Whilst in Mallorca I was always on the lookout for an exotic looking bird called a hoopoe. It is nothing like any bird we get in the UK. I’d seen one in France years ago but never photographed one. I’d read that they could be found almost anywhere in Mallorca. Whilst hunting them I got to see lots of other interesting birds and wildlife. One creature that was everywhere to be seen was the mountain goat. This one was foraging up a tree.
A lot of times we saw goats by the sides of roads, quite a hazard for the hundreds of cyclists and motorists.
We also saw some wild white horses at one of the huge nature reserves, S’Alberfura.
It was lovely to see butterflies, often too fluttery and fast for me to catch on camera. Here are a couple that we get in Britain, though not until warmer weather.
But I always had an eye on the birds, hoping for a hoopoe. This one turned out to be a sub species of the yellow wagtail (I think!)
Then several times I came across this very tuneful Sardinian warbler.
On the second last day of our holiday we went a walk up past an big old teracotta coloured sandstone “casa”.
On the tiled roof of the wee building in the bottom right of the picture I caught sight of a very bluish bird which I later learned was a blue rock thrush.
I think it may have had a nest in the roof, as it looked like it was on guard. Whilst trying to get a photograph of it what should appear on the same roof but …a hoopoe! Woo hoo, a hoopoe!! The blue rock thrush tried to chase it away, but thankfully I managed a photograph before it flew off. And here it is! I couldn’t ask for more from my wildlife watch in Mallorca.
We’re in France in the summer so the next ambition is to photograph a hoopoe with its crest up, looking even more exotic yet.
Sarah's Wildlife Watch 