Mallorca day 6 - Son Bosc and Son Real
Seeing as we enjoyed having a guide on Tuesday, we decided to have a half day with a different guide this morning. She picked us up from the hotel in the morning, and we headed straight to Can Cuarassa to have a quick look to see what was in the fields around. The main highlight from this was a female Whinchat, a first for me and mum. There were also several Corn Buntings and Zitting Cisticolas in the area..
Next we headed to Son Bosc, where we saw a Red Crested Pochard with ducklings, as well as a number of Pochards. We also saw two Hoopoes, a Black Vulture and a Marsh Harrier here. We soon headed down the road to Son Real, where we walked along the trail towards the coast. In the woodland we saw two female Pied Flycatchers, mum's first in this plumage after seeing a male yesterday. From the track we also heard a Nightingale singing.
When we reached the coast we managed to spot our first ever Thekla Larks as well as four Audouin's Gulls and a large number of Swifts. On the walk back we saw a Hoopoe.
We left Son Real at around two, and the guide dropped us off at S'Albufera for a bit of afternoon birding. Mum and I headed straight to the hide overlooking a scrap that had held lots of waders when we visited on Sunday - and we were not disappointed. In 90 minutes there we saw 2-3 Spotted Redshank, a new bird for us, as well as a Grey Plover, a Greenshank, a Curlew, 2 stunning Curlew Sandpipers, a Little Stint, a Greater Flamingo, a male Garganey and two Snipe very close to the hide.
We then moved on to a couple of hides nearer the reception, where we saw four Wood Sandpipers, an Osprey with an impressively large fish and our first ever Marbled Duck. Walking back we heard a Nightingale and saw a Willow Warbler.
