Menorca - June 2004

By Andrew Bluett

Monday 31^st May

I roused the children from their beds at 2.00 am. We left at 3.00am, and arrived at Bristol Airport at 4.15, all according to plan, checking in at 4.30 for the 6.15am departure, then rested until we were called to board flight FCA 561c for Mahon, Menorca.

A safe arrival at just after 9.00am local time meant that the flight down was quicker than scheduled. We had not seen very much of the landscape of either England or France as we headed south, there was a fair amount of cloud cover so that the earth below remained hidden until we were over the sea close to Menorca. The approach was from the north east of the island and as we dropped down we could see the bays and beaches, small towns and coastal villages on the island, and also the hill, which we were soon to recognize as Monte Torro. We were collected and transferred to the Castell Sol apartments at Arenal D’en Castell within 40 minutes. It had all been an easy, painless process, and we had almost a full day to start enjoying the delights of this island in the sun!

On the trip from the airport we had seen a few birds from the coach, a Red Kite in particular, and the airport buildings had been full of House Sparrows. In Arenal and from the apartment balcony I soon picked up House Sparrows, a Sardinian Warbler in the scrub of the small stream valley across the road, a pair of Turtle Doves, Greenfinches and Western Yellow-legged Gulls.

After a trip along the road to the shops for a few basics, we spent the afternoon in and around the pool relaxing. In the evening we strolled down to the beach. There were more Turtle Doves, some flying about and at least one calling from the pines, I saw the Sardinian Warbler again, more Yellow-legged Gulls along the beach and over the bay. At the far end of the beach we sat in a café and had drinks and ice cream. A Turtle Dove (see pic below left) flew down and wandered in and around the tables looking for tit-bits. I was pointing the dove out to Trish and the boys when the waiter appeared, he volunteered “Nice bird”, I replied, “Yes, a Turtle Dove”. He mused for a second and repeated “Turtle Dove, yes, very nice bird. With some bacon and peas – beautiful!” A Spotted Flycatcher appeared and hawked for insects from various vantage points nearby.

We walked back up the hill from the café towards the Hotel Aguamarina, with the intention of wandering back through the village. We hadn’t gone far when a Hoopoe flew across the road from the pine trees to land in the back of a sandy car park. I called the boys to come and look and we watched for a few minutes whilst the bird wandered about feeding. Then, a second Hoopoe appeared and the two of them began sparring before fluttering off together like a pair of big, pink and pied moths into the pines beyond. I saw a Blackbird in the village, a couple of Swallows and several Rock Doves over the bay.

Tuesday 1^st June

I was up at 7.30 am, there were plenty of Yellow-legged Gulls about, House Sparrows chirping everywhere and the Sardinian Warbler was calling from the scrub across the road. I walked down to the shop for baguettes and other essentials. There were Greenfinches singing and calling, a couple of Goldfinches, the Sardinian Warbler, and more Turtle Doves.

Down in the bay a fisherman appeared, he was driving a motor boat with a flat bottom, square bow and a sophisticated arrangement of box trawl nets fitted to hydraulic arms on the bow. The hydraulics lowered the two box trawls, one either side, to skim the top 2 feet or so of the water for prawns I would guess. With the trawls down he pushed the engine and circled the bay several times before lifting them, and setting off towards the open water and into the next bay around the point.

At 11.00am we had the “Rep Meeting” – the usual blend of welcome and sell, in the Restaurant El Mirador just down the road. On the way there were more Turtle Doves, the Sardinian Warbler singing and chattering and the ubiquitous House Sparrows and Greenfinches. Afterwards, at the beach, I did some snorkelling and watched the birds around the bay. The snorkelling was quite good, there were shoals of fish, Bass especially feeding in the sea grass beds and around the rocks, many others that I didn’t recognize, black spiny Urchins and Anemones on the rocks and a few Sea Cucumbers, rather like very large brown slugs. The birds from the beach were the usual W Y L Gulls, House Sparrows and a very dark bird perched on the rocks on the point, a rocky promontory on the western side of the bay. I guessed it was probably a Blue Rock Thrush; this was to prove correct later in the week.

In mid afternoon Trish and the boys decided on a siesta, so I set off to walk across the heath towards Son Parc. This meant walking along the road to the point where I found a cliff path which split and diversified into several paths across a wide expanse of ground with dwarf and ground hugging shrubs, the occasional stunted and wind blasted pine, pillows and mounds of herbage including Wild Thyme, Sea Holly, Wild Oats and other grasses and many flowering and semi-desert plants. The whole area had a thin layer of red soil overlying a calcareous rock, and there were areas where Tufa boulders and stones were strewn about.

The first bird of note was a Stonechat, soon joined by a mate; I felt they had chicks somewhere in the undergrowth, which were probably near to fledging. Over on the cliffs, which dropped sheer into the sea 100+ feet below, were large numbers of Yellow-legged Gulls, some of which had chicks on the cliffs, though I managed to pick out only one. There were more gulls farther along the cliff on a long sandy slope, which appeared to be roosting in the heat of the day. There were Rock Doves a-plenty, and at least one Shag of the Mediterranean race desmerestii. I walked as far as the outskirts of Son Parc, then returned by way of a track through the pine forest which eventually brought me back to the dry stone wall which crossed the heath to the sea cliffs, and followed that to rejoin the path back. On the heath there were Sardinian Warblers, Turtle Doves, a Hoopoe calling from the edge of the pine forest, a Kestrel hunting, a Raven, which flew over towards the sea cliffs and a lark like bird, which I eventually identified as a Tawny Pipit. It was difficult because the bird kept a good distance away, and often had the sun behind it making it difficult to distinguish colours and features. The clinching identification point was the characteristic and repetitive “chir – reee, chir – reee, chir – reee, chir – reee” song that was uttered in the air for several seconds before the bird planed down to earth or a perch on some shrub or bush. I saw a few lizards during the day, not many, and none of any great size.

Wednesday 2^nd June

I rose as usual at 7.30am and started the day with my regular wander over to the shop for baguettes and essentials, and, as usual, the birds that punctuated this walk were the Turtle Doves, Sardinian Warbler and Greenfinch, with the odd Goldfinch appearing from time to time.

I had arranged to hire a car for a couple of days, so after breakfast wandered back over to the Europcar/Betacar office and completed the paperwork. A new Peugeot 206 5 door with air-con, all-inclusive, cost me approximately €50/£35 per day.

We all piled in and set off for the day with the general idea that we would visit Ciutadella and return via stops on the northern side of the island. The first stop was to be the monastery at Monte Toro, so we made our way down to the main road roundabout, then took a “B” road across country towards Alayor. We found Swallows along the way, Corn Buntings singing on either side of the road by the hay fields and grain crops, several Woodchat Shrikes usually sitting on the overhead cables, and a few Fan Tailed Warblers with their bounding song flight, “peek, peek, peek” the note being uttered as they reached the top of each bounce. The surprise birds were the Nightingales, which sang at regular intervals along the road, both in the Holm Oak woods and in the scrubby corners of fields. On the 8.5 kilometre stretch of road from the roundabout at Son Ladico to the town of Alayor, we heard no less than six singing. This didn’t take any effort to achieve either, we could hear them singing easily as we drove steadily along at 40-50 kph. What I found most surprising was that they were still singing when our Nightingales at home had stopped. I consulted the Birds of the Western Palaearctic after we returned and found a possible explanation – Nightingales are double brooded in the south of their range! This suggests the second round of territorial advertising before a second nest and clutch of eggs.

From Alayor we took the main road up to Mercadal and found the small road, which left the town eastwards, and wound its way up the hill to the peak of Monte Torro. A Hobby appeared overhead and flew directly over us and down the hill towards the farmland. We parked at the top and went walkabout, there were House Sparrows and Greenfinches everywhere around the monastery. We visited the church of the Holy Virgin and the boys wandered into the gift shop. Afterwards a walk around the viewing terraces gave the opportunity to scan the surrounding farmland and Holm Oak woodland, but only produced one Booted Eagle quartering the ground below us.

We headed back down the hill and headed west from Mercadal towards Ferrerias and beyond, eventually reaching Ciutadella, where we found our way into the centre of the town and parked outside the Police Station. Along the way we had seen more Woodchat Shrikes and Corn Buntings. After a bite to eat at the café in the square, we wandered off around the shops and narrow streets. There were dozens of Swifts over the town, Yellow-legged Gulls, a few House Martins and of course the House Sparrows in the streets.

In the early afternoon, we headed out of Ciutadella and back towards Mercadal along the island’s central main road. From the town centre we managed to find the “B” road, which took us northwest towards Santa Creu and out into the farmland between the low, wooded hills, as a route towards Cabo de Cavalleria (see pic below). We soon found more Woodchat Shrikes and Corn Buntings, a Kestrel over a hillside and shortly after that, a pair of large birds, obviously raptors, and circling together high over a small hill above the road. It was immediately apparent that these were our first Egyptian Vultures, big, creamy white and with the diagnostic diamond shaped tail. We watched them for some minutes until they had moved far enough away to disappear behind the trees along the ridge of the higher ground away to the northeast. We moved on and soon met with the next raptor, a beautiful Red Kite, so familiar from home, but nevertheless a welcome sight. It quartered the hillside above the road and swung away out of sight over the trees. There were more Nightingales singing in copses and scrubby corners, Fan Tailed Warblers every now and then, and now that we were in the lower ground near Tirant, the odd Cetti’s Warbler betrayed by explosive bursts of song from bramble patches, scrubby ditches and the like. From a pinewood by the road I heard the song of our first Great Tit, the only tit species on the island. There were more Greenfinches and Goldfinches, a Quail called “wit---wit-wit, wit---wit-wit” from a hay field and a few Yellow-legged Gulls floated about over the fields.

Finally we made it to the open heath land, which leads up to Cabo De Cavalleria. We stopped briefly at the museum, which holds the Roman antiquities and acts as a visitor centre for the archaeological digs there, and provides the only accessible toilets and opportunity for refreshments in the area. After a short break, we took the very small, single-track road up to the lighthouse. The gate is there to keep in sheep and goats, not to prevent access, so we passed through it and found a place to park near the lighthouse building itself. The heath land is again a mix of low cushions of herbs and dwarf shrubs and open sandy areas punctuated by Tufa rock, apparently much loved by the resident Stone Curlews. Needless to say, we didn’t see them! What we did see though was Thekla Lark and Tawny Pipit, Linnets, more Greenfinches and Goldfinches, Stonechats and Sardinian Warblers. I scanned the end of the little bay, which provides anchorage for a few boats, but found nothing, though it did look good as a possible site for waders and egrets etc at the right time of year. A walk around the lighthouse enclosure wall gave access to the tops of the sea cliffs and a view over the Isla D’els Porros. This is one of the homes of the local Cory’s and Balearic Shearwaters. The Balearics are a local subspecies, Puffinus yelkouan mauretanicus, and both species of Shearwater are being actively helped to survive here. It wasn’t long before we could see both species skimming the wave tops and barrelling down the troughs no more than a couple of hundred yards out to sea. There were more Rock Doves and a couple of Shags on the rocks. Walking back to the car the Tawny Pipit continued to sing and a Blue Rock Thrush flew over to land out of sight in the lighthouse enclosure.

We headed south off the cape and then east, saw more Fan Tailed Warbler, heard more Nightingales and Cetti’s Warblers, and found our way up to Cala Tirant along a dusty gravel track past the wetland area which is reputed to be a haven for many wetland species in the winter. But, even this early in the year, the low-lying areas, which flood to provide this habitat, were bone dry. Consequently, there was little other than the species mentioned above to see. The map shows a road linking Cala Tirant to Playa Fornells and Ses Salines, but in truth it doesn’t exist! This was a blow, because it should have given views over the sandy area reputed to be a home to Bee Eaters. I turned the car around and headed back to the minor, but tarmac covered road, and found a spot from which to scan at least some of the area, but as usual, my bogey bird escaped me. There was no sign of Bee-eater activity, I could neither see nor hear any.

Back on the main road we headed north through Ses Salines to Fornells, and whilst the old salt pans and the Bahia de Fornells are reputed to be good areas for waders and seabirds respectively, and the bay especially for the resident Ospreys, we saw little of any consequence. Fornells appeared to be an up-market anchorage and playground for the well to do rather than the traditional fishing village it is advertised as. I am sure the average fisherman couldn’t afford to eat in any of the restaurants there! Walking back from the village centre to the car, there were more Turtle Doves and a pair of Ravens.

I drove back south, then east on the 710 to Son Parc. There were yet more Corn Buntings, Nightingales, a Woodchat Shrike, a Kestrel, another Great Tit, our first Chaffinch, and a couple more Fan Tailed Warblers along the way.

Son Parc turned out to be a blatant commercial centre carved out of the pine forests behind a small beach. There had been a fairly extensive area of marsh and reed bed here some time ago, but much of it was now subsumed into the golf ranges, sewage treatment plant and holiday home development. The small remaining area of reed bed is still reputed to be good for Great Reed and Reed Warbler, and possibly a few Moustached Warblers. Access though is not easy and I contented myself with viewing and listening from the rough gravel track, which leads to the beach car park. Cetti's and Fan Tailed Warblers were obvious; there were several Turtle Doves and the ubiquitous Greenfinches and House Sparrows.

We headed back in the late afternoon to Arenal D’en Castell and after a shower and change, wandered down to S’a Paella Restaurant on the beach. Warning – Paella is a lot of money for a plate of yellow rice!

Thursday 3^rd June

After the obligatory visit to the shop first thing for bread and other breakfast essentials, we all piled into the car and set off for the day again. I headed first for the road junction south of Ses Salines, then south towards Mercadal. We soon saw our first Booted Eagle of the day. At Mercadal I turned west on the main road towards Ferrerias and from there, southwest to Cala Santa Galdana. There were more Booted Eagles, Woodchat Shrikes and Corn Buntings, Fan Tailed Warblers and Nightingales and a solitary Raven along the road. Santa Galdana is paired with La Serpentona and both overlook the most archetypally beautiful beach and cove, formed by a wrap around of limestone cliff. The cove has a shallow watered, white sand bottom and is tremendously beautiful in the sunshine, but because of this, is inclined to become very crowded. There are two very large high-rise hotels and no end of smaller accommodations, which pour forth tourists onto the beach.

Trish took Christopher and James to the beach for a morning of sun-worshipping, and after they were settled, Sam, my youngest son (aged 8) and I, headed back up through the village centre along the minor road which follows the river roughly northward to the bottom end of the Algendar Gorge (see pic below). There were Greenfinches and Goldfinches, House Sparrows and a couple of Blackbirds along the path by the river and a Cetti’s Warbler exploded into song in the brambles and reeds on the other side. A few Yellow-legged Gulls floated up and down the river against the backdrop of the limestone cliffs on the other side.

Our objective for the day was raptors, particularly Egyptian Vulture, and whatever else we could find. As the guide said, we found the gates locked, so did what everyone else did, and hopped over the wall. It was obvious that this was a regular occurrence, the way was trodden and worn enough to show that all visitors to the gorge took this option. A local in a van, who passed through the gate, locking it behind him, eyed us warily. I greeted him with a cheery “Hola!” which caused him to grunt and drive off.

As soon as we stepped over the wall, a Fan-tailed warbler appeared behind us on a patch of rough grassy ground, he bounced along in a song flight punctuated with the now very familiar “pic…pic…pic…pic…” call and then dropped into cover. A few minutes later as we walked up the track into the gorge, he started again. We reached the point 300 yards up where the track split in two and I began to wish I had brought the guide with me, but common sense suggested staying in the valley bottom, so we went right, and headed deeper into the gorge. A Nightingale sang in a mixture of Holm Oak and wild Olive trees, in the very rough grassy scrubland that passed for a field towards the now invisible river another Cetti’s Warbler burst into song. Beyond that in the lower edge of the woodland on the far side of the gorge a familiar voice from home floated across to us, a Blackcap was singing, quietly compared to the Nightingale and Cetti’s, and higher up in the trees which clung to the cliff ledges, a Hoopoe called constantly. We walked on following the track, which, as we progressed, became less obvious but basically follows the base of the cliff and woodland on the west side of the gorge. Sardinian Warblers and more Nightingales sang from deep cover, Goldfinches fed on thistle heads, and all the time I scanned above us for signs of raptors.

All along the way we encountered Butterflies, Painted Ladies, Clouded Yellows, brown fritillaries, small stunningly blue butterflies, whites, and the occasional Swallowtail. There were Dragonflies, hawkers, chasers and very shiny, deep black demoiselles. I had one eye open for lizards, of which we saw few, and then I spotted a movement in front of me. With the aid of Sam’s baseball cap I caught it – a grasshopper! This though was no ordinary grasshopper, this was the King Kong of Menorcan grasshoppers, fully 2¹/₂ inches long and as deep as my thumb was thick. I suppose it could even have been a Locust - I wish I knew more about them.

After about a mile, we climbed over another wall by a gate, and the gorge had become narrower, this tied up with the memory I had of the notes in the guide, so I felt confident. And within minutes I caught a fleeting glimpse of a vulture disappearing around the bend and out of sight. Ten minutes later, we met a couple from Derbyshire coming down the gorge. We exchanged greetings and I confirmed for them that they were hearing Nightingales and Cetti’s (not many of either in the Peak District!), and they confirmed for us that there were indeed vultures a little further on. Armed with this information, we pressed on for another half-mile to a point where the gorge opened out a little, and we found suddenly overhead, a Raven, being hotly pursued by a pair of Peregrines. We were able to watch the falcons for several minutes before they settled down out of sight in the shade of the trees, which overhung the cliff above. Another Hoopoe called, then moved a few yards, and called again. I searched for it, but couldn’t see it, then Sam called me to look to my left and it flitted across the gorge into the cover of the Oaks and Pines atop the cliff.

A couple of hundred yards further the gorge took a turn to the right. On our left, the eastern side was a massive cliff of soft limestone with dozens of holes and my first though was possibly for Bee-eaters, but no, there were just hundreds of House Sparrows nesting! As the Derbyshire chap had described, we were then met with a fence constructed of steel reinforcing mesh (A193 x 150mm square for the technically minded!) hung on posts, behind which some new fruit trees had been planted. At this point, the tractor tracks stopped and we found ourselves going to the right on a very narrow and indistinct path through bramble bushes and deep grasses which opened out again 100 yards on to reveal a large, roughly triangular space between the limestone cliffs on three sides of us.

Almost immediately Sam said “Vultures”! I looked up and there were two Egyptian Vultures (see pics below), then three, then five and finally six circling overhead no more than 200 feet above us. After a few glorious minutes four moved over the rim of the cliffs and out of sight for a few minutes at a time, coming back in and then out of sight again as they circled higher and wider. The fifth bird, an immature, settled in the trees just out of sight, and the sixth decided that he wanted to see who we were. He circled down and flew across the cliff faces, eventually settling on a rock perhaps 150 feet above us, shook wings, tail and head, then stood regarding us for several minutes. After a while, he dropped off his perch, glided across to another area of cliff and disappeared into a cavern for a couple of minutes, which could have been the nest site, then reappeared, lifted off and flapped lazily up to the cliff edge and caught a thermal. In a few minutes he was away and out of sight above and beyond the trees.

We had found what we came for, and were just about at the time limit I had set for the walk so we turned around and started to wander back down the track. A Blue Rock Thrush appeared briefly, and then a male Kestrel appeared from nowhere, shot down the cliff face to a perch, moved across to a small hole and hopped in. This was obviously a nest site. He stepped back out into the light, shook himself, and flew out and over our heads to disappear over the woodland above.

As we walked back down the gorge we heard more Sardinian Warblers, more Nightingales, another Blackcap, and as we neared the bottom of the gorge, another Cetti’s Warbler. We again caught up with our Derbyshire friends, discussed the Vultures, exchanged more information about where to go and what to see, given the opportunity, and back at the gate at the end of the gorge watched the Fan-tailed Warbler again for a few minutes, then parted to go off in different directions. To round off the visit to the gorge, a Red Kite floated above the Oak woods for a few minutes, and a Hoopoe (see pic below) began another session of his relentless “Poop-poop-poop” song. We made it back to the beach in good time, had a bite of lunch with a variety of “Bocadillos”, cooled off in the sea for a while, then packed everything up and headed back towards the car. Bocadillos are basically sandwiches with all sorts of fillings – made from short baguettes and very similar to those that are served in every Parisian street café. They are filling, fresh and cheap, and are easily wrapped in a paper bag for carrying around to be consumed later if necessary. The cliffs along this part of the coast do hold a few pairs of Alpine Swifts, but whilst I looked for them over both the cliffs and the bay, I wasn’t lucky.

I started the car and we drove up the hill and out of Cala Santa Galdana, heading back to Ferrerias. We then struck out southeast to Es Migjorn Grau, then north to Son Tremos, and southeast again towards Alayor. In this district I had hoped to see more raptors, the area being characterised by small fields and farms set in amongst the “Barrancos”, small wooded valleys and limestone ravines, with limestone boulder outcrops on the tops of the hills. This is apparently a favoured habitat of Red Kite and Booted Eagle. As it was we only saw one of each, though again, we found that Nightingales sang from almost every scrubby cornered field. From Alayor I turned southwest and drove over a high plateau of rocky fields and maquis to Son Bou and San Jaime Mediteraneo.

I followed the signs indicating “La Playa” (The Beach) and found a car park, which conveniently bordered both the beach, and the great marsh of Son Bou (see pic below). This is a large area by Menorcan standards, of marsh, reed beds, meres and scrubby wetland, held in between the beach and a ridge of sand dunes to the south and by the slopes of the hills to the north. It is similar to, but a poor relation in size to the great marshes at S’Albufera, on Majorca, just about 50 miles to the west. Trish and the boys wanted a siesta, and whilst I parked in the shade, it was very hot. I really didn’t want to just wander off into the marsh and leave them to sweat it out, so I contented myself with a 15-minute watch from the top of a sand dune. I wouldn’t have seen too much at this time of day in any case, it was just after 3.00pm, and even the birds here have a siesta!

As I climbed the dune I could see the little caterpillar tracks where lizards had scurried before me, A Sardinian Warbler rattled in the scrub below, and Linnets called and sang from somewhere a couple of hundred yards to the west. The beach here is miles long, and stretches away to the west, with less people on it the further away you get from the town. I scanned across the marshes looking for Marsh Harriers in the distance, there were Moorhens, Coots, Dabchicks and assorted semi-domesticated mongrel ducks dabbling in the small area of open water below me. A Purple Heron rose from the reeds, flew slowly for a short distance and dropped back into another channel out of my sight. A Cetti’s Warbler sang from somewhere near the corner of the car park where the brambles met the reeds, but in the heat of the afternoon, there was predictably little activity.

I wandered back to the car and my sleeping family, climbed in and started up again, heading up and out of the town, past the houses of the Troglodytes, carved into the rock face and with dark wooden doors looking like Hobbit holes, and headed back to Alayor. In the stretches of road that were bounded by the pine forests, I could hear Greenfinches singing, a Great Tit, more Nightingales and saw the odd Blackbird. We drove into the outskirts of Mahon (Mao) and found the road north which skirted the main “Biosfera” reserve of S’Albufera Es Grau and headed up towards Banyuls where we turned right at the 9km post and made for the eastern side of the island at Cabo de Favaritx.

Once again we were into flat, larger and more open fields for a while, some of hay, and some of grain crops. This brought more Fan-tailed Warblers, Corn Buntings and a couple more Woodchat Shrikes to light. A Raven flew over and dozens of Swifts hawked for insects low over the land. I was fairly sure that I had seen at least one Pallid Swift, but with him flying fast and me driving – how certain could I be?

The farmland was bounded by a dry-stone wall with a gate in it. We passed through and were immediately into the characteristic stony, herb pillowed and scrubby heath land, which seems to be a feature of all of the promontories on the island. The gates here are a sight to behold, they look like cartoon character rickety structures made of scrap wood. The truth is that they are made from branches of the wild Olive trees, bolted together and are very strong and long lasting. The Olive wood grows for a long time and slowly, and consequently is very strong, hard and fine grained with a beautiful figure and colour when carved and polished.

We were back into Sardinian Warbler and Tawny Pipit country, and as we neared the lighthouse on the point, a tall slender black and white barley-sugar twisted building, we found the sea crashing onto the rocks on both sides of us, and in between, there was a wide, very shallow pool of brackish water. This had all the hallmarks of a wader refuge, but disappointingly we found only a single, not fully mature Black-winged Stilt (see pic below), and a small group of five Ringed Plovers. When I first saw them I instinctively though they must be Kentish, but I was disappointed to see the diagnostic dark rings on head and chest. Kentish are resident in Menorca, but these were over-stayers from the spring passage and almost certainly non-breeding. There were a few Rock Doves and shearwaters offshore in the rough sea, but nothing else of any note.

As we drove back to the main road a Kestrel appeared briefly. I headed north again to Arenal D’en Castell. After a refreshing dip in the pool, I returned the car to the hire office and wandered back to the apartment. We went out for dinner (Swordfish Steak at El Mirador), found the now very familiar Turtle Doves, Sardinian Warbler, Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Yellow-legged Gulls and House Sparrows all around us, and in the late evening wandered back to the apartment to turn in.

Friday 4^th June

The day started with the usual walk to the shop for goodies, but I left Trish and the boys to sleep as late as they wanted this morning. We had no particular plans for the day, other than to relax. After breakfast and a walk over to the Romani Centre, Trish and the boys took to the pool and I took a walk!

I wanted to have a look at Punto Grosso, the area of ground to the east of Arenal D’en Castell and the bay, where there was much open ground and a little new development of villas and houses. It was typical stony, sandy and scrubby ground of the type I had seen at Capes Cavalleria and Favaritx, but I wanted to spend a little more time getting a closer look at it.

I walked over to the far side of the bay, and made my way through the houses towards the open land. I found several Turtle Doves, no end of Greenfinches and a few Goldfinches in the scrubby waste ground opposite the Spar shop and Pizzeria, then my attention was caught by the calling of a Hoopoe from somewhere over towards the back of the houses. “When in doubt, march towards the sound of gunfire!” So I set off towards the sound and soon found a male Hoopoe on a TV aerial attached to the chimneystack of a house. He was unperturbed by me, or anyone else walking by, or even the painter who was whitewashing a patch on the front of the house itself and continued calling “Poop-poop-poop” with a break of a few seconds between each call. I watched the Hoopoe (see pic below) for several minutes, and then left him to it and wandered on. By walking down the side of the house with the Hoopoe on the roof, I found a short cut onto the heath of Punto Grosso. I scanned around and had a look at where I thought I wanted to go, then started towards a point on a track or path which would take me towards the northernmost point so that I could walk back around the coastline. I then caught a sound which immediately registered, It was the same sound which makes me grind my teeth when the BBC insist on using it, wholly inappropriately, as background noise in dramas on TV and Radio – the call of Bee-eaters! I scanned around and soon realised that it was coming nearer, from the north, and above me. I looked up and there were six of them chasing one another, in wide circles and loops they gradually made their way overhead, towards the south and out of sight!

I spent the next couple of hours wandering across the landscape looking at the rocks and cliffs, the stony ground, the scrubby herb-pillow covered ground and at the scattered dwarfed pine trees. I found Greenfinches, Linnets, Sardinian warblers, Thekla Lark, Tawny Pipits, Stonechats, Yellow-legged Gulls and House Sparrows. On the sea cliff I was found by a Blue Rock Thrush, I firmly believe that you don’t find Blue Rock Thrushes, they find you, and decide whether or not they feel like letting you see them! On every occasion that I have seen them, with the exception of the first on a cliff top in Portugal, I’ve always felt that they had been watching me for several minutes before I noticed them. He flew from the ground to the top of an isolated and shuttered house overlooking the sea, then down into a gulley in the cliff top. I walked over, and he was gone, vanished! 5 Minutes later, there he was again, watching me from a rock perhaps 100 yards away.

I followed the cliff edge until I found a point where there was an uninterrupted view to the south, from here I could see the lighthouse at Cabo de Favaritx, which we had visited yesterday. I sat there for a while watching the Rock Doves flying in and out of cracks and caves, and the Cory’s and Balearic Shearwaters out at sea. The Shearwaters were skimming the wave tops and dropping into the troughs, then rising again into sight, but never more than perhaps 6 or 8 feet above the surface of the sea. I wandered on again towards a row of new villas on the cliff top, where I found another Blue Rock Thrush, a family party of young Stonechats and more House Sparrows and Greenfinches, and then cut back inland to head back towards the village.

Another Hoopoe appeared briefly, and continued calling after he was out of sight in the pines, more Turtle Doves, Sardinians, and Greenfinches as I walked back through the houses, villas and gardens. In the village near the Romani Centre I saw a pair of Wood Pigeons just resting on a lawn, exhausted and trying to keep cool under the shade of an Almond tree.

Back at the apartment I joined Trish and the boys by the pool, rested and swam, then had a late lunch of fresh bread, local tomatoes and the excellent Menorquian cheese, strong, tasty and just like very mature Cheddar ought to be, if perhaps a little harder to bite into.

In the late afternoon while Trish and the boys took a siesta, I sat on our balcony watching the Shearwaters as they cruised back and forth just beyond the mouth of the bay. There was a constant stream, they seemed to increase in number in the early evening, and by then, all seemed to be going in one direction – north west towards the Punta Pantinat and around towards the west and the Cabo de Cavalleria. I saw a falcon; it flew swiftly and downwards from the high ground behind the village towards the cliffs along the Punto Grosso, a Peregrine, probably hunting the Rock Doves. There were plenty of the local Yellow-legged Gulls and also groups of Swifts hawking for insects over the sea and the land. Just down in front of the apartments the Turtle Doves flew in and out of the pines and the Greenfinches sang their twittering songs, whilst the Sardinian Warbler flitted back and fore, sang now and then, and occasionally scolded the passing tourists who were oblivious to his presence.

In the evening we wandered out to the road and took the train-bus to Macaret, a little fishing village about a mile-and-a-half away. We walked around there for an hour, looked at Sea Urchins, Anemones, Sea Cucumbers and small fish in the crystal clear water off the quay. We walked up to the top of the village and had a look at another area of open ground where we found a Hoopoe feeding on the ground by the road, and another Blue Rock Thrush (see pic below) watching us from a pile of stones 100 yards away. From the harbour we could see a colony of Yellow-legged Gulls nesting on Isla Gran D’Addaia. Beyond the island we could again see Cabo de Favaritx and between the island and the Cabo, hundreds of shearwaters over the sea. We caught the train-bus back to Arenal and again went for dinner in the Restaurant El Mirador – Tuna Steak tonight!

Saturday 5^th June

We had another day out today, an organised trip, and after an earlier breakfast than usual, caught the coach outside the apartments at 10 to 9. It was a fairly quick drive down to Mahon on the 710; we drove straight down into the port, left the coach and headed for a boat, which was to take us around the harbour. I saw two Booted Eagles on the way down, and from the quay I could see dozens of Swifts and a few House Martins overhead, a Kestrel, which appeared once or twice to have a go at catching a Swift, dozens of Rock Doves and Feral Pigeons which were inhabiting the holes and cracks in the rock face which rose from the quay, and on the top of which were built the houses and other buildings of the old town. The boat ride around the harbour was interesting, but little more than a tour with commentary. The only birds of note were a couple of Shags and more Rock Doves on the islands and various rock faces around the long narrow inlet, which led to the port proper.

Back at the quay we returned to the coach and drove up into the old town and had a walkabout/shopping trip. There were Swifts overhead, House Sparrows, Green and Goldfinches and a few House Martins. Back at the coach again we drove out of Mahon and down to Binibeca Vell, a 30 year old, architectural award winning new village (in spite of the suffix “Vell” – Old). It was built in a reproduction North African fishing village style, a fascinating place, nothing square or aligned, all white including the whitewashed terra cotta roman tiled roofs, and laced with narrow alleyways. As I had wandered about in various places all over the island, I had seen piles of droppings, but this was where I saw my one and only live Rabbit! The next stop was Punta Prima, where we took the option of lunch in the large hotel there, which was very good. Whilst we ate, a Spotted Flycatcher flitted back and fore outside the window hawking after flies.

The coach then took us back to Mahon and along the road west to Cal’an Porter. I saw another Booted Eagle and a Woodchat Shrike along the way. We drove through Cal’an Porter and parked in a car park on the cliff top for a visit to the caves, Cueva D’en Xoroi. The legend tells the story of a pirate who settled in the caves, threw himself into the sea rather than surrender, and left behind a wife and son. The caves were now fitted out as a bar and nightclub, with balconies overhanging the sea 90 feet below. There was a flight of 97 steps down a staircase hung on the cliff to reach it, and it was spectacularly impressive. The most interesting thing there so far as I was concerned though, was the pair of Pallid Swifts nesting in a crack in the top of the cave over one of the balconies!

We left Xoroi and headed north to Alayor for the obligatory visit to a factory outlet shop. Again, along the way I noted Booted Eagles, Woodchat Shrike and Corn Bunting. The last leg of the journey was the return to Mercadal, past Monte Torro and via Son Parc to Arenal. Once again the roadside birds were Booted Eagle and Fan-tailed Warbler and several Kestrels. In Son Parc were the inevitable Turtle Doves and House Sparrows, Green and Goldfinches.

Back at the apartment we headed for the pool to chill out, then enjoyed an al-fresco dinner on the balcony. As we were eating I became aware that a crowd of Yellow-legged Gulls high over the village were getting upset, and discovered that the reason for this was the Booted Eagle that was accompanying them. Eventually he circled higher and drifted away to the south.

In the evening we wandered out to the point to watch the sunset. It wasn’t very long before the resident Blue Rock Thrush appeared, and we saw a dozen or so Rock Doves coming in to roost. Just after a glorious sunset, as the darkness began to fall, the Blue Rock Thrush started to sing, a soft, quiet, melodious little song, given from a large boulder perhaps 100 yards away. As we walked back, I noticed another Blue Rock Thrush a couple of hundred yards away along the cliffs to the west. Clearly, they are reasonably common here. Back at the apartment, in the last of the evening light, the Sardinian warbler gave out a few bursts of song from the scrub in the gulley below.

Sunday 6^th June

I was awake and up before 7.00am, and since we had nothing special planned for the day, I left the family to sleep and went off for a walk up the hill through the grassy heath-land behind the apartments to the edge of the pine forest. Even this early in the day, the sun was starting to warm up the landscape but there were plenty of birds about. After the Greenfinches and House Sparrows around the villas and apartments, I saw Goldfinches with young, Turtle Doves in the pines, Sardinian Warbler, Stonechat and Wood Pigeon. At the top of the hill the track connected with a couple of gravel roads and I wandered along to an old abandoned farmhouse where a Spotted Flycatcher perched in the shade and flew out into the sunshine every so often to snap at flies. There were several Quail calling “wit….wit wit” from the tussocky grass and amongst the scattered pines at the edge of the woodland. A Blackbird sang from the top of a pine and a Cetti’s Warbler exploded into song deep in the trees. This was something of a surprise since I was on the top of a hill, in maquis pine forest, which was bone dry, and I guessed half a mile from the nearest water, which is what I normally associate them with. A couple of Hoopoes called from the woodland, Yellow-legged Gulls floated overhead, Greenfinches sang and flew about and a Tawny Pipit sang a couple of hundred yards to the north towards the sea cliffs. As I walked back down the track I found a Great Tit in a pine tree.

Back at the apartment we had breakfast and spent the morning and early afternoon by the pool. From the pool I noted Turtle Doves, Greenfinches, House Sparrows, and Goldfinches, then a surprise bird appeared – a Lovebird! It was typical, pale green and yellow and with a peach face, short, dumpy and squawking loudly as it flew around, perched first on the roof, then on the wild Olive tree on the terrace before flying off and landing in a pine up the hill behind the village. Some unlucky Menorquian bird fancier had an empty cage that afternoon! During lunch I could see a pair of Shags on the rocks at the entrance to the bay along with the usual Western Yellow-legged Gulls.

Trish and the boys took their usual late afternoon siesta and I went walkabout across the heath land towards Macaret. As always, the most obvious birds were the Greenfinches, Goldfinches, House Sparrows and Turtle Doves in the village. From the southern edge of the village I followed a sandy track through scattered pines towards the Macaret road. There were Greenfinches again, a couple of Sardinian Warblers, a Blackbird singing and a Spotted Flycatcher, and at the far end nearest the road a Corn Bunting singing from the overhead wires. I walked down towards the village, then northeastwards towards the cliffs across the heath. The landscape was much the same as at Punto Grosso, stretches of sandy ground with pillows of herbs and shrubs, including scented wild Thyme, interspersed with stretches of exposed Tufa Rock. There were some low lying pans where water clearly laid in pools after rain, but all were now dry. Butterflies fluttered about everywhere, Painted Ladies, a couple of Swallowtails and many more browns, blues and whites.

A Sardinian Warbler sang, and there were two young ones on the thorny bushes close to the end of a row of villas, a Tawny Pipit rose into the air, sang, then glided down to a perch on a dead and fallen pine. A Blue Rock Thrush appeared on a small rock by the side of the track and watched me walk by.

When I reached the cliffs I found a place to sit and watch, there were more Rock Doves, Yellow-legged Gulls over the sea and in a couple of caves under a small headland I could see Swifts flying in and out of cracks in the rock. At least one pair were definitely Pallids. Walking on along towards Cala Morts I came into an area with a deeper layer of shrubs and there found a dozen or so Linnets, one pair had a nest, and there were a couple of fledglings on show. As I made my way back towards the village I found a pair of Sardinian Warblers, the female was less distinctly coloured and duller. This was the first female I had seen and their behaviour suggested a nest nearby. There were more Green and Goldfinches in the pines and as I made my way down towards the beach there were several Turtle Doves, some so used to people that they stayed on the ground very close by where I walked. A Spotted Flycatcher perched and chased flies around the Café S’Arenal.

The Hoopoe was in the sandy car park by the Hotel Aguamarina again, and whilst busily probing the tussocks of grass between the cars allowed me to approach to within a dozen yards, before tiring of my presence and flitting off into the trees.

Back at the apartment I sat on the balcony with a couple of beers and watched the Yellow-legged Gulls and the shearwaters streaming past the seaward end of the bay at around 6.00 pm, whilst the Sardinian Warbler down in the gulley flitted from place to place and occasionally popped up to the top of a bush and sang.

In the evening we wandered down to the beach and had dinner in the Sa Paella Restaurant. Whilst we were there a single Shag floated into the bay and fished for his supper. He then took off and flew in a wide arc around the bay, just off the beach, before flying into a stretch of calm water under the cliffs on the far side.

Monday 7^th June

We were to travel home today, so I got everyone up at 6.00am and sorted out the breakfasts. We did the last remnants of packing and got ourselves ready to check out. The House Sparrows chirruped and the Sardinian Warbler sang in the gulley as we waited for the coach back to the airport.

We were on the coach at 8.15 am and heading south to Mahon and the airport. We saw three Kestrels, a Red Kite and three Booted Eagles, several Turtle Doves, a Corn Bunting and a couple of Woodchat Shrikes on the drive down.

We passed through check-in, and after a reasonable wait boarded the plane and took off at 10.20 am. The take off was due north out over the sea, to Marseille and up across France. The sky was clear; the Alps out to the east were beautiful and wreathed in snow, which was brightly lit by the sunshine. We were soon over the Normandy Beaches, and descending over the Channel to cross the cost at Dungeness where I could see the whole area and the great stretches of shingle. We flew a little farther north, then west over The Medway, London and down the M4 to turn in and land at Bristol from the northeast. The landmarks on the way were the Millennium Dome, The Thames, Buckingham Palace and the buildings of central London, gravel pits and reservoirs along the Thames Valley, Oxford, Swindon and the A417 snaking northward to Gloucester, the Severn with the Forest of Dean beyond, then the Bristol Channel with the Severn Bridges and Wales beyond.

We landed at 11.30am local time, collected our bags and the car and headed for the motorway. We were back at home in Gloucester soon after 1.30 pm. It had been a good, painless and uneventful journey home.

Menorca – A summary of the island

Menorca can be split roughly north / south by geology, and to some degree, east / west by topography. The northern half of the island tends to be Tufa Rock and sandy soil with great areas of stony heath land whereas the south is decidedly Limestone with impressive cliffs and gorges cutting through the landscape. The western end towards Ciutadella is flat farmland, which, as one travels east, changes to more hilly country, which then at the western end softens into more farmland and the urban sprawl around Mahon. The most mountainous landscape is the central northern area, if anywhere can be called mountainous. Monte Torro, the highest point, is only 358 metres high, just about 1100 feet. The southern country is greener, with many wooded gorges and valleys called “Barrancos” which are favoured by the Red Kites and Booted Eagles.

The island is punctuated all around the coast by small bays or “Calas” which generally have white sandy beaches with a shallow slope out to sea, and with patches of rocks and sea grass which make it good for bathing, safe for kids and good for snorkelling or Scuba diving. A village backs most of these bays, and all villages have several bars or cafes where food and drink are readily available. Don’t drink the water, the mineral content is too high for our kidneys to take – bottled water is available everywhere and cheap.

Generally, the island is less spoilt; less built on, and has more birds than anywhere else I have been in the Mediterranean. Clearly, the Menorquinas don’t shoot everything in sight, unlike Malta. In fact, there are curious rectangular signs all over the island, fixed to posts or placed on the tops of the dry stone walls, divided diagonally and painted black and white, which denote that there is no hunting allowed on the land beyond. This suggests a level of restraint beyond that of most of the Med. Also, Menorca is proud of its Biosfera Reserve status and seems to appreciate that Eco-tourism is a real prospect on the island.

The first language on Menorca is a dialect of Catalan rather than Castillian Spanish, but this doesn’t cause any problems. The standard short vocabulary of por favor (please), gracias (thank you), Hola! (Hello), Adios (Goodbye), Buenos Dias (Good Morning/Day), Buenos Nochas (Good Night) will go an awful long way. Most of the Menorquinas speak perfectly good enough English for shopping, eating out and car hire. The currency is of course Euros – easy enough, (why we don’t just have them in the UK and be done with it I do not know).

Public transport is OK on the main roads and around the towns, but difficult anywhere else. Mountain bikes would be ideal, and there are cycle hire places in the larger towns and some hotels. Car Hire is easy & reasonably priced at €50/£35 per day, more days = less per day. Driving is easy, relaxed and fairly slow with lower speed limits than the UK, but with the island being so small, the roads so narrow, and not a lot of traffic, there’s no need to hurry too much to get anywhere. The only difficulty with driving is that the smaller roads are not very well defined or signposted, and they can be gated and gravel surfaced. Finding the right turning off a main road can be difficult at times, although the kilometre marker posts help.

Accessibility – the best birding sites are all listed, described and explained in the two books noted above. It is perfectly possible to find miles of open land to wander about on, but there is a culture of privacy indicated by the many signs stating “COTO PRIVADA DE LA CASA” or similar. Unless you know its OK to pass these notices, courtesy dictates that you should think about it before blundering in. However, there are places, (the road to Cabo de Favaritx for example), where the notice doesn’t so much mean “KEEP OUT”, as “This is private land, be respectful”.

History - The Island has had a turbulent past, especially through the times of the Barbary Pirates and the Napoleonic Wars. At times Britain was the dominant / governing power so that there are plenty of signs of British occupation, street names, Georgian architecture etc. There are also plenty of pre-historic and Roman structures for the archaeologically minded.

Generally, this is an island where a family holiday can be combined with birding fairly easily. As might be imagined, there are greater numbers and a better variety of birds at the spring and autumn migrations. “Birds of Menorca” lists approx 250 species, including many “accidentals” and a couple of extinctions, at least half of which are migrants passing through. I managed 51 and should have had perhaps 60 with a bit more effort. A good week during migration ought to bring 100+.

http://www.ultimateguide-menorca.com/ is a useful link and a good starting point for lots of info.

Maps – Freytag & Bernt 1:50,000 available from most good travel / map shops. Others are widely available on the island with more or less detail.