Majorca Revisited

Just back from a week in Puerto Pollensa, Majorca, its been a little over twenty years since I last visited and definitely a few changes to see.  It must have the best roads in the EU now, we took a c.40 km drive into the mountains one morning, the whole road surface renewed and not one pothole. It may have been because of the 'Majorcan Ironman' cycling race the previous week with still plenty of riders about causing havoc with the traffic on the many bends and hairpins, there must be many accidents. The rest of the roads we saw were all new, plenty of signs, so you don't get lost and nice to see no litter, a definite improvement.

Our first day was warm and fine but the wind was beginning to increase, the following four days were cloudy with very strong winds and rain, one night causing a lot of damage and flooding in parts. 

 Damage to the pool area after overnight storm

Plenty of rain!

However, between showers and wind I made a few trips up into the Boquer Valley finding redstarts, pied and spotted flycatchers virtually everyday also the odd firecrest, many sightings of blue rock thrush, a flock of c.50 crag martins, a daily booted eagle, Sardinians, one Balearic warbler, raven plus greenfinches, great tits, a couple of whitethroats plus a 'rare' lesser whitethroat which was seen by two other birders.

 Entrance to the Boquer Valley

The Boquer Valley, the one thing that has not changed.

Spotted Flycatchers

One of the c.50 Crag Martins

 Crag Martin

Booted Eagle

One morning we visited the Albufera Marsh meeting Dungeness birder, Tony Greenland. A short walk around produced 7 stone-curlews, lots of duck, egrets, several greenshanks, 4 ospreys plus a couple of red-knobbed coots etc..

 La Albufera

 The Main Channel

Red-knobbed Coot

The next morning we drove to Cala Millor in the pouring rain, a place we loved years ago, now looked almost rebuilt and unrecognizable. Although a seafront cafe we used to visit was still there plus some Audouin's Gulls on the beach.

Audouin's Gulls

Midway into the week the other half became ill with the tummy bug along with the rest of the hotel, I managed to avoid the extremes of it and managed to wander up to the Boquer Valley most days whilst recovery took place!  The last, but one day we managed to have a trip up to the Cuba Reservoir and saw a couple of black vultures but no luck with the Griffons (Bonelli's have been introduced also I was told, somewhere). 

 Soller

Black Vulture

Our last day was spent around the seafront doing the touristy thing plus a visit to the town's little 'reserve' called La Gola, on the seafront. Not much more than an acre in size but I recorded kingfisher, wood warbler and a fan-tailed warbler.

 La Gola reserve

Fan-tailed Warbler (Zitting Cisticola)

The seafront was full of cafes etc. and full of  oldies in retirement, seemed an expensive area and house prices were a lot higher than the UK so it will not be a place for me!

 The Harbour Was Full of Boats

A quiet moment!