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Mallorca 2023 (1 Viewer)

Monday we decided to go Es Salobrar. It was a little late before we got off, so we started with a mallorqian Menú del dia, which we always enjoy, at the Bar Es Pins in Campos. We were at the Es Salobrar around 3,30 pm and most of the birds were far away. We counted some 100 flamingos, almost the same amount of avocets, one common sandpiper, few kentish plovers, shelduck, shoveler, red kite, stonechat, black redstart and a zitting cistola, which showed its tail nicely. Very quiet. But our drive home was spectacular (Ses Salinas, S'Alqueria Blanca, towards Portocristo, Son Macia and on) with the almond trees flowering in the setting sun. It seems to be the right time right now. And as there are few almond trees left in the north, wee enjoyed it even more.
Tuesday we went to Maristany. Lots of shovelers, marsh harrier, gulls (audouin, black-headed and yellow-legged), little grebe, great crested grebe, red-crested pochard, common pochard, moorhen, coot, crag martin, house martin and barn swallow (no red-rumped unfortunately), serin, house sparrow, cetti, chiffchaff, white wagtail, blackbird and goldfinch. It is a nice place to spend a little time.
Erik, if you come this way again, please let me know - we live (part time) near Campos and I would really like to meet you!
David Erban
 
I began the day with a trip to the airport to drop Mrs Geordie. She has gone back to the snow in Newcastle while I stay here for another week. I continued on to Salobrar de Campos starting at Fontsanta Hotel and Eddies Track before going round to the Es Trenc Road to view the pools. 100+ flamingo and almost as many avocets were a good start to a beautiful sunny morning. There were a few fan tailed warblers around and a lovely yellow wagtail on the pumphouse roof. On the Es Trenc road the highlights were little stint, 8 curlew sandpiper and 9 garganey. As well as red kite there were several marsh harriers in the air including some beautiful adult males in full breeding plumage. I moved on to Sa Barrala to look at the polo pitches. There were both skylark and thekla lark, at least a dozen meadow pipits and white wagtails, 2 song thrush and a single kestrel. From here I drive on to Cap de Ses Salines with a brief and uneventful stop at Passatge 5. At the Cap several hundred Balearic shearwaters came through in about an hour accompanied by only a few Scopolis. There was a single raft of about 100 Balearic on the sea throughout my stay. I then headed back “home” to Port de Pollenca stopping for an hour at Albufereta which was very quiet. I did have very close views of both common and green sandpiper from Sa Barcassa hide. It was now time to retire to Aries Bar for a well earned pint. I’ve now got a week on my own for some serious birding!!
 

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Monday we decided to go Es Salobrar. It was a little late before we got off, so we started with a mallorqian Menú del dia, which we always enjoy, at the Bar Es Pins in Campos. We were at the Es Salobrar around 3,30 pm and most of the birds were far away. We counted some 100 flamingos, almost the same amount of avocets, one common sandpiper, few kentish plovers, shelduck, shoveler, red kite, stonechat, black redstart and a zitting cistola, which showed its tail nicely. Very quiet. But our drive home was spectacular (Ses Salinas, S'Alqueria Blanca, towards Portocristo, Son Macia and on) with the almond trees flowering in the setting sun. It seems to be the right time right now. And as there are few almond trees left in the north, we enjoyed it even more.
Tuesday we went to Maristany. Lots of shovelers, marsh harrier, gulls (audouin, black-headed and yellow-legged), little grebe, great crested grebe, red-crested pochard, common pochard, moorhen, coot, crag martin, house martin and barn swallow (no red-rumped unfortunately), serin, house sparrow, cetti, chiffchaff, white wagtail, blackbird and goldfinch. It is a nice place to spend a little time.
Hello Erik, I love your shot of the Swallow. Here is a shot of Pochard, taken at the lake beside Lidl, Alcudia, the t you might like, Garth.
 

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I spent the day with Phil A today. We started at the bay at Cala San Vicenc watching shearwaters that were always distant. We moved on to the woods and the to Fishermens Walk where it was a little windy. We did see a Raven and heard and had brief glimpses of several Balearic warbler but sadly no Dartfords. Back in the woods we saw firecrest and at least 3 crossbills and a pair of blackcaps. We thought we heard a wren calling but couldn’t track it down. On leaving we once again met Erik and Kirsten Hansen, perhaps for the last time until next winter. It has been a pleasure catching up with you again. As it was still only late morning we decided to go on to
Mortix only to find the road closed about 6km outside of Pollenca. I don’t know when this is due to reopen and would like to go to both Cuber and Mortix early next week. To compensate we headed to Maristany hoping for hirundines but it was very quiet. Our final stop was for an hour at Albufereta which was also very …..quiet! It was now time to head to Aries Bar for a cool beer and to plan our next day out. Not much success on the birding front today but, as ever, good company. Thank you Phil.
 
Hello Erik, I love your shot of the Swallow. Here is a shot of Pochard, taken at the lake beside Lidl, Alcudia, the t you might like, Garth.
Hello Garth - thank you very much. The swallow was taken at Maristany, the same place as your pochard. Yes, I like your pochard a lot as I do with the other two you have posted, of the sparrowhawk and the gulls (taken at La Gola??). They are very impressive indeed, look like you are shooting fullframe with lots of mp's and a good reach on your lens as well? Best regards Erik.
 
Some common swift have been seen and I believe Pep saw a couple of Alpine swift too.
I’m not at home to check for previous Laughing dove records but I believe they are showing some signs of breeding behavior.
There is a general expansion of their range I have been told.
Perhaps Pep could help in my absence.
Great birding here in Florida of course. Birds seems so unafraid of human activity with Sandhill cranes in the garden, together with Great egrets and Little blue heron.
Enjoy Mallorca.
Mike
 

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Some common swift have been seen and I believe Pep saw a couple of Alpine swift too.
I’m not at home to check for previous Laughing dove records but I believe they are showing some signs of breeding behavior.
There is a general expansion of their range I have been told.
Perhaps Pep could help in my absence.
Great birding here in Florida of course. Birds seems so unafraid of human activity with Sandhill cranes in the garden, together with Great egrets and Little blue heron.
Enjoy Mallorca.
Mike
Hello all,
I think we never had Laughing dove in Majorca, now in Ibiza there are 4, doing territorial defense, so probably they will bread there.
Laughing dove it is an specie in a clear territorial range expansion and now they are breading in several places of Spain.
Today in Albercutx tower only one Marsh harrier and a pallid switf migrating to the north.
Yesterday i saw 4 pallids swifts at Maristany.
Josep
 

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A quiet morning around the house today was followed by a couple of hours at the beautiful local La Gola reserve. Several house martins over the pond and a lovely red kite. A grey heron was fishing in the channels. In the woods I had crossbill, firecrest and plenty of chiffchaff and goldcrest. I thought I heard a willow warbler calling but couldn’t find it in the pine woods. The serious stuff starts again tomorrow!
 
I started the day yesterday at the bus garage before spending some time in the Son Bosc road and then going to the Depuradora. No sign of tree sparrows that were there a couple of days ago. I can’t remember the ponds ever being so quiet before; a few green and common sandpipers, yellow wagtails and plovers but little else. From there I went to Cami des Pols and walked along the west boundary of Albufera. Plenty of marsh harriers and a booted eagle in the air but nothing else. At Es Forcadet pond there was nothing but a large group of black headed gulls. My final stop, at the small scrape at the back of the Port Blue resort hotel on the edge of Albufereta, proved to be the most productive of the day. Osprey, red kite, booted eagle and marsh harriers were all on show and the scrape itself had snipe and greenshank. A quiet day for birding but a lovely few hours out walking in the sunshine.
 
Today I went to the Cape, which must be missing MikeM's presence to keep watch over arrivals and departures to the island. But the real reason was because I had arranged to meet Erik and Kirsten Hansen as I had the feeling from their posts that we would have some things in common. Erik had told me in advance that they would be keen to see shearwaters and I blithely stated there would be a good chance. And indeed, they showed up – I estimated between 300 and 400 Balearic shearwaters that first flew past in groups and then settled on the water to rest and feed, admittedly at a great distance, so no photos. But also there were individual Scopoli’s skimming the smooth blue water, a hypnotic sight. And it turned out that we did have a lot in common with the Hansens, so that the almost complete absence of birds arriving on migration or in the bushes and trees almost went unnoticed. We did move on to the Es Trenc road and saw quite a few of the regulars there, Kentish plovers, avocets, shelduck, black winged stilt, flamingos in the distance (over 200 spotted later from outside the hotel). And we rounded off a lovely morning with lunch at the Bar Es Pins in Campos and coffee on our patio. In my still relatively short birding career, I have seen and enjoyed some glorious locations, fascinating birds, but in first place I think come the wonderful people I have met! Thank you Kirsten and Erik for the great day together. Have a safe journey home and we are looking forward to meeting again come December!


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I headed to Albufereta this morning where I had the entire reserve to myself for more than 2 hours. 100+ flamingo on the main pools and at least 4 great white egrets. The Sa Barcassa pond was quiet as it has been this week. A gentle walk around the mound saw at least 4 corn bunting singing and 2 fan tailed warblers. With the road from Pollenca to Mortix and Cuber still closed I decided to revisit the entrance to Ternelles valley. On the walk up I watched a Bonellis eagle above the sky line before it dropped against the mountain side where I couldn’t pick it up again. There were up to 8 vultures high up and not easy to identify but I did pick up at least 2 griffon among them. There was also a raven and several kestrel. With temperatures between 20° and 24°, a bright sunny sky and little wind this was a day when spring time mallorca was at its finest.
 
A Marsh sandpiper has been seen by Pep at s’Albufera and I believe a rare bunting seen by Toni. P. at Cami des polls but I’m not sure which species.
Perhaps someone could fill in the blank.

Glad you met Kirsten and Erik derban. I just knew you would get along fine. I’m now looking forward to getting back to my regular haunts in Mallorca as soon as possible. I’m back on the 30th and I’m going straight up north on the 31st. Just in time for some major migration, I hope!
Mike
 
A Marsh sandpiper has been seen by Pep at s’Albufera and I believe a rare bunting seen by Toni. P. at Cami des polls but I’m not sure which species.
Perhaps someone could fill in the blank.
Hello
Hi Mike, I hope you enjoying Florida!, no i did not see the marsh harrier, it was Tom Carley, i just posted in the grup the info from Ebird.
Toni Soler has seen by second continuos year a Little bunting, in the Cami des Polls, (Albufera)
 
I met Phil A and Kevin this morning and we spent the day at Albufera. 10 or more night herons were in the roost on the canal side and we had both moustached and Cetti’s warbler on the final approach to the visitor centre. The 3 hides nearest Sa Roca were all quiet, not helped by strimming and grass cutting going on close by. We decided to head to the Cibollar hides and then come back to Sa Roca later in the day. On arriving at Cibollar 1 we found it full of photographers and there was no space for us to go in. We moved on to Cibollar 2 where there was little to report before walking up to the power station hide at Columbars. Here the water levels were much too high and there were no waders to be seen. We decided to retrace our steps and go back to Cibollar in the hope that the hides had cleared. The late afternoon produced both song and mistle thrush in the paddock between the Sa Roca hides and several yellow wagtail. At Cibollar we had more yellow wagtails, 100+ avocets, 2 male and 2 female ruff, 6-7 little stint, 1 temmincks stint and a mass of little ringed and Kentish plover and black winged stilts. Other than a few fly over stone curlew and glossy ibis there was little else to report. It was time to head to Rosa Blanca bar to reflect on another really enjoyable day in the field.
 
Today I went to the Cape, which must be missing MikeM's presence to keep watch over arrivals and departures to the island. But the real reason was because I had arranged to meet Erik and Kirsten Hansen as I had the feeling from their posts that we would have some things in common. Erik had told me in advance that they would be keen to see shearwaters and I blithely stated there would be a good chance. And indeed, they showed up – I estimated between 300 and 400 Balearic shearwaters that first flew past in groups and then settled on the water to rest and feed, admittedly at a great distance, so no photos. But also there were individual Scopoli’s skimming the smooth blue water, a hypnotic sight. And it turned out that we did have a lot in common with the Hansens, so that the almost complete absence of birds arriving on migration or in the bushes and trees almost went unnoticed. We did move on to the Es Trenc road and saw quite a few of the regulars there, Kentish plovers, avocets, shelduck, black winged stilt, flamingos in the distance (over 200 spotted later from outside the hotel). And we rounded off a lovely morning with lunch at the Bar Es Pins in Campos and coffee on our patio. In my still relatively short birding career, I have seen and enjoyed some glorious locations, fascinating birds, but in first place I think come the wonderful people I have met! Thank you Kirsten and Erik for the great day together. Have a safe journey home and we are looking forward to meeting again come December!


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I have nothing to add to the birds we saw, except that we really enjoyed looking at the scopoli's elegance. Thank you for finding it. And thank you indeed for a wonderful day, it was the spring equinox and should this day be an omen for the spring to come we are looking very much forward to it. Looking forward to seeing you again in december.
 
Looking forward to some birding on the island in a few week’s time.
Last year I was fortunate to find 3 slender-billed gulls on the Albufereta. However, apart from putting the finding on this forum, I was unsure how to put the news out.
On the Scillies there is a chap called Kris Webb (Spider) who runs a WhatsApp group. People contact Kris (Group Administrator) to join the group when they arrive and remove themselves on leaving the islands. This works very well for all concerned and everyone gets instant bird updates. (I appreciate that no one may want to step forward to run such a group!)
Wondered if there is such a set up for visiting birders on Mallorca?
If I am fortunate to find anything this year can anyone recommend what is the best way to share news, thanks.
 

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