Majorca

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Majorca

Postby Kevin Byrnes » Mon Apr 16, 2012 12:14 am

My wife and I were asked by a friend to come to Scotland in May to celebrate his birthday but as my wife works in a school she could not get the time off in term time so our friends decided to come to Majorca with us in April.My wife and I visited Majorca with Matt Wilson for a herping trip in 2010 which was quite successful and we only missed four species:Spur thighed tortoise,Balearic smooth snake,Green toad and European pond terrapin. The trip this year was mainly just a holiday with some herping as a bonus.
Our first stop as before was Palma cathederal to see the Ibizan wall lizards, this proved easy as there were several of them sunning themselves in the garden.
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We then drove on to Santa ponsa to sort out our hotels and get an evening meal before planning the next day

In the morning we drove up through the mountains of the sierra de Tramuntana and stopped at a dam, in a nearby stream we soon found some Iberian water frogs but no Viperine snakes.

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Walking back to the car I flipped a stone and found the first of many Moorish geckos
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In the evening we had a surprise visit from 2 other friends who had got drunk one night and thought it a good idea to surprise us on holiday. This decision certainly increased the amount of alcohol drunk on holiday and decreased the amount of herping.The next day we planned to visit the island of Dragonera, a late night and hangover made a late start to the day and shortened our visit.

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After an evening meal we returned to our friends apartmentand as we left in the early hours of the morning I could hear the call of a Green Toad from the grounds of a disused apartment block.
The next day we decided to take the train from Palma to Soller, a sightseeing ,non herping day.It was a beautiful journey through the mountains and very relaxing. When we returned to Santa ponsa I decided to try and pinpoint the location of the toads, I had seen many Green toads in Crete but wanted to cross them off my Majorca list.As I got to the bottom of the long flight of steps leading up the hill I looked down to find a Green toad sitting against the wall of a hotel.

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I then tried unsuccessfully to find an access point for the calling toads but failed so returned to the hotel finding a Moorish gecko on the wall.

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Wednesday we decided to visit a local beach which was in an area known for both the Spur thighed tortoise and the Balearic smooth snake. We left our friends on the sand and spent a couple of hours turning stones and wandering through pine scrub finding just Moorish geckos and scorpions, just like 2010.

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We also saw lots of orchids so I thought I would take a few pics for Paul Lambourne.
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In the evening I staged a daring raid on the apartment block,scaling a few fences etc and tracked the toads down to a rather green swimming pool, here I found 8 Green toads with 2 in amplexus. As I returned to our hotel I saw a Turkish gecko on a wall but was unable to photograph it.
On Thursday we walked through the mountains via the Mortix area, we were hoping to find some Mallorcan midwife toads but only found more Iberian water frogs and a few vultures.Our next stop was to be the Albufera wetlands but the weather turned bad with torrential rain and lightning.
Following a mention in another trip report I had a look online and found an area that looked as though it may hold midwife toads so Friday was spent walking up a small torrent looking for a pool. Thing were going well until we got to a large gate and a sign saying private property, do not enter.We then noticed a well established path going through the fence and so followed the path. As we neared our destination we could hear frogs calling loudly and upon investigation we found a large water cistern with many Iberian water frogs inside, there was also some spawn amongst the weeds.

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We sat here for a while just enjoying the frogs calling before moving up the valley to our destination, I hoped that it would be a series of pools but despite climbing some of the rocks behind it we could get no further. once again this gave us just some of the usual frogs.
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We left here to catch up with our friends in town and took some photos of the Monk parakeets .
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That was the end of our holiday, only a few species seen but overall a good time away with friends.
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Re: Majorca

Postby Paul Lambourne » Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:59 am

Kevin

Great pictures, the orchids are stunning, I believe (Peter, stand by to correct me) you have Ophrys Fusca, the Brown Bee orchid and Ophrys Bertolonii, Bertoloni's Bee orchid.
Nice to get a way for a bit... cant wait to start my foreign jaunts. I am just packing for Hungary :D

Cheers Paul
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Re: Majorca

Postby Sandra Panienka » Tue Apr 17, 2012 2:51 pm

Very cool trip report. I love the wall lizards. I've been to Majorca when I was 12 years old, but I never saw any herps back then, but it also was a typical family beach trip. *g*
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Re: Majorca

Postby Peter Oefinger » Tue Apr 17, 2012 5:07 pm

Paul Lambourne wrote:Kevin

Great pictures, the orchids are stunning, I believe (Peter, stand by to correct me) you have Ophrys Fusca, the Brown Bee orchid and Ophrys Bertolonii, Bertoloni's Bee orchid.
Cheers Paul

I agree with fusca (or some of the 100 similar species described in Delforge's book). The other one is Ophrys tenthredinifera (wasp orchid).

Nice lizards, btw.
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Re: Majorca

Postby Daryn Cairns » Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:06 pm

Hi Kevin,
I joined this forum after coming across your post on Majorca as I was looking for info on tortoises in Majorca my favourite animals, and of course Majorca my favourite place for holidays.
Been trying to find wild tortes in the Calvia area for a long time now and never been successful yet but maybe one day.

Great photos and a nice read. :D
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Re: Majorca

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:01 am

Daryn Cairns wrote:Been trying to find wild tortes in the Calvia area for a long time now and never been successful yet but maybe one day.

I know people who seen graeca's there, but it's not easy. In contrast, hermanni is rather abundant locally.
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Re: Majorca

Postby Daryn Cairns » Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:31 am

Thanks for the reply Jeroen, Im always in the South West of the Island but have travelled up North a few times once using Alcudia as a base but again no joy. I have saw lots of lizards etc especially around the cathedral in Palma.

Im fIm no expert on any of this and came across this site by accident but finding it amazing, a great read with lots of photos. Should find many tips to help me out.
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Re: Majorca

Postby Norbert_Amthor » Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:39 am

Vielen Dank für Ihre Erfahrungen. Nice pics. die Orchideen sieht sehr schön aus. Mallorca ist ein großartiger Ort, Kann Estades einer der schönsten und romantischen Landschaft Hotels in Mallorca.
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