NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

This afternoon I excused myself from the beach and headed off on a sweep of the minor roads west of  S'Albufereta. This takes you through an open area of small, weedy fields with a variety of orchards. The bird life, as befits the middle of a hot afternoon in July was largely quiet, although an adult Booted Eagle and a startled Red-legged Partridge did decide to break the quiet. Today was much better for butterflies, with a sudden emergence of Cleopatra, a Two-tailed Pasha (that most exotic and large of European butterflies), a 400m strip of blackberries that had good numbers of Long-tailed Blue, a single Lang's Short-tailed Blue (good images obtained), Southern Brown Argus, Southern Gatekeeper and Wall. A single Hummingbird Hawk-moth buzzed me. I ended up at the southern end of the marsh and found a new footpath that took me through a pine plantation (2 Hoopoe, a Woodchat and a family party of Crossbill), onto a mound that looked out over the wetlands and the 'estuary...

S'Albufereta Marsh is unfairly thought of as the poor relation to Albufera Marsh, but I prefer the smaller wetland, which is found between Port de Pollenca and Alcudia. Admittedly, the latter site has a larger list of birds, but lacks the intimacy and quietness of the former. I hadn't visited S'Albufereta for over 12 years, and had never really got to grips with its full potential. Until today. There seems to have been a fair bit of work done to make the habitat more accessible to birders, with clearer signposting, obvious paths, screen hides and one magnificent double height viewing platform. The habitat stretches all the way between the two towns, with the wetter areas being mainly towards the southern end. I will be returning for a further look, as the birding was excellent. Steve Thomas joined me late morning. The day list included: 4 Purple Heron, 3 Night Heron, 8 Cattle Egret, 25 Little Egret, 2 Osprey, 1 Marsh Harrier, 25 Black-winged Stilt, 4 Kentish Plover, 10 ...