Looking back – 50 years ago
AS is my regular habit, I’ll reminisce this chilly January about my (birding) life 50 years ago.
‘Exiled’ to Kent, my late winter/early spring notes contain little of note, except a flock of five snow buntings and a completely albino starling near Seasalter, then the highlight of a rough-legged buzzard over Reculver in early April.
I also noted that a Savi’s warbler sang at Stodmarsh early in that month – a bird now extremely scarce.
So it was that on April 27, 1974, my then wife and I set off for Mallorca, flying, unusually, from Heathrow.
Rain was falling as we left Palma airport, heading for Cala Millor, but soon it was apparent that a huge movement of swifts and swallows was taking place, with tired birds resting everywhere.
When we arrived at our hotel a short walk was all it needed to see that small birds were everywhere.
Approachable short-toed larks fed almost at our feet, zitting cisticolas (then known as fan-tailed warblers) ‘zitted’ away over all the nearby cereal fields, and bushes contained pied flycatchers, common redstarts and woodchat shrikes.
The following morning, we collected a hire car – in those days, the inevitable SEAT 600 – and drove up, past Arta, where ravens called and we spotted a cirl bunting, then we dropped down to the Albufera, where about 100 black terns fed and a lazy purple heron flew over, before no less than three ospreys put in an appearance, as well as a female marsh harrier and a small group of whiskered terns.
Near Puerto de Pollensa, a lovely male rock thrush sang from a cable, then we headed out along the Formentor peninsular, where abounded.
Amongst them, we saw golden oriole, tree pipit, pied flycatcher, turtle dove; northern wheatear, common redstart and many phylloscopus warblers too numerous and rapid to identify.
Out at sea many Balearic shearwaters skimmed the waves.
As we returned towards the western side of the island, we had to pass along the coastal pines bordering the Albufera – crossbills were singing there.
To be continued migrants