Scorchio

Every day is just sunny and 25 degrees, not like the UK weather we watch on Sky TV.

This week we spent time in the north of the island visiting a few tourist honey pots and such like. Of course wherever you go in Menorca there are birds pretty much exclusive to this part of the Mediterranean and although they are never easy to find, the Mediterranean birds in the gentle Menorca landscape make the island a great place for a visit. 

First stop today was Punta Nati with a stop en route to see if the roadside Cattle Egret colony still prospers. Of course it’s still there but impossible to see or count the active nests in the thick pines without disturbing the birds which by early May are feeding young. 

Cattle Egret

The open skies up here were full of raptors, probably many of them migrating north, with Kestrels, Booted Eagles and Marsh Harriers the most common ones, but a smattering of Hobby and Red-footed Falcon. Around the lighthouse flit Blue Rock Thrushes, Skylarks, Thekla Larks and more Tawny Pipits. 

Thekla Lark

When the weather is a bit cool and windy the quiet north of the island can seem a wild, even inhospitable place, the eerie calls of Stone Curlews echoing that impression, but seeing one of these grey, camouflaged and shy birds amongst the rocky landscape is a different matter to finding Blue Rock Thrushes which perch up obligingly.

 Blue Rock Thrush

I'd better hit the trail back towards the hotel, an evening swim and then dinner before more birding tomorrow. It's a hard life but someone has to do it.

Late news. A couple of good finds this week were Whiskered Tern and then Bittern, the latter very rare in Menorca, so it was quite a surprise to see one walk across the road and disappear into the reeds at Tirant. Getting some good photographs too this week of Bee Eater, Short-toed Lark, Thekla Lark and Woodchat plus a Scops Owl so close I only got the top half in the shot.
 

It’s A Lark

With a couple of hours to spare this morning I snuck out to Pilling to see what’s new. It was a good start when as I approached Lane Ends 2 Sparrowhawks were circling over the trees, then as I drove into the car park I heard a Chiffchaff singing from the plantation.

On the path to Pilling Water I saw that the next door farmer was cutting his silage fields, making hay in the morning sun, but a Lapwing wasn’t happy about him or me, and I realised there was a late brood of youngsters close by. I spotted three well grown chicks running along behind the sea wall and managed to locate two of them crouching in the grass. I always carry a selection of ring sizes and pliers in my camera bag, so quickly ringed them and let them join the escapee.

Lapwing

Along and out of Pilling Water I counted 7 Pied Wagtail, 5 Redshank, 5 Oystercatcher, 4 Common Sandpiper, 55 more Lapwings, 1 Greenshank and a Little-ringed Plover, with herons represented by 2 Little Egret and 3 Grey Heron. The finch flock was more scattered today but I still found 45 Linnet, 14 Greenfinch and 8 Goldfinch, with a token count of 3 Meadow Pipit. My count of hirundines came to 40 Swallow, 10 House Martin and 3 Swift. Strictly speaking swifts are not swallow-like at all, but are almost always included in birders' counts of mixed swallows and martins.

Swallow

To add to the find of a Skylark nest a few weeks ago, I located another this morning up near Fluke Hall, in a spot where Skylarks have sung all spring and summer. The nest may be a second attempt, or most likely a second brood, but the three young were too small for a ring and will have to wait until Wednesday when their legs are a little better formed.

Skylark nest
Skylark

So for a bit of fun ID-ing, here’s a couple of different larks looking somewhat similar, Thekla Lark and Crested Lark, both confusable with each other, and each with Skylark possibly, especially as they inhabit similar landscapes. Fortunately the three species don’t occur together much in the UK, and certainly not at Pilling on a Monday morning.

Thekla Lark
Crested Lark

Back To Normal

Following a couple of weeks of relaxation and a bit of Med birding today was “goodbye” sunny Menorca of 24⁰ at 11am then “hello” rainy Manchester, 12⁰ at 2pm; from the sublime to the ridiculous.

After sorting through the pile of doorstep mail an early task was switching on the computer, paying online a few urgent bills like my BT Internet, checking emails and then downloading the many photographs I took in Menorca, most not as good as I hoped, for but some passable after a little help from Dr Photoshop.

So until I can get back to normal and catch up with fellow bloggers and followers, here’s a small selection from the last two weeks.

The Bee Eaters are always there, in the same spot, but for such a gregarious species, it is so reluctant to be captured by camera. We saw or heard Bee Eaters every day we went out, small groups mostly, often feeding high overhead in the clear sunny days.

Bee Eater

Menorca had enjoyed an early and hot spring, the wild orchids of April completely finished by early May with seemingly many birds feeding young. We saw many Thekla Larks taking food to young, found Sardinian Warbler nests, watched the House Martins at Galdana collecting mud from the only pool of water, and then in the evenings watched the local pair of Scops Owls mating on several nights.

Sardinian Warbler
Sardinian Warbler
House Martin
Thekla Lark

The Thekla picture didn’t turn out too bad considering I accidentally left the ISO at 3200 after trying for Scops pictures the night before, but my limited skills with Dr Photoshop don’t extend to completely eliminating the obligatory red-eye of close-up owls. Having said that, the owls themselves were absolutely stunning this year, so obliging, regular and predictable that we planned our evenings about their regular 2100 hours timetable and sound show that lasted until 4am.

Scops Owl

So it’s an early night for me too with no photography of nocturnal owls, no wandering the isle of Menorca for bird exotica and instead very much back to the regular UK birds soon; but watch this space for Red-footed Falcon, Audouin’s Gull, Egyptian Vulture, Red Kite etc eventually.

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