9th September 2012

We arrived in Mallorca after dark and didn't get to our hotel in Alcudia until nearly midnight so my first Mallorcan birds didn't appear until the following morning. Everywhere I go in Europe my first bird, seen or heard, always seems to be Collared Dove so it was a pleasure to pull back the curtains and see a Spotted Flycatcher perched in a tree just beyond our balcony. A walk along the road outside the hotel produced Sardinian Warbler, Cetti's Warblers calling loudly from the S'albufera reserve on the other side of the road and, yes, some Collared Doves. We walked onto the beach and headed back in the direction of the hotel avoiding various German joggers and Nordic walkers in the midst of which sat 3 Audouin's Gulls, quite unfazed by all the activity.

The nature reserve at S'albufera, just a kilometre down the road had been one of the main reasons for picking the hotel and after a day with the family I hired a bike and cycled off to the reserve. A flooded field just before the information centre yielded the first of my target species - Purple Gallinule (Purple Swamp-Hen, if you must). Three of these gorgeous birds were wandering around in full, if rather distant view. The information centre was closed so the next stop was Sa Roca where another of my target species gave themselves up without a fight - at least two Marbled Ducks at the back of the pools with a mixture of eclipse Shoveller and Mallard. Sadly they were too distant to photograph with my DSLR and as I'd decided to leave my scope at home (bike + scope, tripod, camera, zoom lens and bins = disaster) I never got a good view of Marbled Duck.
Before heading home I decided to try for a third target species, Red-knobbed Coot, by walking to the bridge over the main channel. Expecting some difficulty separating this species from common Coot I spent several minutes going through the birds on the river with no luck then, from under the bridge 2 of the birds appeared. One, unfortunately, with a white plastic marker around it's neck, the other far more photogenic.