Sa Coma, Majorca

18th – 24th October 2005

by Rob Miles 

This was a family holiday, although my 8 year old son James was a keen bird-watcher, my wife Fiona would rather watch paint dry!, so I would have to snatch a few birdwatching opportunities whilst exploring the island.  After a night-flight from Bristol we arrived at the resort of Sa Coma on the east coast in the small hours of the morning of the 18th October, and after a few hours of catch-up sleep we went for a walk around the resort.  The weather all week was 25°C, pleasantly warm with a balmy breeze.  The only birds around the hotel were small flocks of House Sparrows, tame enough to land on the balcony whilst we were sat out there, and a few Blackbirds, which were very vocal and seemed to have carved out territories around the tropical gardens of the hotel.  A walk around the Sa Coma ranch area, heading towards North America point,  produced lots of Stonechats in the scrub and a few Barn Swallows hawking for the numerous flies around the paddock with local horses and donkeys grazing.  Lots of little brown jobs flitting around the pine trees. Collared Doves were common here and later all over the island, didn’t see a single Turtle Dove.  There were also a lot of pigeons of the Feral/Rock Dove variety that had territories in the pumice like pock-marked red rocks abutting the sea.  At night from the hotel bedroom I could hear an eerie tri-syllabic curlew like call, that could have been Stone Curlew, but I didn’t venture out to investigate. 

On 19th, a day interspersed with light rain showers, we took a bus to Porto Cristo, and in the town I saw six Collared Doves by the riverbank, and a Little Egret fishing in the river. 

On 20th, I picked up the hire-car, that we had for four days, and what better way to break up a long drive to the North coast than stopping off at the Parc Natural de S’Albufera.  We parked outside the gates in the small visitor car-park and walked along the track into the long drive adjoining the Gran Canal.  What a fabulous 4 hours we spent in this beautiful wetland, reminiscent of the Somerset levels with a tropical climate. Saw the first of several Grey Herons fishing the shallows of the far bank, and then an Eleonora's Falcon swooped over our heads.  This was the start of a truly magical experience, a flock of about 20 Stone Curlews flew over, wheeling around and circling back before dropping out of sight in the near-distance.  From the visitor centre we headed in the direction of Bishop’s Hide 1, seeing a Cormorant and lots of Coot, with a few Red-knobbed Coot on the canal, not showing the two red knobs but clearly showing the rounded black feathering in front of the eye ( James and I would have missed this interesting lifer if a friendly British bird-watcher hadn’t pointed these out).  There were a few Moorhens about and all the way to the hide, Cetti's Warblers were squirting out their explosive bursts of song, and luckily for James, one obliging bird showed right in front of us.  From Bishops Hide 1, I was amazed to see a large flock of Teal, and lots of Black-winged Stilts.  These were much closer than the pair we’d seen at Fretherne earlier this year.  Later that morning a flock of 25 stilts flew over our heads, giving out their contact call, with their long legs trailing out behind them it was perfectly choreographed and seared into my memory forever.  From that hide we also saw four Bar-tailed Godwits and a solitary Greenshank.  There were no Kentish Plovers all day, the water levels in all of the lagoons were very high and we didn’t have time to visit the sites where other birders had reported seeing them.  Other birders saw Redshank and Spotted Redshank from Bishop 1, but we didn’t.  We moved on to Bishops Hide 2, and although there wasn’t a lot to see (just more Teal), there was a very obliging Osprey on a fence-post nearby.  I’d treated myself to an Opticron Mighty Midget 2 spotting scope, with a basic Opticron HR2 lens ( about x20) as I didn’t want to risk damaging my main scope in transit abroad,  I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone for a holiday scope, it can be hand held quite steadily like a monocular scope and folds into a ridiculously small bundle.   Fiona was getting bored by now (we’d only been there two hours!) and so we cut back to the visitor centre, crossing the canal on a small dam, from which we saw a Little Egret and more Coot and Fiona agreed to one last walk to the nearby CIM hide.  In this lagoon were Shoveler, and best of all, a Purple Gallinule in the reeds opposite.  I could hear, but not see, Wigeon whistling in the reeds. Reluctantly leaving an hour later, a large eagle-like raptor seen soaring in the distance earlier was now close enough to show itself as a Booted Eagle, a fact confirmed by the helpful Spanish warden I got into conversation with.  On the walk back we saw a Clouded Yellow butterfly, lots of dragonflies and there were so many large brown grasshoppers around that they repeatedly crashed into you as you walked through the reserve.  A roosting juvenile Night Heron was a bonus, as was the over flying Great White Egret. 

On 20th October we headed north to Port de Pollensa, Fiona kindly agreed to an hour pit-stop at the Ses Salinetes lagoons, abandoned salt pans, where I’d hoped to see Kentish Plover, but the water levels were again very high and there were few birds around this part of the park, except for an over flying Cattle Egret and lots of Stonechats.  So on to Port de Pollensa, where a Grey Heron was resting on the shore and from the beach a small colony of Shag, the Mediterranean sub-species desmarestii, were resting on a small sand bar close inshore.  An obliging Audouin's Gull paraded in front of us on the shore line, and there were lots of Yellow-legged Gulls and a few Black-headed Gulls about.  A walk into the town produced a lone Great White Egret fishing the local river.  We then drove out to Cap Formentor, stopping at the view-point just at the summit of the climb out of Port de Pollensa.  In a half hour stop-over I saw five Eleonora's Falcons.  Fiona and James walked further out than me and saw a further six.  At the Cap itself ( a very tortuous drive on winding mountain roads, not for the faint hearted) I was disappointed at the lack of seas-birds; just a trio of Yellow-legged Gulls, no Shearwaters at all but it was a sunny day with a flat calm sea.  There were a lot of hirundines about, but I couldn’t say for sure what, they looked like Swifts but were too far away for a positive ID. 

21st October, and feeling tired after lots of driving, we took the hire-car two miles up the road to the Sa Coma Safari Zoo.  The small herd of gnus had attracted a group of six White Wagtails, it could almost have been the African plains to see the relationship between these ungainly herbivores and the insect catching wagtails.  Under a cork oak, a Hoopoe flew in and gave me my only bird photo-opportunity of the holiday. 

The Hoopoe extracted a large earthworm from the very lush grass and flew off with its prize.  The only other birds seen at the safari park were the ubiquitous House Sparrows and more Collared Doves. 

23rd October, and the last day of the hire-car so I was up for an island tour via the central plane, through the mountains to Port de Soller.  Did I mention a planned pit-stop at Cuber reservoir?  We drove to the marvellously appointed cafe at the top of the Coll de sa Bataia, just before the road forks right for Pollenca, and left for Soller.  This was truly local Majorcan cuisine and Fiona enjoyed a traditional Majorcan Sunday lunch of Roast suckling pig and I had Roast goat, James ate his usual Spag Bol.  Saw a Blue Tit in the adjacent pine trees, and then, briefly above the Puig de Macanella mountain ridge the soaring shape of a Black Vulture, the bird I was really hoping to see.  Two Eleonora's Falcons drifted by whilst we were resting after the meal. An hour later we stopped at Gorge Blau lake, water here very low and nothing about, so on to Cuber reservoir, where there was a solitary Grey Heron and 100’s of gulls spiralling above the far end of the lake.  The "kek kek kek" call of a bird of prey alerted us to a Common Kestrel that sat obligingly close to us, and just as we were about to set off (Fiona nearly finished reading the Da Vinci code) a Black Vulture crested the ridge behind us and gave us a fabulous view as it lazily soared across the ridge, with just the occasional flap of its huge wings. 

24th October, our last day, saw us taking the glass-bottomed catamaran to Porto Cristo.  Despite hopefully scanning the sea all I saw was a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls, apart from the local hotel House Sparrows the last birds seen on this thoroughly enjoyable holiday. 

For a family holiday Sa Coma had everything and was convenient for a drive anywhere on the island.  I’m hoping my next trip to Majorca will be a dedicated bird-watching holiday near the Parc Natural de S’Albufera ! 

Rob Miles,   26th October 2005