Monday 13 August 2012

Mallorcan Vis S Albufera marsh



Thee is an osprey in this pic somewhere............................


After a large storm on the 9th i decided to see if anything was on the move first thing the next morning.As i aproached the ' English bridge ' I could hear Cettis and Sardinian warblers from the vegatation on the side of the canal.First birds were 27 swallows south closely followed by  an 8 and a 17 tucked into the last group were 2 red rumped swallows and 3 sand martin soon followed . 100 + Little egrets flew from there roost just up the canal , 7 Squacco and 4 Night herons went the opposite way.Wader calls got my attention 5 greenshank and a Common sand went up the canal soon followed by 3 geenshank and a spotted redshank.
 3 Audouins Gulls went over and more little egrets  flew from there roost.Swifts piled through too many to count  nothing of interset at first but soon I picked out 3 Pallids and a superp Alpine close to the tree tops surrounding the canal. Nightingale and Fan - tailed warblers occasionally gave bursts of song.
  The sky was full of swifts and Swallows and a marsh harrier drifted low over the canal then out of nowhere an adult Elanoras falcon went shooting through the hirundines not to be seen again that morning.
A Little Bittern sneaked out of cover for a brief view and a couple of Purple Herons  broke from cover to give excellent views .A  flock of 42 Black Headed Gulls headed over and a couple of yellow legged Gulls then followed.
  Spotted flys seen to be all over the place and a couple of Hoopoes made for a great morning.a quick look at the nearby salinas produced 2 curlew,4 wood,3 green and 7 Common sandpipers , 24 Black winged stilts,1 avocet , 6 little stins ,2 dunlin ,1 ruff , 6 Kentish,1 Little Ringed and 11 Ringed plovers,4 Purple swamphen,2 Yellow wag ( blue headed) ,1 tawny pipit and a family party of Woodcat shrikes.
  Stone Curlew,Osprey,Quail and Moustashed warbler were seen later on in the morning...Good Stuff........................................Also seen ,marbled duck, balaric warbler, black Vulture,Med Gull, Temmincks stint,Cragg martin , Blue rock thrush and loads of elenoras falcons.
 

2 comments:

David Sutcliffe said...

It sounds to be still very good there Andy and a nice report - I was last there with Bruce in 1973 !!!

AndyC said...

Bet its changed a lot since then but still great birding my second visit .Look forward to the next visit....1980,2012 and ????.The drive along the winding road to Formentor lighthouse is outstanding