the roundabout near where the pallid swift cave is.

Forgot to mention ive seen hundreds of egrets on the s albufera marsh this week looking out for the reef/little Egret and thought id failed until leaving the hotel for thd airport this am it flew over the rd north of albufera. Cool looking bird

Hi Kevin, thanks for the information. I went at dawn today but despite searching for about three hours, I couldn't relocate the Calandra larks.
I did briefly see a large looking Lark in flight, not Thekla or Short-toed, but the call didn't seem to match.
I will go again soon, Mike

Hi Mike, I tried myself on Friday am but was overcast and very windy with not much bird activity at all.
It came from a very reliable source though.

Thanks Kevin. Pep asked what the birds were doing to suggest breeding. If you have any more information, it would be great if you could post it for him. It's a very important record. I only hope I and others get to see them. I will keep trying. Mike

Saturday and Sunday morning spent at Albufera,nothing new to report but did have good views of four Glossy Ibis squabbling with each other in the Egret Colony at the rear of Bishop 2,Osprey fishing the main canal,Male & Female Little Bittern on the stretch of water by the wood yard.
Lots of newly hatched Stilt chicks seen at Sa Roca & Bishop hides
Osprey seen three times from Pollenca Beach on Saturday fishing the bay.
Two Roller still on wires Llenaire back road at first light this morning.
Massive movement of Swallows North yesterday evening after the gusty wind died away to a balmy evening.

Bob

A long morning at Son Real in the sun! Birding was quiet though - stone curlews, thekla larks and tawny pipits were the best of it, although a tiny Hermann's tortoise ran them close.

This afternoon we went to Cami des Polls, where there were four squacco herons. Yellow (iberiae) wagtails were everywhere, and BW stilts were also in big numbers.

Stew

I was in Mallorca over the weekend (primary targets Balearic Warbler and Tyrrhenian Spotted Flycatcher). A couple of records of interest ...

Pallid Harrier: female over Porto Colom headland at 09:37 on Saturday 6th
Melodious Warbler: one in the final valley just before the lighthouse at Cap Formentor on Saturday evening
Red-footed Falcon: three (ad ♂, 2cy ♂, 2cy ♀) at Vilafranca de Bonany on 6th, two (ad ♀, 2cy ♀) at Maria de la Salut mid-afternoon on 7th
Moltoni's Warbler: three vocal males in pines by Cuber Reservoir on 6th

Cheers,
Josh

Almost birdless walk down the Boquer first thing. Highlights being 2 singing Wrynecks, (one from Finca and one on waste ground near the bypass) and Blue Rock Thrush.
Walk back up from town late morning produced two soaring raptors over the seaward side of the Boquer, one a pale phase Booted Eagle the other an adult Montagues Harrier.

Mike Montier said:

Thanks Kevin. Pep asked what the birds were doing to suggest breeding. If you have any more information, it would be great if you could post it for him. It's a very important record. I only hope I and others get to see them. I will keep trying. Mike

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They say the bird was collecting food near the roundabout then flying off only to return a few minutes later. It did this several times always flying to and from the same direction, leading them to believe it was possibly feeding young.

Llenaire, 5pm. M Golden oriole flew into lemon grove at top of road, 1 Stone Curlew in small ploughed field.
2 Booted Eagle and a Red kite over.
1 'Hippolais' warbler very briefly in Scrub 100yds before entrance road, seemed most like Icky.

Mallorca 29th April - 6th May

Well now that the dust has settled on our now annual spring week based at PP, thought id provide a brief summary of the trip. Birding was again excellent and though my efforts were a bit more leisurely this year I still managed to add two new sp to my Island list - the excellent Collared Fly at the Albufera ( I missed the Torrent de Saint Jordi bird in 2013 ) and an Adult Gannet flying south off Son Real. I also managed to come to grips with the recently split Mediterranean Flycatcher ( M. Tyrrhenica ) often seen nearby to M.Striata providing a useful comparison.
Below are some of the daily highlights, I've posted some pics on my twitter site for those interested - Chris Knox...@NTynesidebirder.

Saturday 29th : A late afternoon walk to Postage Stamp Wood / Boquer, seeing much as expected inc a noisy pair of Peregrine. The Avenue of Pines / Park to the south of the Boquer Roundabout was lively and remained so all week, today was 10+ Pied Fly, Wood Warbler, Redstart and lots of Willow Warbler.

Sunday 30th : Wryneck heard and eventually seen well early doors in the Boquer. A visit to Can Cuarassa Track failed to provide any Roller, but 5 Spotless Starling showed well as did several Snipe.

Monday 1st May : A fruitful morning at the Albufereta Tower, Red Kite, Osprey and 50+ Bee-eater over, a nice male Golden Oriole showed well in a nearby tamarisk and my only 2 Turtle Doves of the week.

Tuesday 2nd May : Albufera - a showy Collared Flycatcher at back of Visitor Centre was a welcome Mallorcan tick, Little Bittern was seen well on main channel and among the usual suspects a Collared Pratincole was genuine despite several observers leaving the hides claiming Cream-Coloured Courser :eek!: 3 Marbled Duck were seen and a Sacred Ibis flew high south. The PP Park nr the Boquer in the evening again produced good counts of common migrants inc 12+ Pied Fly.

Wednesday 3rd May : Found a nice Roller at the base of the Boquer, and the walk to the end produced a male Western Subalpine Warbler (confirmed on call ), over head sev Tree Pipit, Bee-eaters (12), Osprey, and Marsh Harrier flew north. Balearic Warbler heard near the split in path before beach. A visit to Postage Stamp Wood late afternoon produced 30 + Willow Warbler, great views of Firecrest and sev Wood & Garden Warbler.

Thursday 4th May : Embasse de Cuber - two displaying Male Moltoni's Warblers were nice to see and easily tracked via their Wren -like churr. Black, and Griffon Vultures were omnipresent above and were joined by 8 Red kite at one stage. Failed to find any Spectacled warblers - are they still there :h?: Crossbills were heard singing and seen well, and migrants around Lake included 4 Whinchat, and 5+ Pied Flycatcher.

Friday 5th May : A morning visit to Son Real produced singing Thekla Larks, and Tawny Pipits, I found a pair of Balearic Warbler in my usual spot but no Dartford's - has the hard winter had an impact ? A quick scan of the sea produced a Sandwich Tern and an unexpected Gannet, a scarce migrant / winterer to the island.

Saturday 6th May : Last day and a pre pick -up walk around the Boquer added Whitethroat and sev Garden warbler, last notebook entry was 5 Bee-eater north - a fitting bird to say farewell till next year.

All in all an enjoyable trip.

CGK