Paguera in the south-western tip of Mallorca used to be a bird-lover’s paradise but the immediate coastal region is now nothing but a concrete, hotel-studded Blackpool without its Tower. Once out of this ferro-concrete jungle, however, you come into unspoilt country with the most magnificent views northwards towards the still virgin villages of Es Capdella and Calvia and the high sierras beyond.
It was a lovely morning, warm with a deep blue sky in which shreds of white cloud were scattered like pulled-out lamb’s wool. A small puff-ball of cumulus capped the distant peak of Mount Galatzo. I took the track which goes due north from the town of Paguera past the brand-new and very smelly sewage works to the farm of Son Pietos which is perched like some Moorish fortress on the top of a conifer studded hillock.
Once within the Corsican fir grove by Son Pietos, things began to happen. A hen whinchat came and perched on a white rock beside the road. A firecrest flickered among the pine trees. Two crossbills started to crack cones above my head and then a magnificent booted eagle soared up out of the valley of almond and olive trees to climb high in the sky above the tower of Son Pietos. I watched the bird through my binoculars for fully five minutes while he glided and circled in the midday thermals. After having watched and studied the booted now for nearly a quarter of a century in the various Balearic Islands, I have come to the conclusion that like his distant relative the golden eagle of the Scottish Highlands, this bird is primarily a carrioneer rather than a predator – but the bird books still insist that the booted’s main prey are small birds and other animals.
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