Back To The Grey Stuff

Keen to see what I had missed while on holiday in sunny Menorca, I spent most of the morning up Cockerham way. It was good to get out and do some local birding again, even in the grey May skies. 

At Wrampool and where I expected to see the Lapwing pair of three weeks ago, there’s a pair of nesting Oystercatchers instead. The female sat tight on the eggs while the male patrolled silently nearby, both trying to be inconspicuous. For such an obvious nest it will be interesting to see how well the birds do. 

Oystercatcher

Oystercatcher

Conder Green was quiet although it was good to see 2 Common Terns back on site. It must have been the male I saw at Glasson Dock soon after. It caught a tiny fish and flew immediately back towards Conder Green a quarter of a mile away where it would present it to the female. This is exactly the initial feeding pattern for last year which might suggest the male at least is one and the same bird. 

Common Tern at Glasson Dock

On the pool and in the creeks I found 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 12 Oystercatcher, 12 Redshank, 14 Shelduck, 6 Tufted Duck 25 Mute Swan, 3 Little Egret and 1 Grey Heron. The stretch between Conder and Glasson Dock found a good number of birds in song - 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Sedge Warbler, 3 Whitethroat, 2 Blackcap, 2 Willow Warbler and 2 Chiffchaff. 

Whitethroat

I saw handfuls only of Swifts, Swallows and House Martins on a cool morning with not many insects on the wing. The five or six House Martins were busily collecting mud from the roadside and flying up to this year’s preferred building. I noted that the wretched human occupants of the House Martin’s often used gable end of the café have installed strips of plastic under the eaves to keep the martins out. 

House Martin territory 

House Martin

What a joy it would be to have House Martins around my own house each year. No such luck with a bungalow.  A neighbour has 6/8 pairs each year under the eaves of a large house and doesn’t mind sweeping the path when the martins are in residence. 

A circuit of Jeremy Lane and Moss Lane proved very rewarding. In a stubble field were 18+ Stock Doves, 30+ Wood Pigeon and several Lapwings, some of them with largish youngsters. Brown Hares were conspicuous if rather distant with a combined count of 15+ scattered across several fields. 

 Brown Hares

The ditches, fences and hedgerows gave counts of 6 Sedge Warbler, 5 Whitethroat, 5 Reed Bunting and 8+ Skylark, the male Sedge Warblers in particular giving some virtuoso performances and showing themselves to good effect. 

Sedge Warbler

Sedge Warbler

There was a Barn Owl in the distance. I watched from the car as it sailed along the ditch coming ever closer, stopping occasionally to take a closer look below. The last shot is taken through the car windscreen, hence the fuzziness. I must learn to clean the windscreen!

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

Oh well, as a birder you can’t win them all. But as a morning goes, it was pretty damn good. 

I’ll post new pictures from Menorca soon. Don’t miss them, so remember to look in to Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni's Birding and Run A Round Ranch.

The Blog Is Back

The blog is back online after our two week sojourn in sunny Menorca. Thanks are due to regular readers who followed our adventures and kept in touch. There’s the necessary catching up with friends and family so it will take a few days to get back to local birding and ringing. 

In the meantime here are some words and pictures from that sunny Mediterranean island. Don’t forget to “click the pics” for a better view of Menorca and its birds. 

As usual we picked up a Fiat Panda from Mahon Airport via Momple Cars. The little Fiat is great for negotiating some of the narrow, poppy-lined lanes off the main tourist trails, places where birds are more often found. 

Near Es Mercadal, Menorca

Menorcan Donkey

Wild Poppies, Menorca

Near Es Mercadal, Menorca 

Two weeks allowed us to visit birdy places but also tour the island and drop by a number of favourite places. While our stay wasn’t just a birding holiday, we came across a good number of birds as well as enjoying rest and relaxation. Some days we found specialties like European Roller, Whiskered Tern, Quail, Great White Egret and Red-footed Falcon which livened up the everyday common stuff like Woodchats, Nightingales, Bee Eaters, Booted Eagles and Red Kites. 

Near the centre of the island and close to the town of Es Mercadal and the lanes of Tirant, Bee Eaters bubble overhead and Hoopoes call from far away. Raptors crowd the morning skies to a background melody of Corn Buntings, Nightingales and the chattering of Cetti’s and Sardinian Warblers. 

While Booted Eagles are common enough it is very difficult to get good photos of a wary raptor which keeps a good distance away from people and roads. The local Red Kites are often slightly more accommodating while Egyptian Vultures sail overhead on their aeroplane wings. Once or twice we saw vultures on the ground feeding amongst the livestock whereby the animal droppings become an unusual source of food for this specialised and mainly vegetarian vulture. 

Red Kites

 

Red Kite

Egyptian Vulture

 Egyptian Vultures

 

Booted Eagle

Bee Eater

Woodchat Shrike

Hermann's Tortoise

On more than one occasion we stopped the car to avoid running over a Hermann’s Tortoise, Testudo hermanni, a common and seemingly abundant resident of both Menorca and southern Europe. 

Via Wiki - “Early in the morning, the animals leave their nightly shelters, which are usually hollows protected by thick bushes or hedges, to bask in the sun and warm their bodies. They then roam about the Mediterranean meadows of their habitat in search of food. They determine which plants to eat by the sense of smell. In addition to leaves and flowers, the animals eat small amounts fruits as supplementary nutrition. Around midday, the sun becomes too hot for the tortoises, so they return to their hiding places. They have a good sense of direction to enable them to return. Experiments have shown they also possess a good sense of time, the position of the sun, the magnetic lines of the earth, and for landmarks. In late afternoon, they leave their shelters again and return to feeding.”  

Once again and as in previous years of visiting Menorca, the commonest bird of the island seemed to be the Corn Bunting, its local abundance a tribute to the traditional way of farming that is employed. What a contrast to the UK where a once common farmland bird and its "bunch of jangling keys" song is but a distant memory to many bird watchers. 

Corn Bunting

After a morning in the hot sun a short drive to the fishing village of Fornells in the north of the island is a regular lunch and coffee stop. There’s a chance of a resident Osprey fishing the shallow waters, but if not, just along the shore there’s always an Audouin’s Gull or two to admire. 

Fornells, Menorca

Fornells, Menorca

Audouin's Gull

Fornells, Menorca 

And after a morning in the hot sun who can resist an ensaimada crema for lunch? There are a number of variations of ensaimada - plain (unfilled), filled with angel's hair (squash jam), custard cream (crema), almond puree, ice-cream, chocolate or apricots. That’s a lot of ensaimadas to try. But someone has to get stuck into the thankless task. 

La Palma, Fornells

 Ensaimada Crema & Coffee

There’s more birds and birding soon. Don’t miss it.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday and Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

More From The Med

Readers will discover that Sue and I are still in the Med. Here are more highlights of Menorca and the birdlife found here in May. Apologies for the lack of commentary but I’m doing this post on a Wi-Fi tablet. The photo captions will reveal where are. Don't forget to click the pics for a tour of Menorca.

Es Grau - Menorca

Little Egret at Es Grau

Viewing screen at Es Grau

Purple Heron at Es Grau

 Turtle Dove at Es Grau

 

Cap de Cavalleria - Menorca

Stonechat - Cap de Cavalleria

Audouin's Gull - Cap de Cavalleria

Corn Bunting - Cap de Cavalleria

Es Mercadal - Menorca 

 

Plato del Dia - Menorca

The Lobster - Fornells, Menorca 

Bee Eater near Es Mercadal

Hoopoe near Es Migjorn, Menorca

Woodchat Shrike near Es Migjorn, Menorca

Sunset at Sant Tomas, Menorca

Scops Owl - Sant Tomas, Menorca

Another Bird Blog is back in the UK soon. Log in then for more birds, birding and bird ringing.

Boomerang Island

Readers will see that Sue and I are back in Menorca again. After a wet, miserable winter and a cool spring we are here to relax and take in some Mediterranean sunshine and to meet friends old and new.  

I put together some pictures which feature Menorca and the birdlife found here in May, the quiet month with fewer visitors and the month that Menorca opens for business.  "Click the pics" to visit Menorca.

Menorca in the Mediterranean Sea

Maybe it’s the boomerang shape of the island which gets us coming back for more each year? The picture taken from Google Earth uses the traditional English spelling of “Minorca” but we prefer to use the Catalan or Spanish spelling of “Menorca”, a name which originates from the Latin meaning of "smaller island”.

Menorca may be small but it is perfectly formed and not plagued by much of the grotty development of its sister islands of Majorca or Ibiza. An essentially rural island, Menorca features rolling fields, wooded ravines and bumpy hills filling out the interior between its two main – but still notably small centres of population, Maó and Ciutadella. Much of the landscape looks pretty much as it did at the turn of the twentieth century, and only around the edges of the island, and then only in parts, have the rocky coves been colonized by hotel and villa complexes. Much of the farming on Menorca is still carried out in traditional, sustainable ways. 

Menorca 

Tawny Pipit

Blue Rock Thrush

Cattle Egret

Red-footed Falcon

  

Wild Poppies - Menorca

Egyptian Vulture

Heerman's Tortoise

Coffee Break - Menorca

Spotted Flycatcher

Audouin's Gull

Bee Eater

That's all for now. More from Menorca soon with Another Bird Blog.