Menorca is a small island in the Mediteranean Sea. It is one of four Spanish islands which are collectively known as the Balearics

I knew very little about the birdlife of this quiet island and was pleasantly surprised when we got there. One of the first birds seen on the trip from the airport was a buzzard-like raptor. I didn't have much idea of what the bird was on first sighting so made a mental note of it's description with a view to checking my field guide later. After consulting the guide I decided that it must have been a Booted Eagle and this was confirmed when we saw many of them thoroughout the week we were there.

We stayed in an apartment which overlooked the beach and sand dunes at Cala Tirant and, as I dicovered later, this was an excellent place to stay as the dunes were full of interesting birds. I got up early one morning and walked towards the dunes to see what I could find. I passed a field in which a Quail was calling loudly and despite searching long and hard the little bugger eluded me. Very frustrating as I've never seen one.

Almost every bush seemed to be graced with a singing Corn Bunting (a first for me) and Sardinian Warlbers were almost as obvious. I caught a fleeting glimpse of a Hoopoe as it rose from a sand dune and flew off.

I was hoping to see Bee-eaters. The local field guide I had bought said that these birds may colonise these dunes one day but were not there at present. The book was wrong (or out of date). A small group of Starling sized birds flitted around some holes in a dune and it soon become obvious that they were Bee-eaters. I was amazed at their irridescent colours and their filght call which, despite being heard often during the week, did not provide much help in locating them.

There was a small freshwater marsh in the middle of the dunes and as I approached it I saw a quick movement and heard a few splashes as the biggest Terrapins I had ever seen dived into the water off a log on which they had been sunning themselves. Just then, a heron rose noisily from the reeds behind the terrapins. As I watched it fly upstream I identified it as a Purple Heron (another first for me).

I often heard a loud, explosive 'tic, tic' from small birds which flew up from the bushes only to quickly descend again into a nearby shrub. I finally had a good look at one of these birds when one landed on a bush close by. I didn't know what it was until I looked at my field guide later on when I decided it was a Fan-Tailed Wabler. These also turned out to be quite common on the island and we saw many later on during the week.

I walked upstream along the edge of the water hoping to get a better look at the Heron (I didn't) and came to an large, circular open area which was enlosed by dunes on three sides and a stand a pine trees on the other. Four Ravens croaked noisily form the pines and as I entered the 'bowl' two large birds shot up from the ground to my right and flew off. Even though I had never seen them before, they were obviously Stone Curlews - another of the birds that I was hoping to see on this trip. A pair of Little-Ringed Plovers become agitated by my presence so I moved off because they obviously had a nest nearby.

As I walked back to the apartment, passed the field where the Quail was calling, for no apparent reason I peered into a small tree by the side of the path. I could just make out a well camouflaged Scops Owl roosting with it's body pressed tightly against the tree trunk. I hadn't seen one before and it was much smaller than I expected.

Other birdwatching highlights of the trip were watching an Osprey fishing for mullet at Salines d'Addaia, seeing 4 Honey Buzzards flying past the apartment and watching a Marsh Harrier flying along by the side of our car as we drove along a country road to Cap de Cavelleria where we watched Blue Rock Thrush flitting amongst the rocks.