Menorca 2

As promised here is another quick update from Menorca as I grab an hour on the hotel’s Internet connection.

We set off after breakfast and headed north through the town of Es Mercadal, on the way clocking more Booted Eagles and Kestrels, and with the car window wound down took in the ubiquitous songs of Nightingales and Cetti’s Warblers, both species more common here than in the UK our humble Blackbird.

First stop Tirant and the roadside Bee Eaters near Son Moscard where you’re lucky if someone hasn’t taken the single stopping place in the only gateway to watch the dozens of performing Bee Eaters.

Bee Eater

A short drive took us to the marsh at Tirant, a place to walk slowly and look thoroughly in early May. From the hill that overlooks distant pools we could see Little and Great White Egrets, a couple of Black Terns, Redshank and Black-winged Stlits. It was great today to see 3 Red-footed Falcons and 4 Hobby all arial feeding, and whilst the Hobby were too fast for a photograph, I think I got one or two redfoot shots. Everywhere along the roadside were Stonechats and Wheatears, and in the grass and marsh beyond, more Nightingales, fizzing Cisticolas and chattering Cettis.

Stonechat

In the wetter marsh we saw lots of herons, Purple Heron, Squacco Heron, Grey Heron, Little Egret and Cattle Egret.

Purple Heron
Squacco Heron

Two more highlights were Alpine Swifts and Stone Curlews today. We saw more Egyptian Vultures, Marsh Harriers, Red Kites and Booted Eagles, with a more distant Montague’s Harrier heading up to the north of the island and Cap De Cavalerria.

The spring seems early here with Thekla Larks, Sardinan Warblers and Willow Warblers all with newly fledged young.

It’s just a glimpse of Menorca but it’s not all birding. Next I have to drive Sue up to the beautiful old city of Ciutadella where there are lots of shops, and for me thousands of screaming Swifts, town dwelling Kestrels, and down in the quaint café-lined harbour, Yellow-legged and Audouin’s Gulls.

Yellow-legged Gull
Audouin’s Gull

Apologies to all my fellow bloggers that I am unable to catch up with you all until a few days time.

More From Menorca

The weather in Menorca was fairly mixed, about 50% pure sunny weather and 50% cloudy, cool or even rain, not ideal for photography a lot of the time but ok for walking and bit of birding, especially during the first week when migration was best but perhaps not dramatic due to the constant northerly winds.

One of our favourite walks was east from Sant Tomas, up over the coastal headland and then inland towards Son Bou where the Cami de Cavalls took us alongside woodland, across the mouth of the gorge that drops down from Es Mijorn, then alongside the marsh stretched out inland of the beach leading west from Son Bou; a mixture of habitats reflected in the birds seen. The frustrating birds are the Cettis Warblers and Nightingales, constantly singing from seemingly every suitable patch of habitat, hardly seen and almost impossible to photograph on a casual basis.

Alongside the coastal paths Wheatears, Stonechats, Tawny Pipits, Linnets and Goldfinches were plentiful, with pairs of Blue Rock Thrushes spaced at suitable distances apart, with an accompanying and constant rise and fall of Zitting Cisticolas. Shore and seabirds seen on this walk were the by now common Audouin’s Gull, Shag, Yellow-legged Gull and Common Sandpiper, and further out over the sea, feeding shearwaters, both Cory’s, Yelkouan and probably Balearic but all fairly distant on a walk without the encumbrance of heavy telescopes. It was the 3rd of May that saw an influx of Woodchat Shrikes that shared the tall hedgerows and coastal scrub with the finches, chats, pipits, and later in the week Spotted Flycatchers. It is not until I tried to get pictures of Woodchat Shrikes that I realised how difficult they are to approach closely, as they always kept a respectable distance, ever alert to my movements. Corn Buntings are just everywhere on Menorca, perhaps vying with Sardinian Warbler for the title of “commonest passerine”, and there are just so many singing from every available song post that it made me think how common the species must have been in the UK many, many moons ago before intensification.

Tawny Pipit
Blue Rock Thrush
Stonechat
Spotted Flycatcher
Corn Bunting
Woodchat Shrike
Audouin’s Gull
Raptors on this walk reflected the most common ones of the island, Egyptian Vulture, Kestrel, Peregrine and Booted Eagle, but there was usually a chance of a Hobby where migrant Swallows, Swift and House Martins congregated high along the cliffs or low over the marsh.

Hobby
Egyptian Vulture
View To Son Benet
In the area of Son Bou marsh we saw Squacco, Grey and Purple Herons and the ubiquitous Little Egrets, Purple Swamphens, Coots and Moorhens with the occasional Marsh Harrier, but struggled to see the Great Reed Warblers or evn the Little Bittern from previous years.

Purple Heron
Maybe another walk, another day at Another Bird Blog but there is always a Menorcan sunset to admire.

Sundown at Sant Tomas