Menorca Again

It would be a shame to waste the photographs I took in Menorca and I haven’t got a lot to report today as I spent most of it in Kendal, so here are a few more pics from the Balearic island least popular with most Brits.

One of the best places for birding in Menorca is Tirant, an area of wetland and farmland just a left turn off the main road between Es Mercadal a largish inland town and Fornells the famous yachting and boating resort on the north coast where all the tourists head for in search of the legendary lobster soup. Less than a mile up the road is a farm where Bee Eaters hang out, together with Tawny Pipits, Turtle Doves and the inevitable Sardinian Warblers, Nightingales and Cetti’s Warblers. I think I explained how difficult it is to get pictures of the latter two birds that stay in cover most of the time singing incessantly, but I did get shots of the first three. I must say that the Bee Eaters are very shy and although they fly around freely, as soon as people get out of vehicles or approach the farm gateway, the birds move some distance away. It was only by hiding in the hire car, window partly down that I managed to get the shot below.

Bee Eater
Turtle Dove
Tawny Pipit
Sardinian Warbler
Further along this road parking in a gateway (shades of Over Wyre) gives fairly distant views over Es Prat, where this year we saw Greenshank, quite a good bird for the island, certainly in May. This year the pool was quiet with Little and Cattle Egrets in the wetter areas and a couple of Marsh Harriers that had a habit of keeping well away from any roads, so in two weeks on the island I didn’t get a decent picture of a Marsh Harrier.

Near the marsh where the road lined with Stonechats leads eventually up to Cala Tirant and more Audouin’s Gulls, we stopped to admire Little Ringed Plover on the only area of visible mud which also gave the opportunity to watch both a Woodchat Shrike and a single Red-backed Shrike, several Spotted Flycatchers, more Booted Eagles and yet more Egyptian Vultures, by now becoming almost the commonest raptor. Unfortunately a Roller on the proverbial overhead wires gave brief views only before undulating away into the marsh. The herons all occur here, Little, Grey, Squacco and Purple with the occasional Great Egret.

Woodchat Shrike
Red-backed Shrike
Booted Eagle
Egyptian Vulture
Audouin’s Gull
Spotted Flycatcher
Stonechat
Another coffee stop, at Fornells this time, but it is a pretty good place to watch out for Ospreys patrolling the shallow waters, and although they are not common, they do breed on the island.

Osprey
Fornells
Fornells

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

Down to Earth

Today I knuckled down to some proper birding in the way of checking nest boxes and finding out where the Swallows are up to. But I really look forward to spending time watching Swallows.

I started at Out Rawcliffe and checked several Tree Sparrow boxes before I found some that hadn’t recently fledged; that’s the problem with taking holidays in May that coincide with early breeders in the UK like Tree Sparrows where in most years early broods of young are big enough for ringing by the first week of May. So I resigned myself to having lost at least four broods as I inspected boxes to find well trodden nest material and no young. However I did ring two broods, a trio and then a foursome with two nests to follow up in a week’s time where the young were too small to ring. Near the village hall I found 2 separate Yellowhammer singing, the usual roadside Whitethroats, and on a couple of farm ponds three broods of well grown Coot. In the outhouse with Tess the Border Collie, a Swallow sat brooding four eggs. At this rate it will soon be autumn!

Tree Sparrow Nestling
Tree Sparrow Box
I also came across another Oystercatcher nest, this time on the ground as it should be, but with two eggs.

Oystercatcher Nest
Sitting Oystercatcher
On the moss proper I found a late Wheatear hanging around a pile of rocks and stones, a place I once caught one, but this bird cleared off smartish, and although the small pile of rocks might hide some tasty morsels, I doubt the bird will now stay around for much longer. I checked out the plantation in anticipation of a ringing session soon where I found at least 6 Willow Warblers, 3 Sedge Warblers, several singing Whitethroat, a Garden Warbler, 3 Reed Buntings, a couple of Corn Buntings, but parties still of Goldfinch numbering 18 to 20 in total. Strangely I didn’t hear any Skylark on the topmost part of the moss and only three further back towards the road; let’s hope they are not a serious casualty of our hard winter but the immediate signs are not encouraging.

Corn Bunting
More animals at the next farm where for the Swallow nests horses provide long, strong horse hair, dogs the insulating hair and chickens the warm feathers to complete the nest; and all three the insects to feed adults and young alike.

Horse Hair, Feathers and Fresh Mud
Swallow
Swallow
Swallow
Nest Lining
More Nest Lining
A Never Ending Task
The adult below had only one tail streamer and looks ready to lose the other one when it breaks.

Adult Swallow Taking A Break
I found four active nests; one with four eggs, adult sitting, two lined nests with no eggs, and a fourth newly topped up with earth but not yet lined.

That all looks like an hour or so on IPMR Nest Records, but just to keep myself in holiday mood I’ll finish with a bird from recent weeks, a Red Kite near Tirant, Menorca.

Red Kite
Wow, I've just noticed the blog clocked up the 100th "follower", someone actually reads this stuff!

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

Between You Me And The Gatepost

Today I wanted to catch up with the jobs that holidays let you forget about, like 100+ emails and dozens of items of post, not to mention two weeks of growth on the lawn.

To hell with it then when my farmer friends at Cockerham gave me a ring to say they had an interesting Oystercatcher nest so I called in and took a look, and there it was in the hollow top of a gate post. Such a nest is not without precedent of course but it is a clever strategy of the birds to nest off the ground and avoid land based predators at the egg stage. The birds, mainly the female in Oystercatchers, have been sitting for about two weeks now so I’ll give it about fourteen more days before looking to ring the young.

Sitting Oystercatcher

Three Egg Stage
Oystercatcher
Pushed for time I took a quick look around the rest of the farm and noted 3 pairs of Lapwing, 2 still on eggs and the other with small young, another pair of Oystercatchers, and a Buzzard in a nearby wood together with a couple of pairs of Swallows in the farm buildings and a Willow Warbler singing from a small copse.

I bumped into PW at Conder green but apart from a quick chat about spring being virtually over, I had time only to check out the receding water levels that now look so good for the returning waders of July. So for PW and because I know how much he likes them, I'm posting a photo of a Little Ringed Plover from last week at Tirant, Menorca.

Lille Ringed Plover
I usually like to have a look in Thurnham Hall in May, mainly in search of Garden Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher and Chiffchaff. I wasn’t disappointed today when I saw a single Spotted Flycatcher but at least 3 Garden Warblers, singing and hard “tacking”, plus 2 singing Chiffchaffs with a likely nest locality memorised for a follow up when I have more time.

In Menorca Spotted Flycatchers moved through in very large numbers during 1st to 15 May and I did get more than one photograph. So here is just one of those plus a photograph of an Audouin’s Gull taking a gulp of pool water and yet another Hoopoe, all pictures from the confines of a sunbed – happy days!

Spotted Flycatcher
Audouin’s Gull
Hoopoe

Now please excuse me, I really must tackle those emails.