We woke again to a clear and sunny morning with a beautiful sunrise turning the clouds pink. The temperature started at a very pleasant 20C but soon climbed to a hot 27C. Our destination today was to the north side of the island to the birding hotspot of the S'Albufera des Grau Natural Park followed by a visit to the old salt pans at Les Salines d' Addaia. On this journey, as on all this week, we were treated to regular sightings of egyptian vulture, red kite, booted eagle and, particularly, red kites.
As Menorca is only a small island we were soon parked up in the car park on the outskirts of the coastal village of Es Grau. We set off from the car through woods of wild olive, privet and the mastic tree with its black and red berries. Interspersed among these were stands of holm oak. Our first birding sighting was a booted eagle soaring high above us and our second a stonechat; a good start. Our route took us through the marsh along a board walk and then up to a viewing point overlooking the reserve. Here we saw cormorant, coot, mallard, little and great crested grebes as well as shoveler. We were delighted to watch a distant osprey as it dived for a fish but then flew out of sight. Calling cetti's warblers were a constant companion as we wandered through the reserve on a path leading to the beach. Along here we found a Herman's Tortoise trundling across the path. This one was about tea plate size but other, younger ones, were tiny.
On reaching the beach there were superb views across the bay to the village of Es Grau, gleaming white against the turquoise sea. Peter opted to carry on along the path for more coastal views and also more tortoises. Those weaker-willed mombers of the party succumbed to the prospect of cafe con leche and croissant. Beaches here are backed by dunes stabilised by tough grasses, such as marram, which are rich in plants that are sand dune specialists. There was plentiful sea holly and yellow horned poppy, past flowering sadly, and sea daffodils sporting large seed pods. While enjoying the fleshpots of the cafe we were entertained by another first for me, an audouin's gull.
Suitably refreshed, the party reconvened at the car and drove around to the reserve visitor centre where we had our lunch and visited a nearby hide overlooking one of the lagoons. Here were large numbers of mallard and coot along with the occasional shoveler, little grebe and black-necked grebe. We were delighted by the large numbers of butterflies, especially the plentiful cleopatra's, a species I had not seen before. There were also clouded yellows, speckled woods and good numbers of wall browns as well as occasional brimstones. We saw good numbers of lizards too; the brightly coloured and handsome italian wall lizard.
Our next port of call was the Salines d'Addaia, salt marshes which are noted for their population of waders and wildfowl. We were delighted to find a juvenile purple heron and a good numbers of flamingoes were also present as well as common sandpiper, black-winged stilt and a yellow-legged gull. We managed to spot another fishing osprey and saw it catch a fish and fly off into the trees to consume it. We were fascinated by the large numbers of huge wasp spiders sitting in the centre of their orb webs, some with captured prey. We also saw more butterflies and italian wall lizards.
Yet another superb day. Time to head back to the hotel for some serious rehydration and yet another excellent dinner.
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