We decided to go to Puerto Pollensa in Mallorca for an Autumn break. It turned out that, although warm, the weather was changeable with some very torrential thunderstorms thrown in. Thankfully there were more dry than wet days. This video shows a Mallorcan electrical storm.
This was not a birding holiday as such and I did not venture down to the massive and renowned Albufera Marsh reserve just down the coast - between Port d'Alcudia and C'aan Picafort - just restricting my birding to a few walks in and around Porto Pollensa including the very scenic Boquer Valley. I was lucky enough to see a Hoopoe on the first morning right by our hotel but it flew off almost immediately because it transpired that the hotel was a centre for cyclists and they weren't particularly quiet as they assembled in the morning.
As it happens there was a small nature reserve right in the town called 'La Gola' which consisted of a saline inlet with a track around it passing through some typical Mediterranean woodland.
_ Leaving the path and entering the wood I was really pleased to see this Sardinian Warbler
Returning to the path I saw this Wasp Spider.
And a Grey Heron and Little Egret
On the way back to the hotel in a side street I saw another Sardinian Warbler in a tree and snapped it.
Whilst I was photographing this a couple of British birders saw me and asked me what I was looking at. I told them and also about my visit to 'La Gola'. They asked me had I seen the Woodchat Shrike there (this was shown on one of the information signs in the reserve). I told them that I hadn't and they told me exactly where I was likely to see it (basically 'on the telephone lines at the petrol station end of the reserve'). This made me determined to go back for a second visit. Travelling further I saw this Spotted Flycatcher (probably the commonest bird in Mallorca)
On my next visit I got chatting to another British guy who told me that he had seen a Night Heron in the small river there but that it tended to keep tucked in to the reeds. I resolved to keep an eye out for that but was focused on seeing the Woodchat Shrike. I was right where they said on the telephone pole.
I ducked into the wood again and was rewarded with seeing this lovely female Stonechat.
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Rounding the corner I saw the Grey Heron again but behind it was something that I hadn't seen before. A Heron obviously but with a snakelike head. I didn't know it at the time but this was a juvenile Purple Heron - it turned out to be the highlight of my visit.
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I hope I've not overdone it but as you can imagine faced with what is supposed to be a shy and elusive bird in out the open and only 20' away I've got lots of photos. I think that's more than enough for one session and I'll show the Boquer Valley on a separate post.
Great pictures as usual John, you saw far more in your week than I did in my fortnight in Cyprus.
They surely do get dramatic storms on the continent, if you can call the islands on the continent. Great images. I especially like the second picture of the purple heron; its neck almost looks to thin and long to support itself.
Thanks David and Colin - appreciated, I did get some video footage of the P.H. too, but hand-held because I left the quick-release plate back in the hotel. It's not to bad so I'm going to use it in my video series.
Colin that extended neck and just the way it hunts make it look quite snake-like in life.