Tidy Up

I was stuck in the house all day with rain beating down so I tidied up my pictures in Photoshop, sent many to the hard drive archive then found a few to share, mainly from Menorca. So for all my friends both there and here in the UK that share my passion for the island, its people, flora and fauna and the landscape, here are a few more pictures.

I think I said how Spotted Flycatchers were just everywhere, I never tire of watching them home or abroad.

Spotted Flycatcher
Spotted Flycatcher
Spotted Flycatcher
Spotted Flycatcher
The Egyptian Vulture is also called Pharoah’s Chicken after it’s very lengthy association with men and drawings of it have been found inside the tombs of Egypt. There's a good population of them on Menorca.

Egyptian Vulture
The pool water wasn’t just for swimming in, the gulls came for a drink.

Audouin’s Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Here are some Menorcan specialities, all very easy to see.

Tawny Pipit
Hoopoe’s Lunch
Blue Rock Thrush
And to rest up from birding, some Menorcan places to linger.

Sa Placeta, Ciutadella-Great Coffee
Plaza de Es Born, Ciutadella
The Town Of Ferreries

It's A Mystery

It seemed a long time since I walked along Pilling way, Fluke Hall Lane, Lane Ends and Pilling Water, but I finally found time to look this morning, mainly in the hope of finding a few Lapwing chicks to ring. There were a number of Lapwings in the fields at Fluke Hall Lane but I didn’t see a single chick here, just adults showing a distinct lack of parental activity or concerned calling for nearby young. The only chicks I found were two fairly large probable “fliers” in the field opposite Lane Ends. So the Pilling Lapwing breeding season looks to have been another disaster and I am left puzzling how long Lapwings will persevere in this area before deserting it as they have other breeding haunts in the Fylde.

Lapwing
Lapwing
The Environment Agency were once again moving earth between Pilling Water and Lane Ends, but why it takes five men, four large vehicles, a number of cars and some hours to achieve this is a bit of a brainteaser. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it is paid out of the public purse? Anyway what they did achieve was to scare a Redshank from its nest, so with the continual disturbance I doubt the hen will go back quickly if at all. Late May but the poor bird was sat on one egg only, so whether this was as a result of the ongoing work, the usual watchful Carrion Crows or a combination of both is impossible to say.

Redshank Nest
Redshank
Along Fluke Hall Lane it was noticeable that five Whitethroats sang from the hedgerows with another one at Lane Ends itself where other songsters were Blackcap, Sedge Warbler and at least three Willow Warblers.

At Pilling Water late Wheatears were still around, a male and a female amongst the stones but I was both trapless and without mealworms to enable a catch. Beyond the dyke in the wildfowlers’ pool I found a single Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Tufted Duck, several Redshank, a Grey Heron and a singing Reed Bunting. Between Lane Ends and Fluke Hall I counted 6 singing Skylark, so all was not lost but simply provided a reason to return soon.

Wheatear
Wheatear
And talking of larks, here is a Thekla Lark photographed near Punta Nati, Menorca and a Cattle Egret pictured in the same area, doing what Cattle Egrets do best, hitching a ride on a cow.

Thekla Lark
Cattle Egret
And finally a photograph of a coffee call in the beautiful old city of Ciutadella which leads to this week’s conundrum; why is it impossible to find a bad cup of coffee in Menorca and impossible to buy a good cup of coffee around here?

Ciutadella