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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Peewit" data-source="post: 1502729" data-attributes="member: 57492">Reports Fornells/Ses Salines - Part 2 of 2Reports Fornells/Ses Salines - Part 2 of 2We walk forward, and along the beach front and decided to have a bite to eat. To be honest more of a drink, and a tasty fish dish.  The Restaurants where so good, the service fantastic, and the food was very excellent.  We said ‘hello’ to others from our sailing group who where having a walk like ourselves.  We sit and look across to the mouth of the bay, and out to the Mediterranean Sea.  A movement catches our eye and a bright Green Lizard scuttles along the pavement and into the plant box nearby.  He was a quick mover. A picture was out of the question.We continue our walk and past a Yellow Legged Gull who was happy to do a pose for a photograph.    We took 6 pictures of the same Gull.  I wonder if he was thinking we would give him some food.  Yellow Legged Gulls are now considered a pest in Menorca, and  I would not tempt fate with a beak that size.  He moved about and he looked although he was doing a dance to impress us.  He perched on a fence was part of his dance too!We pass a row of buildings – some where deserted, and dead looking, and others looked lived in.  It gave the impression that some of these buildings are some type of holiday chalets.  The same buildings cascaded together on the left of us as we walked along.  We pass a little café with people sitting outside enjoying a beverage or two.  Lots of talking and laughter from people.  To the right of us was an abundance of flowering plants, Cactus's and scrubs of all types.  The place was alive with beautiful wild flowers.  The wildlflowers continued to the edge of the uneven red coloured rocks, and into the sea.The sea was hitting the rocks really hard and the wind continued to blow as it did.  I could taste the salt in the air.  The sea in the bay is very salty to taste, and the salt stuck to your skin.  An Audouin’s Gull sat on a rock close to the sea and looked on.  It looked at us as we took a picture of the bird. I was so pleased as I had never seen this Gull before and I was informed that the Gull is a very rare bird, and they are breeding in Menorca.  That is a success story for them as a species.  The Yellow Legged Gull flew above us slowly and we took advantage of it, and got a really good picture of the bird in flight.We made our way to Talaia De Fornells (monument) at the furthest end of Fornells itself.  We walked up to the building for a better view over the sea.  The sea splashed about on the rocks and the water flew up in the air at a rate of knots.  The sea went for miles and nothing was seen in the distance.  There where another two areas of rocks further out, and two lighthouses where positioned on each one to serve their own purpose for boat safety.Time was marching on and we decided to make our way back.  It was getting on to  mid afternoon.  So we walked back the way we came.  As we walked a car drew up next to us and we where offered a lift by members of the sailing group.  We accepted the offer, and had a chat with one of the main higher bodies in the sailing group.  We all agreed, the wind had dropped and the sailing was good once more.We got back, and decided to book a trip out on the SB3 boat for later in the day.  A nice, large safe boat where it would never capsize.  It has a fixed keel so that sounded good to me. That is the sort of boat we needed after our ‘dip’ this morning.So now we where dry, fed we where happy, after the relaxation of the walk about.  We went for another quick walk to see who was around the beach.  We came across some birders who where visiting from the south side of the island only for the day.   They had a scope in hand so we had a long talk about all the species we had seen.  They had been having a look a the Ses Salines Salt Pans and explained that they could see Ringed Plovers, Kentish Plovers,  Stone Curlew,  and Little Egrets.  So good to met these people.  Anyway the meeting was brief and very informative indeed, and it was another learning level for us.At 4.30pm we jumped into a RIB boat.  We where taken to the Poonton where the SB3 boat was moored, and we jumped on to the boat.  The boat was set up for sailing, and we headed off for our 2 hour trip, out of the bay and into the Mediterranean Sea for a mile or so.  A Cormorant flew past as they always did between the boats in the bay.  One of the local Little Egrets decided to make an appearance, flew over us, and landed by the boat yard. We carried on, and past the Fornell beach front full of Restaurants, and moored boats where we where earlier on for our walk, and we sailed on into the sea itself.  The boat was going at some rate and it felt quite fast.  I put up the Kite and the Kite was huge, and it helped the boat to power on.  Wow what a feeling of power and speed. As we sailed we could see a Wild Black Goat standing up the side of the steep hill to the right of us.  After a while, a group of Storm Petrels flew past our boat.  They only scraped the surface of the water as they flew along by our side.  I wonder if the boat was stirring up the morsels of food they liked to eat.  I counted 10 of them and they stayed firmly together as a group.  Amazing sight. :t::t:We had sailed about about a mile out to sea, before we saw them at all.   We would have never seen them from the shore at all, so we where very lucky indeed. :t::-O:-O:-OWe continued our trip and then we had to turn back.   We past the two lighthouses noted earlier on during our walk.  We enjoyed our trip and I really enjoyed the view of the Storm Petrels.  That was such a treat to have seen these birds any day in their natural environment too.We got back to base and the SB3 boat was tied to the Pontoon once more. We where taken back to shore by the RIB boats once more.We went back to the chalet and changed and went out for a couple of beers at my horse friends restaurant.  It was after 6pm now, and we relaxed.  As we sat more bird activity was noted.  A bird appeared on the knobbly trunk of the  nearby tree, and looked although it was eating insects.  We thought it was a Flycatcher of some type.  It remained on the trunk for a while so we could observe it through our binoculars.We found out that the bird is a Spotted Flycatcher.  It liked it patch, between a TV aerial and a small tree.  Then another one appeared so they must be a pair.  They flew in their patch every day.   We visited the Restaurant at the same time of day between 5-6pm and there they where catching their food.   At one stage we where sitting at our table and the two Spotted Flycatchers came into the veranda area, and started eating all the insects in a crevice high in the patio doorway.  What a great view close up of the birds involved. It is was although they where not bothered about our presence as we sat and watched them.  They certainly liked sitting on top of the Aerial on the nearby roof and the nearby tree.  We sat and watched them through our binoculars for a good while.  We decided to go back to the chalet to change for dinner.We had our dinner at a restaurant close by, and that was the end of our day and it was a great day out.  This is another report done and one other to go…. Then the Wild Flora thread to be added, and the new Butterfly thread to be looked at, and updated.Picture 6 - Spotted flycatcher sitting on its favourite perchPicture 6 - GeckoPicture 7 - Road to/from Fornells</blockquote>

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