Mallorca - Son Real...

On our final full day on Mallorca we visited the reserve of Son Real on the east coast, and enjoyed probably our favourite birding of the trip. Highlights included some confiding Audouin's Gulls on the beach and Tawny Pipits, Thekla Larks and Balearic Woodchat Shrikes on the heath. Both Scopoli's Shearwater and Balearic Shearwater were offshore as well. What made the reserve special in our opinion was the great mix of habitats; farmland, heathland, coastal scrub and then the beach.

We ended with a total of 105 species being seen during the week we were there. A great trip!

Audouin's Gulls - adults and a second-summer.

Tawny Pipit

Kentish Plovers

Balearic Woodchat Shrike

Thekla Larks

Mediterranean Shag

Mallorca - Albufera (part two)...

Finally had the time to edit some more photos from Mallorca and on our penultimate full day of the holiday we returned to Albufera. Highlights included a male Little Bittern a few metres away, a Collared Pratincole, Temminck's Stint, 7 Little Stints, 50+ Spotted Redshank, a Water Pipit and a hybrid Little Egret x Reef Heron. We also had a Marbled Duck, but later found out this was from one of the reintroduction schemes taking place over the last few years to boost the population there...

Little Bittern

Cattle Egret

Sardinian Warbler

Black-winged Stilt

Collared Pratincole

Great Reed Warbler

Cetti's Warbler

Little Egret x Reef Heron

Water Pipit

Iberian Yellow Wagtail intergrade (?)

Purple Heron

Marsh Harrier

Temminck's Stint...

We went to Castle Island this evening to look for the the Temminck's Stints which had been found half an hour earlier, and sure enough we arrived to find one showing really well on the mud close to the south side. It was nice to finally get views of this species...

Citrine Wagtail...

It's taken me a while to go through photos of the stunning female Citrine Wagtail at Lynemouth Flash on Friday, but here's the best of them. My highlight of this year by far...

Citrine Wagtail - video best viewed in HD at 720p/1080p

Unseasonable...

Just after leaving the main car park on Holy Island this morning, I heard an unfamiliar song coming from close by. We quickly located the bird in question, and initial views were of a phyllosc that we thought had just one wingbar and a broad supercilium, which made us think we were watching a Greenish Warbler.

However, as the bird started to show better and sing more, we could see the start of a second wingbar, a hint of pale edges to the tertials and could better appreciate it's compact shape. We were now pretty sure we had found a singing Yellow-browed. Eventually, and after receving some helpful comments online, it started to give the classic call of a Yellow-browed Warbler. Perhaps not quite as exciting as finding a Greenish, but we were still quite pleased, as we were told it was just the third spring record in the county!

A flog around the rest of the island didn't produce anything quite as exctiting, but still a nice mix of common migrants...

7 Spotted Flycatcher
7 Willow Warbler
1 Lesser Whitethroat
1 Tree Pipit
2 Chiffchaff
1 Ring Ouzel
2 Wheatear
1 Fieldfare
1 Blackcap

Hopefully a few more blog posts over the next few days, including the stunning Citrine Wagtail at Lynemouth and our last two days on Mallorca...

Yellow-browed Warbler

Spotted Flycatcher