Mallorca Holiday 24th April 2015 : “Pollenca Back Lanes”

We decided to do a bit of local birding as a warm up for the more distant sites that we meant to do later in our holiday. We plumped for the “Pollenca Back Lanes” tour mentioned in Dave Gosney’s book ““Finding Birds in Mallorca”. The walk didn’t let us down and we got a good list of species during the day including three “life ticks”

We set off from our hotel and over the roundabout to the mouth of the Torrent de Sant Jordi. We stopped for a while and got lovely views of two Little Ringed Plovers, the male of which was fluffing out its chest feathers in a display for the benefit of a female bird. Apart from that the only bird there was a Yellow-legged Gull.

We continued on the road for a short distance before turning right up a dirt road to the main road, the Camp de Lenaire. This runs partly parallel with the Torrent de San Jordi. We heard Sedge Warbler and saw a lot of Stonechats. The three “life ticks” we got on this walk included great views of Corn Buntings and a Serin and three single Woodchat Shrikes, one of which I was watching as it decided to take wing and attack a Greenfinch. I think the Greenfinch got away but there were certainly plenty of them around to chose from. There were plenty of Goldfinches as well and Spanish and House Sparrows in abundance.

On this same path, a Kestrel patrolled the area and, as ever, Cetti’s Warblers were singing every few feet; we actually managed to see one – albeit quite briefly. We continued on to the main road and then turned left. We looked for the Golden Oriole and Bee Eaters mentioned by Gosney but, surprise, surprise, no luck !

We didn’t have any luck with Flycatchers or Redstarts either but two separate people we spoke to said that all the birders had been complaining that the Spring migration was late this year. We are here for another 12 days so we hope that things will pick up.

We tried the route from this road back down the lanes to Albufereta but we got a bit lost – Gosney is a bit vague about which turns to take – and we started to get very hot and footsore. We got a nice view of a pair of Ravens and some Pipits but not I was not sure which kind it was. In truth we could have stopped at the end of the Torrent but we ploughed on and at least added Blackcap and Linnet to our list for the day. When we eventually made it to Albufereta we were in great need of a drink so we headed for the rather splendid Can Cuarassa restaurant where we cooled off and had a well deserved cold beer.

Suitably revived we walked back to the hides at Can Cuarassa (birders refer to the hides and paths at this far western end of the Albufereta reserve after the restaurant) . We managed to get our third view of Sardinian Warbler for the day. The whole place was full of bird song but a lot of it was beyond our powers to recognise.

From the hides we saw a pair of nesting Little Ringed Plovers, quite a few Black-winged Stilts. There was a pair of Red-crested Pochard and a single Gadwall. We also saw a single Swallow and a Great White Egret flew overhead

We eventually returned to the main road and walked back along the road towards Port de Pollenca. As we walked along the road by the sandy waters edge we saw a Green Sandpiper. A little bit further along and I saw two Audouin’s Gulls.

Back on the balcony of our hotel I had a beer and listed to the cacophony of House Sparrows interrupted occasionally by a squadron of Swifts. On the strip of rocks just off the beach the Shags were settling down for the night.

Bird Sightings : Torrent de San Jordi

Species	Count
Little Ringed Plover	6
Yellow-legged Gull	3

Bird Sightings : Port de Pollenca “Back Lanes”

Species	Count
Feral Pigeon	6
Stock Dove	2
Eurasian Collared Dove	4
Common Kestrel	2
Woodchat Shrike	3
Common Raven	2
Cetti’s Warbler	20
Blackcap	1
Sardinian Warbler	4
European Stonechat	20
Eurasian Blackbird	4
Meadow Pipit	1
Corn Bunting	2
European Greenfinch	30
European Goldfinch	20
Common Linnet	1
European Serin	1
House Sparrow	20
Spanish Sparrow	20

Bird Sightings : Can Cuarassa

Species	Count
Gadwall	1
Mallard	6
Red-crested Pochard	2
Great Egret	1
Common Moorhen	2
Common Coot	2
Black-winged Stilt	8
Green Sandpiper	1
Barn Swallow	1
Sardinian Warbler	1

Bird Sightings : Port de Pollensa

Species	Count
European Shag	8
Audouin’s Gull	2
Common Swift	8

Mallorca Holiday 24th April 2015 : “Pollenca Back Lanes”