Showing posts with label Roller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roller. Show all posts

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Wedding Free Zone

I'm back from Menorca with a few photos and tales to tell. Click the pics for more sunny days from the Gem of The Mediterranean, 4th – 18th May 2018. This was our fourteenth visit to this the most beautiful and carefree of the Balearic Islands. 

People have in the past said to me “Are you going to Minorca or Menorca?”, but the two words “Minorca” and “Menorca” are interchangeable. Menorca is the preferred local name, Minorca the English version. Menorca has its own language, Menorquín, which is a dialect of Catalan, but Spanish is widely spoken. 

We picked up the hire car at the airport thanks to our friends at Momple,  a local family business since 1974 and highly recommended in preference to the bigger names of car hire. A small car is ideal for sometimes narrow and twisty roads Menorcan roads. We noted more than one hire car with bent wing mirrors or recent dents.

Within ten minutes and minimal paperwork over, we headed for our destination of two weeks, the beach side resort of Sant Tomas. From Sant Tomas it’s a ten minute drive to the major road of the island, the Me-1. From there the fish-bone layout roads lead to authentic and unspoilt inland towns and to touristy coastal resorts north & south plus the major cities of Mahon or Ciutadella at each end of the island. 

Menorca

Panda 

It rained all of the day we landed. Ready for a rest after our 2am start we remained optimistic for the next and following days. Sunny skies arrived soon and stayed until the end. Witness the following photographs.

There are bits and pieces around the hotel. Sardinian Warbler, Blackbird, Spotted Flycatcher, Hoopoe, the two local gulls Yellow-legged & Audouin’s, plus shearwaters in mostly distant view. On most evenings one or two Scops Owls put on brief shows as they came to feed on beetles and moths. Sadly, the local Woodpigeons have become as bold as our own British ones and rather to the expense of the local Turtle Doves that have now become harder to find in Sant Tomas and the local countryside.

Audouin's Gull

Turtle Dove

Spotted Flycatcher 

Blackbird 

Woodpigeon

Hoopoe 

When the sun came out the local lizards warmed up too. On our travels this year we spotted albeit briefly, a Fox Vulpes vulpes, the same species as our UK one but the one we saw of a very sandy shade almost like the colour of a golden retriever.

Italian Wall Lizard 

It’s one of our favourite runs. Towards Es Mercadal with stops here & there along “Dusty Road” at Tirant and the swooping run to Cavelleria and back followed by lunch at Fornells village. We stopped to rescue a Hermann's from traffic.

 "Dusty Road", Tirant

Hermann's Tortoise

May flowers 

May flowers 

Playa Fornells from Tirant

Bar at Tirant

To Cavelleria

Cavelleria

Red Kites, Kestrels and Booted Eagles line this route with the occasional Egyptian Vulture. We fell lucky on a couple of days with singles of both Red-footed Falcon and European Roller on the roadside wires. The kites and eagles appear to never, ever land, not for the car bound photographer and certainly not for the brightly clad cyclist or walker.

Red Kite 

Booted Eagle 

Egyptian Vulture 

European Roller 

European Roller

Red-footed Falcon 

 Red-footed Falcon

Tawny Pipits seemed harder to find this year, as did both Thekla, Short-toed Lark and even the normally plentiful Stonechat. I fear that Menorcan farmland birds may be in similar decline to our own UK ones. In contrast, Corn Buntings appeared as ubiquitous as ever.

Tawny Pipit

Corn Bunting 

Stonechat 

Fornells 

Fornells

Fornells 

Fornells 

Fornells

Stay tuned. There's more to come from Menorca soon, a book review, plus back to local birding when time allows.

Linking today to Anni's Birding and Eileen's Blogspot.



Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Why Menorca?

There’s no birding today, it's grandad duties looking after Isabella. So for blog regulars and “Menorca” Internet searchers here are some photographs from our recent holiday to that beautiful island. 

Sue and I go to Menorca because we adore the island scenery, admire the style, grace and friendly nature of the islanders, love exploring the countryside and the quiet little inland towns or perhaps visiting the historic cities of Mahon and Ciutadella. Two weeks of almost guaranteed sunshine plays a part too.

As ever, click on the pictures for a colourful slide show. 

Ciutadella 
 
 Mahon harbour

Es Mercadal

A bistro, Es Mercadal

While birding there takes second place to the actual holiday, any bird watching we do is a part of the relaxing time we have and the seeing afresh of common Mediterranean birds. Some years we pick up  new species for our island ”list” - this year Corncrake, Spoonbill and Glossy Ibis.

But bird watching is never easy in Menorca. Many of the regular species like Cetti’s Warbler, Nightingale, Firecrest, Purple Heron, Squacco Heron, Golden Oriole and Quail hide themselves away or stay distant whereby actually setting eyes upon any one of them becomes something of an occasion. Even the legendary and sought after Hoopoe is actually very shy in Menorca, more often heard as a distant 'oop-oop-oop' rather than seen well. Luckily I know of a regular breeding spot where both birds accept the busied click of the shutter button just once a year. 

Fornells bay

 Fornells

Bee Eater

Purple Heron

The Hoopoes weren't as far on as last year. This time I saw only the male as every fiftenn minutes or so he brought in food for the female's inspection, she sitting tight on the nest as he passed the food over without entering the concrete cavity.

Hoopoe

Hoopoe

 
Hoopoe

In ten visits to the island I have yet to meet a Menorcan birder and whilst there may be a small number, I imagine they could be counted on the digits of both hands and more probably one. Bird watching seems not to figure in the Menorcan culture. There are hardly any visiting birders either, the more substantial list and reputation of nearby Majorca ensuring that most foreign birders head there instead of its smaller neighbour. There is no bird news service on Menorca, word of mouth being the only means of relating news between the transient population of mainly European bird watchers who spend a week or fourteen days there before returning to the colder north. 

Screen Hide at Es Grau

View - Es Grau, Menorca

Spotted Flycatcher

Little Egret

Little Grebe

Whiskered Tern

Ses Salines - Menorca

Black-winged Stilt

In other words, and for those who appreciate such things, bird watching Menorca Style is rather old-fashioned by allowing discovery of birds alone, unencumbered by the annoying bleeps of pagers and mobile phones or car loads of hyped-up folk dashing between one bird-hit and the next. OK, at the end of a week the list in your notebook won’t be long but there will be a wonderful selection of Mediterranean species, a number of common birds and a few “goodies” thrown in, all of them with no pressure involved to the bird or the birder. 

Turtle Dove

Booted Eagle

Bee Eater

Stonechat

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egrets

Kestrel

It wasn't just birds. We saw good numbers of European Swallowtail Butterfly on a couple of days - flying too fast and frequently to get pictures. We also came acrosss a few large grasshoppers - up to 3 inches long - the migratory Egyptian Grasshoper I think. Insect experts help required please.

Egyptian Grasshopper?

And at the end of another stress free day there’s always a quiet bar to while away the time, watch the sunset and spend quality time, planning another day of discovery and hoping that tomorrow’s Roller may be a lot closer. If not, there's always next year and an excuse for a return visit.

Bar at Es Grau

European Roller

Menorca Sunset

Please log in soon to Another Bird Blog for more news and views. I'm linking this post to Stewart's Gallery - World Bird Wednesday  in Australia- take a look for more bird pictures.

Related Posts with Thumbnails