TRIP REPORT – MAJORCA – 2001 By Andrew Bluett

This was to be a family holiday, I was under orders and had to snatch my birding pleasures when family duty allowed! Quite a coincidence really then, that the hotel was only 200 yards from one of the best nature reserves in the Mediterranean!

Friday 27^th July

It had been a hot, sunny day. We packed and prepared, and set off for Bristol Airport in the evening. We saw a few Buzzards along the motorway. After arriving and checking in, we took off at 11:15pm and flew direct to Palma, Majorca, arriving at 2:20am local time.

Saturday 28^th July

The airport was alive with Cicadas “fizzing” in the dark. It was hot, humid and tiring but we got onto our coach and set off across to the north east of the island, arriving at the Aparthotel Suncentre Alcudia Pins at 3:30am.

We slept for a few hours, then rose, dressed and went down for a late breakfast.

The first birds were House Sparrows, which were all around the hotel and on the beach. The beach was where we spent most of the day, cloudless, sunny and very hot (34ºC), but there were compensations. Audouin’s Gulls were flying to and fro off the beach, black wingtips and an apparently black (though dark red) beak.

After dinner, I walked along the road northwards, towards Alcudia. There were lots more House Sparrows and finches in the pines. I was able to see across the vast reed beds of the S’Albufera National Park. There were several gulls, a raptor in the far distance, which I took to be a harrier or possibly a kite. Several other birds flew across far out over the reserve, they were curlew-sized but unidentifiable through the heat haze. A couple of bats flew back and forth later in the gathering dark but I saw no lizards.

Sunday 29^th July

To the beach after breakfast, the House Sparrows were around the hotel and beach. Off shore I watched several Audouin’s Gulls, adults and juveniles, also some smaller gulls, much farther out and difficult to see, but possibly Commons. Four Curlews swept around in a wide arc over the bay.

In the afternoon, Trish and Sam had a rest and I took Christopher and James for a walk, northward along the road to the “Gran Canal”, then left into S’Albufera and along the access road towards the visitor centre. There were House Sparrows about, some small and unidentified warblers, which wouldn’t play the game and let me have a proper look at them, preferring to stay in deep cover! On a partly dried area of mud pan we spotted Black-winged Stilts, an adult and a juvenile, Kentish Plovers and something large and black, fighting with a similar bird, but mainly hidden so that we only saw the flash of large black tails with white flashes in them. Shortly afterwards, I spotted a Purple Gallinule part hidden in a muddy ditch, and realised that this was what we had seen fighting. A Water Rail ran about agitatedly and very energetically, chasing the plovers and stilts. It was so different to see one in bright sunshine and in the open rather than being in part cover in the winter. Yellow Wagtails flew about calling; they were presumably the sub-species “iberiae”. A Greenshank skulked partly out of sight in the sedges towards the back of the pool.

There were also Coots, Mallards and Moorhens on the drainage ditches, a Kestrel flew about by the pines, Woodpigeons tracked back and fore across the landscape and there were Herring Gulls along the canal. In the pines, close to the road, there was a colony of egrets nesting in the trees, both Cattle and Little Egrets together and a Squacco Heron flew over.

On the way back we heard Greenfinches, Goldfinches and Crossbills in the pines. In the evening, after dinner, I watched the House Sparrows going to roost in flocks of a few to a few dozen, in the ivy growing up the end of the hotel block nearest to the road. Spotted Flycatchers flitted about among the trees around the complex.

Again, no lizards today, I have to assume that there aren’t many here.

Monday 30^th July

After breakfast, we spent the morning schlepping around the beach and pool. Trish met the Brewsters from Upton St Leonards by the pool; it’s a small world!

Apart from Audouin’s Gulls, I saw Herring and Common Gulls in the bay.

After lunch, I went for a walk again, south-eastwards this time towards Ca’n Picafort, weaving my way in and out of the pines, which border the reserve all along the main road here. I found an area of bare, dry ground, with a small, elongated area of shallow and stagnant water in it. There were Black-winged Stilts, Kentish Plovers and Little Ringed Plovers wading and feeding around the pool. On the bare, possibly ploughed, ground beyond, there were about 40 gulls, adult and immature Audouin’s, Herring and Common Gulls.

Further on down the road, I followed a track, which led out into the reserve towards some houses (an area called S’Illot). There were salt pans or sludge lagoons approximately 100 x 50 metres each, some bone dry, some with some watery sludge in, and a pumping station stood by the junction of the track with the road. The smell was pretty awful, and it was extremely hot, but there were Kentish Plovers running about, and a pair of Black-winged Stilts, one adult, and one juvenile.

I got the impression that one of the Kentish Plovers was sitting but didn’t see anything definite. There were chicks there though, not much more than a week old. I heard Yellow Wagtails, a warbler or two (not seen, and therefore unidentified), Woodpigeon, Great Tit, Greenfinches and House Sparrows.

I walked on a little further, then turned and made my way back to have another look at the stilts. I suddenly saw a bird perched on an overhead wire, which was clearly a shrike. It was difficult to see against the bright sky, but the cheeks were very white, brown on the crown and there was a white wing bar. Back at the hotel, the field guide identified it as a Woodchat, though interestingly, the local island race of Woodchats, do not have the wing bar, so clearly this one was a migrator from the mainland.

There were lots of Spotted Flycatchers around the lawn and in the trees at the adjacent hotel, as there had been the previous evening. After dinner, we walked a little way north, heard a Fan-tailed Warbler and saw a Swift fly by. We walked back along the beach where there were immature Audouin’s Gulls, but nothing else.

Back at the hotel, I at last saw a Gecko! It was on the wall of the apartment block by the staircase.

Tuesday 31^st July

After breakfast we took the bus to Port de Alcudia, got off early and walked half a mile into the marina area. We saw a Greenfinch sat on a garden wall before it disappeared into the adjacent garden.

After orientating ourselves and having a drink at a café, we set off to walk the mile or so to “old” Alcudia and the market. There were Swifts flying over an open piece of ground along the way, some looked lighter than others and I think were Pallid Swifts. In the old town after visiting the market, we had lunch at a street café. Overhead, several hundred House Martins clung to a cornice and other ledges on the front of a house, where they were shaded from the sun.

After lunch, we walked back a mile or so to the main road, past the Roman ruins to find a bus stop and catch a bus back to Alcudia Pins. At the hotel we rested, then went for dinner where the food was again very good.

We walked south, around the adjacent hotel, where I saw a warbler fly over, though couldn’t immediately identify it. The sparrows were going to roost again as we walked across the road to the bare ground mentioned yesterday, where this time we saw two Black-winged Stilts, four Kentish Plovers and a few juvenile gulls.

On the way back, I heard the warbler in the low trees in front of the hotel; C, J and I stalked and saw it amongst the pines, on the ground. It had a longish tail with a dark body and a darker head. Back at the hotel I checked the field guide, and concluded that it was a Marmora’s Warbler. We headed back to the apartment and turned in a little earlier than the past couple of nights as we are going to the west coast and the mountains tomorrow.

Wednesday 1^st August

I was up and out on the balcony at 6:30 am, before the sunrise, it was almost chilly! We had breakfast at 8:00 and boarded the coach at 8:30 for a trip to see the “Hidden Treasures” of the west coast and mountains.

We travelled via Inca to Santa Maria del Cami, then across country and up the valley to Valdemossa where we visited the town and the monastery where Chopin stayed during the winter of 1838/39 with his companion, George Sands (Armandine Dudevant). We visited their cells, which are a museum to their stay, and particularly to Chopin, housing two of his pianos, manuscripts and other artefacts.

I saw two more Woodchat Shrikes along the way and a very high buteo-like raptor over the mountains, possibly a Booted Eagle. From Chopin’s garden outside his rooms, I saw a Hoopoe fly down across the terraces of garden and field and disappear into some trees below. I saw a Blackbird (the first of the trip), Greenfinches in the pines and a Blackcap in an adjacent garden. From the coach, on the way back down the valley, I saw a colony of Crag Martins playing around the rocks.

We headed on down to Bunyola, where we left the coach and boarded a wooden, parallelogram pick-up electric train which took us up through the mountains to Soller, through the groves of Orange, Lemon, Olive and other trees. Back on the coach we drove down into Port Soller, then took a short boat ride out into the bay, from which I saw Herring Gulls on the cliffs. We had lunch, then coached it back to the outskirts of Palma and back to Inca for a visit to a Leather Goods shop, then finally back to Alcudia Pins via Porto Pollenca and “old” Alcudia.

Along the way I saw two definite Booted Eagles, one dark and the other very light. In the evening after dinner, an adult Audouin’s Gull was on the beach less than 100 yards away and then beyond the pier, a juvenile, saturated and wallowing in the water. It finally made it to the beach, but was set-upon by a Spaniel and driven back into the water again.

A flight of Swallows came in over the pier and beach and headed for the pine trees. They were obviously migrating and made landfall to rest. A Spotted Flycatcher or two flitted about in the trees and the House Sparrows went to roost again.

I have seen no Crows, no Magpies and no Starlings whilst here, though we did see the Gecko again this evening on the building again.

Thursday 2^nd August

After breakfast, Christopher and I waited by the taxi rank for a pickup to take us to collect a hire car. Whilst waiting, we saw a Hoopoe flit out of the Pines across the road and disappear over the tops and down into the S’Albufera reserve.

We drove down to Ca’n Picafort, then across country through the Maquis and farmland to Manacor and on to Porto Cristo where we visited the “Cuevos del Drach”, the Caves of the Dragon! It was well signposted and easy to find, well laid out and organised with a large car parking area with rows of bays under pine trees. I had seen another Woodchat Shrike along the roadside on the way, but nothing else of any real interest.

We got our tickets, then walked through the grounds to the queuing area, again under the shade of the pines growing everywhere. There were Goldcrests singing in the treetops above us. At 12:00 noon we were allowed through the gate and started down the steps into the mouth of the caves. We descended through the caverns to the deepest point, where there were banks of benches on a sloping slab of rock leading down to a lake, apparently 500m long, and 20-30m wide where we could see it and up to 9m deep. The water was crystal clear, lit from below, and we watched and listened to a 15-minute concert given by musicians in one of three large rowing boats, which were illuminated with chains of fairy lights around their gunwales in the semi darkness. It was well done and interesting to see.

We then began the return to the surface through another chain of caverns, as before all artistically lit and full of the most impressive formations of stalactites, stalagmites and “flows” of lime deposits on the cave walls and contours. Eventually we re-emerged into bright and very warm sunshine. There had been a single bat flittering over the lake immediately after the concert!

Back at the car we headed for Manacor, Arta, Ca’n Picafort and back to Alcudia Pins where I stopped briefly to collect a few bits and pieces for a picnic lunch to be taken somewhere up the road. Then we moved on again and through towards Porto Pollenca. We stopped by the side of the bay, just behind the beach about halfway there and had our lunch. 

There were gulls over the bay off the beach, a crowd of them fed, bathed and rested beside a small inflow of water. The water seemed to come from a drainage ditch/stream, which emanated from the grassy, marshy area, which led from the road towards the town of Pollenca.

We drove on again, through Puerto Pollenca, rising into the hills towards Talaia d’Albertcutx, then through the mixed pine and evergreen Oak forest, which took us through to Formentor. The road was narrow and winding, with some wicked rocks and retaining walls on the corners, devilish drops and ditches along the straights, and got worse as we headed northeast towards Cap Formentor. I found the driving stressful, not because of the rocks, drops or the several hundred-metre tunnel, but because of the oncoming drivers, mostly tourists, who would not stay over to their own side of the road. They all seemed to encroach over the centreline (albeit an imaginary one), so that several times, I put the nearside wheels off the tarmac in order to avoid collisions.

The forest became more open; the peninsula became higher and narrower, so that the open-side views were of drops to the sea of several hundred feet more often than not. We eventually made it out to Cap Formentor and parked by the lighthouse, decanted from the car and walked over to the wall on the north side of the peninsula, from where we had magnificent views of the cliffs and sea.

I saw a Fulmar, and I warned the boys to look out for birds, and particularly for any possible sign of falcons. We had been there only a few minutes when I heard the short but obvious call of a falcon, though I couldn’t see anything. For the next few minutes I scanned every airborne bird, but they were all gulls. Then, I saw a bird, high and hanging still over the lighthouse tower, which in the glasses was clearly a falcon. It had long and very curved wings, a relatively short tail, and a very dark profile against the sky. It was an Eleonora’s!

Over the next hour, we saw more, a couple at a time, then two or three more, anything up to six in the air at a time. They hung motionless over the cliffs and lighthouse, then side-slipped towards one another, then a pair would stoop at fantastic speed, sometimes dropping below the edge of the cliffs towards the sea and disappearing, sometimes twisting and barrel-rolling, then swooping and rising at a terrific rate to a height of several hundred feet above us. Individual birds would drift off way out over the sea to the south, or drop down towards the rocks, landing somewhere out of sight around the corner. They would all be gone, then suddenly a pair would re-appear, seeming to rise from nowhere to be there in our line of sight, another would float across from somewhere beyond our vision, and all the time, they gave the most fantastic display of “airmanship”, fast elegant and beautiful. I have seen raptors of all sorts, wherever I have been in the world, and they are all magnificent, but for sheer skill in the air, I think the Eleonora’s must be close to the best I have ever seen. They appeared to be mostly dark-phase birds, though being silhouetted against the bright sky, it was sometimes hard to tell, I had almost no opportunity to view them against the darker background of the sea or cliffs. They were reminiscent of heavily built Hobbies, and flew like, if not better than them.

This time of year (early August) is obviously fairly good for seeing them; they begin their colonial breeding in August in order to feed growing chicks on southbound migratory birds in September and October.

Eventually, at a little after 5:00pm, we loaded back into the car and headed back along the twisting road to Formentor, Porto Pollenca, and then back to Alcudia Pins. Along the way we saw several feral Goats on the hills. During the day we had seen another Booted Eagle, Greenfinches and Goldfinches, Swifts, two Blackbirds, a Kestrel, and Woodpigeons. We went back to the hotel for dinner and a relaxing evening.

Friday 3^rd August

I was ready and dressed before 8:00am, so agreed with Trish that I should take the car straight back to Avis, then, return for breakfast. I drove to the nearest fuel station, refilled the car and dropped it back before 8:25. It was a short walk to the bus stop, and then after a 10-minute wait and a 10-minute ride back to the hotel, I collected the family and we went down to eat.

We returned to the room, packed and sorted as much as we could and checked out of the room, and effectively out of the hotel, securing our goods in the waiting room lockers for the rest of the day. With the formalities done, T, J and S headed for the beach and pool, C and I rented a couple of mountain bikes and headed for the S’Albufera National Park. It was little more than a 10-minute ride to the park entrance, then along the lane by the “Gran Canal” to the bridge and on to the visitor centre. We collected a guide leaflet and “permits” (the date x 2 written on the front of the leaflet!), locked up the bikes and headed for the Cim hide and lagoon. We were alone for a while before another English birder arrived. There was a small patch of rapidly evaporating water in what was left of the “lagoon” in front of the hide, a pair of Black-winged Stilts, one adult one juvenile, dozens of Purple Gallinules, several Kentish and Little Ringed Plovers, and a Common Sandpiper wandered around picking and feeding. Whilst we sat there, a Woodchat Shrike appeared on one of the branches of a dead and bleached white tree, which lay on its side beyond the pool. A Greenshank flew over from somewhere behind us, out across the reeds and disappeared into the marsh. A couple of Audouin’s Gulls arrived, a sub-adult and a juvenile, and then a short burst of song from our right caused all three of us to turn and through the open door we saw a Sardinian Warbler sitting on the bramble by the fence, just 10 feet away. A Purple Heron flapped lazily into view from away out to the right, passed beyond the reeds a couple of hundred yards out in front of us and dropped into the marsh. Yellow Wagtails called from the dry pasture and the area around the pool.

We moved out of the hide and on into the reserve, stopping to have a good look at a simple windmill, which, by way of shafts and right angled gears, turned a small paddle wheel about 3 feet in diameter, which in turn pushed water from the ditch at the base of the windmill tower, down a small cutting and delivered it to the lagoon pool in front of the hide we had just left. Beyond the windmill, we climbed up onto a raised earth observation post about 20 feet above the general surrounding level, with a small deeper pond behind and which gave a view out across the marsh all around us.

A Night Heron winged past and dropped into the reeds in front of us, a swallow passed by; I thought it smaller, stockier and less “pointed” in wing and tail, so decided it was surely a Red-rumped Swallow. We could see little else of interest, so walked on across to the Sa Roca Bridge, which crossed the Gran Canal. Again we met our friend from the hide, he confirmed my diagnosis of the Night Heron. From the bridge we could see the canal here was rather shallower and more choked with weeds, sedges and reeds but the birds found it very attractive.

We could see lots more Purple Gallinule, Coot, Moorhen, assorted ducks including Red Crested Pochard and Mallard, Cattle and Little Egrets both in the water and flying over, a Squacco Heron very close to us, and we just missed sight of a Little Bittern. The Squacco was very interesting, tan/light brown when at rest and very difficult to see, it transformed magically into almost pure white when it raised it’s wings or flew. There were several dozen Black-winged Stilts in the canal and on a little island about 100 yards away. A flight of eight mixed adults and juveniles flew down the canal and past us landing downstream, then ten minutes later, they came back. We could hear Cetti’s Warbler in the undergrowth beyond the bridge, saw another Squacco Heron and a few other examples of most of the birds we were seeing as we stood there watching.

We walked on over the bridge, then back and upstream to the Watkinson Hide from which we saw a Little Grebe, and then another Purple Heron, which flew in from our left and dropped into the edge of the reeds across from us. It disappeared almost immediately just by standing still, and only became easily visible again when it moved.

We walked back to the bridge and then the visitor centre where I bought more water, then back and across the canal, and up to the “Tower Hide”. A steel, hexagonal tower perhaps 40 feet high which was reached by way of a spiral steel staircase in the centre, and which commanded a view across the entire area of the northern half of the reserve, though the view was always dependent upon the reeds, which in places were more than twelve feet high. From the platform, which was shaded by a well overhanging roof, and ventilated by a welcome breeze, we saw a Hoopoe flash past and land in a patch of deep grass beyond a small group of cattle. There were a few egrets in the canal and flying by from time to time, House Martins flew around and about and another Purple Heron flew lazily by. We descended and walked back to the bridge.

We stopped there for a while again, and frightened an exposed Little Bittern into “freezing” in a position about thirty yards from us, and in the open at the base of the reeds over the waters edge where we were able to watch it for several minutes before we left.

We decided time was going on, so headed back to the Cim Hide again and spent the last half an hour there watching the Stilts, Plovers, Gallinules, and a couple of Common Sandpipers. Then a dark bird came into view, clearly a raptor, but difficult to see through the heat haze and against the light. It quartered up and down over an area of ground beyond the reeds perhaps 250-300 yards away, and was mobbed by the Stilts and Plovers there. Then a second bird appeared, they hunted together, one perched, the second bird disappeared, and the first resumed it’s hunting. They were Marsh Harriers.

We got back on the bikes and headed back towards Alcudia Pins. We had heard Greenfinches and Goldfinches saw a single Blackbird and heard Curlews however, somewhere far to the north.

Back at the hotel, we headed to the beach and found the family, had lunch, went swimming, and eventually headed for the locker rooms to shower and change for our last dinner. It was a long evening on the terrace, suffering the efforts of the “entertainment” crew, but eventually we made our way to the lockers, collected our cases and boarded the coach at midnight.

Saturday 4^th August

We arrived at the airport at 1:45 am, boarded the plane which took off around 3:35am local, and arrived back at Bristol at 5:30. We were back in the house at Gloucester just about on the dot of 7:00am, and glad to be there too!

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Cap De Formentor - on the far north eastern extremity of Majorca

Eleonora’s Falcons – I have since discussed this site with a friend who has seen Eleonora’s off the coast of North Africa, in Greece, Majorca and several other sites in the Mediterranean. He holds the opinion that it is probably the most reliable and easily accessible site for Eleonora’s that he has visited.

For more info on S’Albufera try - http://www.uib.es/ or type S’Albufera in the search box on your browser and the pages just roll in, though many are in Spanish, French or German!