Non-Stop Birding: Mallorca, Days 6 and 7

Sunday, 5 May 2019

Mallorca, Days 6 and 7

Spent the last couple of days locally to our hotel at Punta de n'Mer (ebird list here and week local patch list HERE ) looking for migrants and checking out the Maquis/Garrigue vegetation. Surprisingly very few butterflies, although there was an influx of Painted Ladies after rain and only a few micromoths that I failed to get any decent views. Also failed to catch any moths in the trap from the hotel (except a single Rush Veneer).

Been using I-Naturalist for pin-point records for the local area. For overall Mallorca see HERE and for the headland I was looking at see HERE. The site specific nature of this recording system and the global coverage is pretty impressive- although I did notice some identifications were conflicting so not sure on the precise accuracy of all the records. However a really good place to start for natural history identification, presumably with anywhere in the world and like all these recording systems, the more people get involved and input data and check identifications the more powerful these global systems will become. For new generations getting into natural history they won't even know what a field guide is and as for a notebook- its all going to be apps. The precision of the map tool and flexibility of the search area in addition to the public explore features does make this system really impressive. As far as I could see the main limitation is that you have to input each record at a time with a photograph rather than as a list of records like Ebird or Irecord.

Anyway on with a few pics from the last couple of days.

Male Sardinian Warbler- the characteristic bird of the headland with a very high concentration of territories

Female Cirl Bunting

Female Pied Flycatcher (above and below)- there is currently a major influx of Collared Flycatcher occurring in parts of Europe and with both Atlas Flycatcher and Iberian Pied Flycatcher occurring in the 'region' any ficedula is worth a bit of scrutiny. The primary patch base is one of the key features to consider and on this bird does seem to go from p5/6 so seems pretty consistent with Pied Flycatcher.

Female 'Continental' Stonechat- the local Stonechats were very contrasting with females also being quite striking birds with dark hooded appearance and very contrasting white scapular patch.