Ola! Well
I’ve been saying it constantly for 14 days so of it’s difficult to get out of
the habit!
Additions to my list? Gracias,
Por Favour and Polio Menta. (that’s my Spanish list of course)
Yep it was a good holiday.
Downsides? The 2-year-old who spent the entire outward
bound 2 hour flight crying “I want to get off”… a sentiment we all agreed.
Sitting in a coach for 45 minutes (without any announcements) waiting for 2
passengers joining the coach from a delayed flight, and an unplanned
diversionary visit to Pollensa (never been there before – maybe a plus point!)
en route to Porte Pollensa to drop off just 2 out of 50 passengers, before a
further 30 minute drive to our hotel (ultimately).
A total of 2 hours from
exiting Palma airport to walk into the Picafort Park (PP for short), a journey
that should have been 60 minutes. Lesson?
Next time, it’s a taxi!
This was our 4th visit to the PP so it
was nice to meet some guests we had met before. Changed our room thanks to
Leslie, the room coordinator, the member of staff with the worst job… she will
never satisfy everyone! Jose the GM welcomed us back (2 kisses for Mary), as did
Pedro (Maître Die) and Benito (very important pool/bar waiter!). We won a
Thompson T shirt for winning a quiz and more friends arrived as the 14 days
progressed. Won the quiz again, so Dave had the prize this time, a Thomson Bag
For Life… Wow!
Chrissy
led a morning walk to the Albufera nature work on the first Monday, and I
joined her with 9 others. When I was seen as the only person with Binoculars, I
was nominated to lead the walk! Chris did the natural history bit and I did the
birds.
20 species were quite good considering it was a short and limited walk,
but with a previous walk on my own, enabled me to tick off 39 species for the
holiday. 15 new species took my 2017 world list to 196!! Hi-lites included
Glossy Ibis, Eleanora’s Falcon, Purple Heron, Stone Curlew, Great Reed Warbler,
and a lovely view of a powerful singing Nightingale. Oh, and some turtles!
As it was
possible that Chrissy would not be able to do the second week, I offered to do
the walk, and 7 of us did the route again, with some variations in what we saw.
Whilst explaining the difference between Little Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Night
Herons and Great White Egrets, a tourist at the back called “Can you translate
that into Norwegian?”
Even in
the hotel grounds, there was avian enjoyment unwitnessed by many other guests.
House Sparrows feeding young, a pair of Blackbirds constantly flying in and out
of a Bougainvillea bush with worms, the odd Hoopoe flying through the grounds,
and Mediterranean Flycatchers* avidly doing their diagnostic routine of
catching food, then flying back to the same perch. I’ll forget the Woodpigeons
that c**p on the sunbeds!”
*This
Flycatcher is considered a separate sub-species from our Spotted Flycatcher,
and whilst very similar in appearance, they are far less shy, only found in The
Balearics, and wintering in South Africa.
Got on my
hobbyhorse about pronouncing Hoopoe. I have heard Hoopoo and Hoopea, but I was
able to hopefully clarify Hoo as in
Hoop, and Poe as in Edgar Alan Poe!
So a good
holiday, with the plan to go again in September, with ”Spanish bird guide”
added to my birding CV, along with “Norwegian interpretation services!”
The news
about the suicide bomber in Manchester reached us very quickly, and all the
guests around the pool stood with many other people around the world, for the
one minute silence at 11 o’clock on Thursday, followed by a very stirring round
of applause.
Whilst I
was away, I sadly missed the opening of the new hide on Stones Island at
Carsington which was paid for by the bequest from Janet Ede, volunteer funds,
and generous contributions from friends and birders who have and do come on my
bird walks. Many grateful thanks.
The
pictures below were taken during the official opening by Liv Garfield, the CEO
of Severn Trent, attended by members of Janet’s family. You will no doubt notice the similarity between the hide name board, and the 200 club awards in January!
So normal
service resumes, I have my Markeaton Park Bird walk on Sunday 18th
June at 10.30, and I can resume my quest for the magic 200.
Happy
Birding
It sounds like plenty of the rioja as well as the ola!
ReplyDeleteTip for dealing with noisy children in-flight - have them transferred to the baggage hold.
I hope you got two kisses from the GM as well, we can't have discrimination!
I agree about pronouncing Hoopoe. 'Hoo' as in owl and 'poe' as in convenience? Sorry!
A lovely, mouth-watering selection of birds. Markeaton Park will struggle a bit in comparison.