Blue Rock Thrush (Monticola solitarius) , this male was on the roof of our apartment early this morning.

For those who follow my blog regularly, I apologise for not posting this last week.  I have been away on a family break to Menorca which, if you don't know, is one of the Spanish Balearic Islands. I am glad to say that even though it wasn't a bird watching or bird photography trip, I did add to my collection of photos with a few first class encounters.  As we are almost in to July now and in to mid-summer, it was incredibly hot during the day and with the intense bright sunshine,  that pretty much put paid to any day time bird photography.  Having said that, I did see some beauties, the highligh being this absolutely amazing Blue Rock Thrush, a Mediterannean speciality. It was perched on the roof of our appartment at 7.30 this morning, I had already packed up my camera and I quickly put it all together and grabbed some quick photos.  This species is not an actual Thrush in the true sense of the word but the similarity is plain to see.  It wasn't the first one that I saw and I watched and photographed one high up in the hills in the centre of the island, singing from the grill covering an old fortress.

As the sun was starting to set this bird was singing away

Spotted Flycatcher are really common on Menorca and I saw them almost constantly. Having said that, they are not always willing to stick around if they are disturbed too much but using the car as a hide enabled me to get really close to this bird which was obviously feeding youngsters in a nest nearby.

More to come about the trip over the next few days and particularly about this next "special species"…… it's a Woodchat Shrike and the first one I have ever photographed.