Birdwatching Trip Report
Mallorca
18 July – 1 August 2009
by Andrew R. Williams
Introduction
A family holiday booked 10 months in advance for my family, including two young children. Although birding was not the focus of the trip and the scope for extended periods of birding was limited, I was able to visit most key sites and, considering the time of year, a reasonable number of species were seen. That said, the number of raptors seen was disappointing, particularly compared with a trip to Menorca at the same time of year in 2006 where very good numbers and superb views of red kite, booted eagle, Eleanora’s falcon and Egyptian vulture were seen.
Accommodation
We booked through Thomas Cook and stayed all-inclusive at the 3* Hotel America in Cales de Mallorca. Located just below halfway up the east coast of the island, the resort of Cales de Mallorca is comprised of about a dozen large hotels, a few apartment blocks and a small number of new villas which are built around two small calas (coves). The resort is relatively remote, surrounded as it is by a large area of otherwise unspoilt coastal maquis habitat backed further inland by garigue and pine forest (excellent for turtle dove).
The hotel was very good, with very high standards of cleanliness, excellent swimming pools (although crowded at this time of year) and spacious rooms (the four of us stayed in a standard room which had plenty of space for 3 single beds and a cot). Food was very good and the hotel catered well for children. The hotel has pleasant garden areas which held very tame spotted flycatchers and the usual Sardinian warblers. Audouin’s gull and yellow-legged gull abounded and gave excellent views from the balcony. A small number of pallid swift nested on the cliff just below the hotel (right next to where the glass-bottomed boats picked up passengers). Also seen in the location of the hotel were Balearic woodchat shrike, blue rock thrush, house martin, shag, rock dove and one Eleanora’s falcon.
The beaches are beautiful but too small for the number of guests at the resort and so always very crowded.
Car hire
I booked car hire several months in advance using the booking agent Holiday Autos (www.holidayautos.co.uk) who in turn used the local company Centauro. We had a diesel Opal Corsa for the whole two weeks which cost £295. The car was typically under-powered and filthy but did the job nonetheless and was massively cheaper than trying to hire one once in situ (about £50 a day). Collection and drop-off of the car at the airport were hassle-free.
Birdwatching
As mentioned, I had the opportunity to visit most of the key birding sites at least once, although I did not visit the Boquer Valley, Casas Vellas or the Albufereta. Partly due to their distance from our accommodation but also because I thought that the former two would not be productive at this time of year, I decided to leave these sites for a return trip when I would aim to stay at Port de Pollensa.
18 July 2009 – Day of arrival. Driving time from Palma airport to Cales de Mallorca about 50 minutes. Species seen on car journey: wood pigeon, collared dove, kestrel, house sparrow, corn bunting, Audouin’s gull, yellow-legged gull, common swift, house martin and barn swallow.
19 July 2009 – Day spent at the hotel in Cales de Mallorca. Species seen in the resort: spotted flycatcher, shag, stonechat, blackbird, Sardinian warbler, goldfinch, blue rock thrush and rock dove.
20 July 2009 – Porto Colom: With the aim of seeing thekla lark, pallid swift and shearwaters, I headed for the area just north of the development of villas. There is now no longer a need to go as far as the roundabout with the lamppost in the middle – turn left where the road widens and you can see the open cliffs beyond the villas. There is a new white villa/apartment block standing alone here next to the cliffs. Thekla larks were flying around here and landing in the road outside the villa. A few pallid swift flew around above the cliffs. No shearwaters over the sea. A lot of goldfinch, one blue rock thrush and the regular Sardinian warblers. Driving back away from the villa development, along the edge of the harbour and turning right up the track towards the cliffs again. Here, in the area near the pine copse I searched for 30 minutes and eventually got a confirmed view of a Balearic warbler (but 2 return trips later in the holiday yielded none). Two hoopoes flew out from the pine copse.
Thekla lark at Porto Colom
Salines de Campos – Eddie’s track was completely fruitless, with all the salt pans on either side completely dried up – the only salt pans with water were way beyond scope range. A drive along the road to Es Trenc beach was difficult since the road is very narrow and extremely busy with cars going to the beach car parks at the end. There are signs saying no parking along the road and there is really only one safe place to pull off the road and stop anyway. Even here, with the car completely off the road, I was beeped at by several motorists in the 10 minutes I stopped here. It was worth it for this was the only place I saw tawny pipit all holiday. Also present: kentish plover on the almost dry pans next to the road; distant views of good numbers of black-winged stilt, avocet and shelduck. A little stint flew by and landed on more distant salt pans. A marsh harrier in the distance was being mobbed by house martins. Several greenshank.
Kentish plover at Salines de Campos
21 July 2009 – Cales de Mallorca: Juvenile woodchat shrike. An afternoon trip into the Arta mountains involved a drive for over an hour each way, the last bit is on quite difficult roads. It was difficult to find the road to the mountains from the town of Arta itself, despite good directions and several maps. Birding-wise, I would not recommend anyone undertaking this trip at this time of year – all we saw were blackcap, stonechat, Sardinian warbler, greenfinch, goldfinch and spotted flycatcher - no larks, raptors or interesting warblers. The scenery is quite impressive and the town of Arta is very pretty and well off the tourist trail.
Spotted flycatcher at Cales de Mallorca
22 July 2009 – Trip to the reservoirs in the Tramuntana mountains. The drive was about an hour and well worth it for the scenery alone. Inca is a town well worth visiting too. My first stop was at Gorg Blau reservoir, where I pulled in at the first layby after the tunnel which gives spectacular views of the lake and mountains. While I was taking scenic shots, a black vulture appeared over the low mountains to the left and drifted slowly across the lake and over the mountains to the right.
Record shot of black vulture at Gorg Blau
On the lake were a few yellow-legged gulls. Inspired by my immediate views of the vulture, I drove on to the Cuber Reservoir but my luck did not hold. I met another birder who had been at the res for over an hour and seen very little. My best for Cuber, aside from the beauty of the location, was crag martin (around the quarry). Also present were two Audouin’s gulls, a few house sparrow and loads of goldfinch and greenfinch, even Sards were thin on the ground. The trip back from Lluc towards Caimari on the Ma-2130 is an easier drive than the trip up and provides more opportunities to pull in safely and admire the views. At one pull in I found more crag martins and I also noticed a pine marten lying as roadkill. Hoopoe also flew across the road on a couple of occasions.
Pine marten roadkill in the Tramuntana mountains
23 July 2009 – An afternoon trip to cool off in the car took us to the Mondrágo nature reserve near Cala d’Or and Portopetro. This would probably be a promising place to visit in a season when the streams leading to the calas hold any water – they were completely dry at this time. All I saw here were woodchat shrike, house sparrow and a few Sards. I suspect the pine woods are also good for hoopoe and turtle dove.
Audouin's gull at Cales de Mallorca
24 July 2009 – A trip to Palma and Cala Major to visit friends. The only birding note here is of a rose-ringed parakeet which flew over the swimming pool. Our friends had noted several sightings of feral birds there in Cala Major.
25 July 2009 – Trip to S’Albufera and the Deperadura de S’Illot. The journey took about 45 minutes and yielded my first cattle egrets of the holiday in flight and in fields around the town of Santa Margalida. I stopped first at the deperadura and here, from the tower hide, found greenshank and purple gallinule. I checked the sand pits for bee-eater but to no avail. I then drove on to the reserve itself. At my time of visiting, there was not access to the reserve by car. The gates were shut when I arrived at 7:45 am and, behind the gates, were bollards and signs saying no access to vehicles – although I suspect this is a seasonal thing as, later in the morning, the reserve was inundated with holiday-makers, mainly on hired bikes. I parked in the small car park on the roundabout just next to the entrance track and accessed the reserve on foot. Immediately inside the gate, in the stream on the left, I had common sandpiper and purple gallinule as well as mallard. To the right, over-flying the canal, were black-winged stilts.
Purple gallinule at S'Albufera
Along the track, especially from the boardwalk as I approached the information centre, I had glimpsed but very close views of roosting herons, mainly cattle and little egrets. Herons were in flight all through my visit to the reserve, with regular views of the former two egrets, as well as purple heron, night heron (mainly juveniles) and squacco heron.
Cattle egret at S'Albufera
Purple heron at S'Albufera
I had one view of grey heron from CIM hide and one of an adult little bittern from the stone bridge. The pools to the north of the two Bishop hides were completely dry and birdless, although it was from Bishop II that I saw an osprey fly across in front of the power station. I later had another view of osprey from the tower hide which also gave views of swift species and swallow. The relocated Watkinson hide gave views of red-crested pochard, coot, moorhen and gallinules, although my best views of gallinules on this trip were from the stone bridge. It was from here also that I had close views of crested coot, many of which were collarless.
Juvenile night heron at S'Albufera
The pools in front of CIM hide were largely dry, but there was some water on the far side which still attracted waders, notably black-winged stilts and greenshank. Stone-curlew were on the dry area in the middle (about 15 birds) and well as a dust-bathing hoopoe. Zitting cisticola was seen and heard from CIM hide. From the new hide overlooking this area, I had little ringed plover feeding on small muddy pools and good views of marsh harrier and Montagu’s harrier which interacted, giving prolonged views.
Little ringer plover at CIM hide pools, S'Albufera
The Monty’s also gave good views later from CIM hide. A juvenile woodchat shrike had the fence outside CIM as its favourite perch. Cetti’s warbler and reed warbler were heard regularly and one reed warbler seen along the track to Watkinson. I had two views of moustached warbler – one from the stone bridge but another gave excellent close views (too close to photograph!) along the main track where it kinks as it crosses a stream. The bird was singing from within a shrub on the right as you leave the reserve. I spent 4 hours at the reserve but then it became very busy. I stopped at the sea end of the canal and had sandwich tern fishing over the sea in the bay.
26 July 2009 – An afternoon trip in the car to get my little one to sleep (!) took us to Cala Bona where there were roosting shag and both gull species on rocks just off shore. Then onto the lighthouse at Cala Rajada which is well worth the drive for spectacular sea views. Here there were breeding blue rock thrush, excellent views of pallid swift and hoopoe.
27 July 2009 – An afternoon trip to Cap de Ses Salines – I recommend this for more great scenic views. It is an easy drive and gives great views of the offshore islands of the Cabrera archipelago. Just as we arrived at the end of the road (wide enough to park easily) a large fishing vessel was very close into shore and heading north up the coast. In tow it had both gulls and both Cory’s shearwater and Balearic shearwater – a shame it had gone before I could get my camera out, but it was pretty spectacular. I saw no other shearwaters in the whole holiday, despite daily seawatching from the hotel balcony. Also present at the Cap were short-toed lark and woodchat shrike as well as groups of linnet.
Juvenile badius woodchat shrike at S'Albufera
28 July 2009 – An early morning return to Porto Colom to get better views of thekla lark and Balearic warbler but I had no luck. There was one thekla on the road among the older villas near the roundabout with the lamp-post. A common sandpiper was patrolling the shore at the top of the harbour. Along the road from Cala Murada to the main Ma-4014 road were many turtle dove feeding at the roadside. Also, a brief but close view of booted eagle rising from the field at the junction of the road from Porto Colom (Ma-4010) and the road to Santanyi (Ma-4012).
Common sandpiper at Porto Colom
A return trip in the afternoon to S’Albufera added two more species: golden eagle viewed from the stone bridge as it soared over and beyond the tower hide area (confirmed in the information centre that this had also been present the day before) plus a great white egret (thanks, Kate, for spotting this!) over the reed beds towards the lone pine area.
29 July 2009 – my little daughter’s second birthday so no birding done today!
30 July 2009 – Two trips to the Castell de Santueri, located southeast of the town of Felanitx, to show the family the view. This is worth the trip up the short but twisty road for the good views of Porto Colom and Cala d’Or. Crag martin gave great views and, on the afternoon trip, two adult Eleanora’s falcon put in a very brief but close appearance. Also present were two serin. On a telegraph wire over the road near the bottom were two bee-eater which just managed to elude the camera shutter.
31 July 2009 – One last look in Porto Colom for Balearic warbler and thekla larks but none seen.
Audouin's gull at Cales de Mallorca
1 August 2009 – the trip back to Palma airport in the hire car gave one more species for the list – nine red-legged partridge flew across the road just west of Campos, narrowly avoiding becoming my second roadkill of the trip!
Enormous thanks to my partner, Sara, who did lots of baby-sitting and so enabled me to see these birds.
Systematic species list
1. Little grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis S'Albufera
2. Great crested grebe Podiceps cristatus S'Albufera
3. Cory’s shearwater Calonectris diomedea - Only seen at Cap de Ses Salines following a large fishing boat.
4. Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus - as above.
5. Shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis - singles in the calas around the hotel, 6 at Cala Bona roosting on rocks.
6. Grey heron Ardea cinerea – one seen in flight at S’Albufera.
7. Purple heron Ardea purpurea – several seen in flight at S’Albufera.
8. Great white egret Egretta alba – one present at S’Albufera and seen in flight over lone pine area.
9. Squacco heron Ardeola ralloides – plenty at S’Albufera.
10. Little egret Egretta garzetta – plenty at S’Albufera.
11. Little bittern Ixobrychus minutes - only one seen in flight in two trips to S’Albufera.
12. Cattle egret Bulbulcus ibis – abundant at S’Albufera but also groups of ten or more in fields around Santa Margalida and four in flight over the sea past our hotel in Cales de Mallorca.
13. Black-crowned night heron Nycticorax nycticorax - adults and juveniles at S’Albufera.
14. Shelduck Tadorna tadorna – very large numbers at the Salines de Campos including mainly juveniles.
15. Mallard Anas platyrhynchos – S’Albufera
16. Red-crested pochard Netta rufina – S’Albufera (I saw no adult males).
17. Black vulture Aegypius monachus – one over the Gorg Blau reservoir.
18. Osprey Pandion haliaetus – two sightings (very possibly the same bird) at S’Albufera.
19. Golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos – one at S’Albufera.
20. Booted eagle Hieraaetus pennatus – disappointingly few: only two definite sightings (one near Porto Colom and one near Santa Margalida) and probably a third near Cap de Ses Salines.
21. Marsh harrier Circus aeruginosus – several at S’Albufera.
22. Montagu’s harrier Circus pygargus – one at S’Albufera.
23. Kestrel Falco tinnunculus – common over farmland.
24. Eleanora’s falcon Falco eleonorae – one at Cales de Mallorca and two adults at Castell de Santueri SE of Felanitx.
25. Red-legged partridge Alectoris rufa – a group of 9 flew across the Palma road just west of Campos.
26. Moorhen Gallinula chloropus – one juvenile at S’Albufera.
27. Coot Fulica atra – S’Albufera.
28. Red-knobbed (crested) coot Fulica cristata - S’Albufera (many birds without collars in family groups).
29. Purple gallinule Porphyrio porphyrio – S’Albufera (excellent views from the stone bridge and the wooden bridge near the information centre); also one at the Deperadura de S’Illot.
30. Avocet Recurvirostra avosetta – probably over 100 at Salines de Campos.
31. Black-winged stilt Himantopus himantopus - Salines de Campos and S’Albufera.
32. Stone-curlew Burhinus oedicnemus – good numbers from CIM hide at S’Albufera on the dried out pool bed.
33. Little ringed plover Charadrius dubius – S’Albufera: one from the new hide near CIM hide feeding from a muddy patch.
34. Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus – two at Salines de Campos.
35. Little stint Calidris minuta - one at Salines de Campos.
36. Greenshank Tringa nebularia – one at the Deperadura de S’Illot.
37. Audouin’s gull Larus audouinii – very frequent almost everywhere, including a few in the mountains and two at Cuber Reservoir.
38. Yellow-legged gull Larus cachinans – less frequent than Audouin’s but still plenty about, including 25 at Gorg Blau reservoir.
39. Sandwich tern Sterna sandvicensis – one fishing in Alcudia bay visible from the canal entrance at S’Albufera.
40. Rock dove Columba livia – a lot of pure-looking birds around the coasts, especially at Cales de Mallorca and Cala Rajada but feral pigeons also abundant.
41. Wood pigeon Columba palumbus
42. Collared dove Streptopelia decaocto
43. Turtle dove Streptopelia turtur – in pine forests, especially along the road from the Porto Colom-Portocristo road (Ma-4014) towards Cala Murada.
44. Swift Apus apus
45. Pallid swift Apus pallidus – Cales de Mallorca, Porto Colom, Cala Rajada.
46. Hoopoe Upupa epops – seen only in flight but on several occasions, island-wide.
47. Bee-eater Merops apiaster – two on telegraph wire over the road down from Castell de Santueri.
48. Rose-ringed parakeet Psittacula krameri – one in Cala Major.
49. Thekla lark Galerida theklae – up to 3 birds seen at Porto Colom on edge of new development and in the roads between villas.
50. Short-toed lark Calandrella brachydactyla – Cap de Ses Salines.
51. Crag martin Ptyonoprogne rupestris – quarry at Cuber reservoir; Tramuntana mountains (road from Lluc to Inca); Castell de Santueri (probably the easiest site to get to).
52. House martin Delichon urbica
53. Barn swallow Hirundo rustica
54. Tawny pipit Anthus campestris – one at Salines de Campos.
55. Wren Troglodytes troglodytes – S’Albufera
56. Stonechat Saxicola torquata
57. Blue rock thrush Monticola solitaries – surprisingly difficult but one at Cales de Mallorca; two (adult and juv.) at Cala Rajada; one at Porto Colom.
58. Blackbird Turdus merula
59. Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla – singing males at the Arta mountains site; also female seen.
60. Sardinian warbler Sylvia melanocephala – omnipresent.
61. Balearic warbler Sylvia balearica – one definite sighting at Porto Colom but probably a few others at that site; another birder reported good views that week at Formentor at K-17.
62. Moustached warbler Acrocephalus melanopogon – two sightings at S’Albufera, one giving good views and singing in a bush at the kink in the main entrance track.
63. Zitting cisticola Cisticola juncidis – S’Albufera (one or two heard and one seen).
64. Reed warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus – S’Albufera
65. Cetti’s warbler Cettia cetti – S’Albufera
66. Spotted flycatcher Muscicapa striata – omnipresent
67. Great tit Parus major – S’Albufera
68. Blue tit Parus caeruleus – S’Albufera
69. Woodchat shrike Lanius senator badius – more scarce than expected - seen on about 15 occasions.
70. House sparrow Passer domesticus
71. Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs
72. Greenfinch Carduelis chloris
73. Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis
74. Corn bunting Emberiza calandra - one unfortunately collided with the windscreen while I drove from Palma airport to the resort - my first close encounter with Mallorcan birdlife! Another was seen in Cales de Mallorca.
Spotted flycatcher at Cales de Mallorca...
© All photos are copyright Andrew Williams 2009