Guess Where

Regular readers will know where Sue and I are this week. That’s right - Sunny Menorca, our annual treat after the British winter. The winter just gone was the worst for many a year so we are really ready for this respite. 

First and foremost this is a holiday of rest & relaxation with a few birds thrown in for good measure.  Sue tells me a holiday should not include blogging so I scheduled this post before we left to include pictures from recent years.

Apologies if some seem familiar but sit back at your PC, “click the pics” and enjoy some of that the Mediterranean sunshine as we take in a few birds and landscapes of glorious Menorca. 

Menorcan Panda 

Bee Eater 

Donkey Love 

Red-footed Falcon 

Egyptian Vulture 

Lobsters 

Es Grau Nature Reserve 

Sardinian Warbler 

Hoopoe 

Es Mignorn 

Alaior

Hoopoe

Egyptian Vultures

View from El Toro, Menorca

Scop's Owl 

Purple Heron 

Tawny Pipit 

Black-winged Stilt 

Turtle Dove 

Es Grau, Menorca 

Hermann's Tortoise 

Squacco Heron 

Es Mercadal, Menorca 

Bee Eater 

Woodchat Shrike 

Spotted Flycatcher 

Fornells Village, Menorca 

A hot day in Menorca 

Back soon. Don't start birding without me.

Are You Bored Yet?

Definitely not. We are far from bored and time just flies when having fun.

It’s Week Two but there are a multitude of things to see and do in Menorca, lots of ways to fill the day or the evening.

Those Hoopoes keep us amused for ages. And they never ever get stuck in the nest hole.

Hoopoe

It's a steady and interesting route to pretty and colourful Es Migjorn where the sunny walk demands a cooling beer afterwards.

Es Migjorn

  

Bee Eater

Cattle Egrets don't always live up to their descriptive name. 

 

At Es Grau again.

Es Grau- Menorca

At the Nature Reserve near Es Grau there's a chance of seeing Squacco Herons.

Squacco Heron

At Fornells there's shelter of sorts from an often unrelenting sun but from where you can watch the sleepy harbour; or perhaps take out that set of watercolour paints you've been meaning to try?

Fornells - Menorca

Fornells - Menorca

Bee Eaters - a watercolour

Mints after dinner and owl watching time.

Scops Owl

There's even More from Menorca soon on Another Bird Blog. Apologies for not visiting too many blogs and I will catch up with everyone soon.

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.

Back

We finally got back after Manchester closed and our flight was volcanoed to Luton Airport. That's a story all in itself best saved for another day.

So until I can get my 500 pictures downloaded and doctored here's a few Menorcan birds to be going on with.

Hoopoe
Cattle Egret
Squacco Heron

Back to normal in a day or two with some local birding.