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Mallorca 2024 (3 Viewers)

Thank you Mike and Mcnswiss2 for your answers. Our hotel is in Port de Pollenca, but we have a car to use, so no problemas to travel all over the Island.

I just noticed (from Google Maps) that there is a wildfire in Western Albufera! Hopefully los Bomberos can put it out soon.
 
Barn swallows still streaming past my balcony and out to sea. Goodness knows how many left the Island today.
I also saw around 500-600 common starling at passage 5, Ses salines this morning.
They are revving up for one of the most spectacular shows in town. Murmurations of starlings up north.
S’amarador or the depuradora are probably the best places but others will know of alternative places to view.
They vary in number each year but I remember one year in the company of StewB, watching endless clouds of starlings going overhead.
Absolutely uncountable but estimates were between 1.5 and 2 million.
I’ve never forgotten it. I bet Stew hasn’t either.
Mike
 
Mike Montier said:
Barn swallows still streaming past my balcony and out to sea. Goodness knows how many left the Island today.
I also saw around 500-600 common starling at passage 5, Ses salines this morning.
They are revving up for one of the most spectacular shows in town. Murmurations of starlings up north.
S’amarador or the depuradora are probably the best places but others will know of alternative places to view.
They vary in number each year but I remember one year in the company of StewB, watching endless clouds of starlings going overhead.
Absolutely uncountable but estimates were between 1.5 and 2 million.
I’ve never forgotten it. I bet Stew hasn’t either.
Mike
Click to expand...

I really haven’t! It was January 2019, and Mike S and Mrs M were with us at S’Amarador. I described it then as one of the most spectacular wildlife events I had ever seen, and it remains so to this day. As you say, there was wave after wave, but not little groups - they were enormous groups of thousands. I got quite emotional about it, and still do. The power of the natural world!

Stew
 
Another excellent report Stew.
Your reviews have fast become one of the highlights of the Mallorca thread.
It was great to share some of that time with you, the best bit was finding the Pectoral sandpiper..not forgetting those pizzas either.

I have just driven from Manacor to Porto Petro and I counted at least 15 Plain tiger butterflies drifting over the roadside so goodness knows how many there are on the Island at the moment.
Certainly many hundreds.
Cap tomorrow I hope. I’m still waiting for that Lessr spotted eagle to fly by. Many birders have seen one but I have yet to connect.
I also need Sparrowhawk for the year.
Mike
 
Hi All,

Got back from a one week stay on the island with my dad last Saturday and, firstly, wanted to thank everyone on here for all the information on birding the island. It was a birding trip, and this thread pretty much planned it all for us.

Most of sightings were nothing out of what seems to be the usual, but we did notice one thing that might be of interest. I seem to remember reading on this thread that reliable spots around Port de Pollença for Scops owls are few and far between now. We were staying in the Duvabitat apartments near Gotmar and heard at least 2 birds calling on or around the complex grounds every night. At times it raised to 4 birds calling at once. The first (and only) time we tried to see them, we were successful and picked up one in the palm trees where the pin on the maps screenshot is (hopefully it attached properly). I’m not sure whether this area will be reliable for them in the long run, but thought it be worth mentioning for anyone staying in the area and hoping to target the species in the future.

Thanks again to everyone on the thread, the info really was invaluable.

Oliver

IMG_7971.jpeg
 
I bought a property in Gotmar, on the other side of the road from the Duva and Habitat, 5 years ago. I read about Scops Owl having been regulars around the Guardia Civil building and the Pollenca Park Hotel but that they had moved on. From 2019 to 2022 I didn’t hear Scops Owl in Gotmar although I did see one on an overhead wire one evening. In the last 2 years the situation has changed dramatically and they can be heard regularly. I’ve just returned from a 3 weeks visit and heard them almost every night. I did track one down to a tree in Carrer del Pinsa and whilst watching it had another bird calling nearby. Both Gotmar and the area around Duva/Habitat are now reliable sites and I’ve heard them throughout this year, often with 2 birds calling separately. It does appear they have made a strong comeback in the area.
 
The Cap was pretty hopeless this morning with just one Marsh harrier leaving in the gloom of the early morning.
So I sat there waiting, whilst the mosquitoes feasted themselves on my unsuspecting exposed bits.
Much to my relief, Martin arrived one minute ahead of his ETA.
He predicted the exact time raptors would be seen and he was bang on.
Two black kite were logged, two Bonelli’s eagles, a Peregrine and a couple of Booted eagle.
None of them left sadly so we were entertained by the large presence of butterflies and Barn swallows.
Monarch: 26
Plain tiger: 64
Barn swallows: 139
Thanks for your much valued company Martin and for hearing all those passing passerines.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
I can’t make it but I know some locals will be there.
Have fun on Cabrera, with a Dusky warbler being seen today by Maties, anything is possible.
Mike
 

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First day at a Island. From airport we drove straight to the Bassa de Can Guidet. 23 species from there. On pool were Mallard, Northern Shoveler, Common Pochard, Ferruginous Duck, Black-necked and Little Grebe, Cormorant (only 1), Coot, Yellow-legged and Black-headed Gull. Other niceties were Booted Eagle, Red Kite, Kestrel, Cetti's Warbler and group of Red-legged Partridges, which my son (who isn't birder) noticed under the trees.
On elsewhere we birded only little. At La Gola (whitch wasn't open until Monday) best species was Emperor.
Near hotel (Club del Sol) were Little Egret, Wood Pigeon and Chiffchaff. Greenshank made overfly. And then I saw only briefly a Warbler which has grey head and red eye. Possibilities in this time of year are Balearic or Dartford (but it looked paler grey in head so would it be possible thät there is still some Western Subalpines here?) And I can't rule out Sardinian either.
It has been long and goid day. Tomorrow is hopefully even better. 😁
 
Having been reading the posts about the Scops at PP this evening I was coincidentally looking at some of my Father's snaps from our first trip from 1982, this one attached is outside the main entrance to the Pollensa Park hotel and we were loading up our Mk1 Ford Fiesta for the day, Scops sat in these trees by the doors!
Me on the left, brother on the right dad now 92 with the camera ; even at the age of 20, I didn't own a camera!
I am going to try to get the colour slides scanned if my father can find them. There are many of the main sites with absolutely no development; us driving freely about the Albufera etc!! Boquer starting at the big stone gates, virtually no beach/harbour at PP, the wonderful Casas Veyas fig fields with open access around the lower fields, empty carpark at Formentor lighthouse etc etc.
I assume some of you will be interested to see a few of these; may take a while to assemble though....IMG_3718.jpeg
 
In 1980 I was in Majorca with a friend and our wives, in the afternoon we heard about the Scops at the PP hotel, the ladies were happy to go shopping so my colleague and I headed to the PP hotel but we were told that there often very difficult to find and so it could take a while. The ladies were happy with this and were probably glad to get rid of us for a few hours, so we took the car back to our own hotel around the corner and headed to the PP.

We arrived to find a small group of Brit birders who had already found the owls, we set up the scopes and had some great views, this all happened in a relatively short space of time and we found ourselves with time to spare. It was hot and we were on holiday so went to one of the many local hostelries
to have a beer and a game of Pool.
To shorten the story we had another game of Pool and of course another beer and you can guess the rest.
We eventually met the ladies 'on time' who then announced that they thought that they would like to have an evening meal in Cala Sant Vincente,
we both tried to say that it was too far to go on a night time and P Pollensa had lots of great eateries, however in the end we both had to admit to our clandestine afternoon and although were not inebriated we were still not fit to drive.
Predictably this was met with great disdain, silence and head shaking and discussions of who was the worst influence between my colleague and myself.

So be careful when looking for Scops Owls and don't play Pool.
Did I mention that it involved my now ex-wife?

Regards
Merlin
 
I don’t know what’s happening on the seawatching front but my last few outings have been miserable.
Barely a handful of birds most times and occasionally, I’ve seen nothing at all.
Tonight, a paltry 13 Scopoli’s shearwaters and nothing else.
I was just packing up when an adult northern gannet flew by. My first of the autumn.
It’s still hot here and our guests got sunburnt.
So many butterflies out and about, it’s been a joy to see huge numbers of Plain tiger. Everywhere I’ve been, I’ve seen dozens. A lovely event.
Also, every flower bed today had at least six hummingbird hawk moths in attendance.
Thrushes are pouring in and I saw my first Black redstart just now, together with a white wagtail.
My wife saw a large group of Goldcrests right where they usually are on arrival. As discovered by StewB. I think the south-east corner of Mallorca should be very good for migrants. If I could just stop running round the Island and concentrate on my local patch a bit more, I might do quite well.
I will walk round the coast as soon as I can because I fancy that one day, there will be a rarity in with them, a Pallas’ warbler would be nice, but a Yellow-browed would also be very acceptable.
Mike.
 

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At yesterday we went to S'Albufera. What a wonderfull place! We saw there 42 species in 3 hours time. Results are in eBird.
LIfers for me were Marbled Teal, Red-knobbed Coot, Little Bittern, Audouin's Gull and Moustached Warbler.
My missus was very, very, very happy for hers first Kingfisher. :D
Mallorcan list includes now 55 birds.
Now for breskfast and towards new adventures...
 

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