Proper Gander

View of s'Albufera, Mallorca This summer, Siân and I took two holidays to Mediterranean islands: Crete in June/July for two weeks, and Mallorca in September for a week.   Crete Since we were staying in the ‘city’ of Retymno, I didn’t think I'd do much birding, so I took binoculars but not a camera. However, while by our apartment’s pool, species of note included Italian Sparrow , Alpine Swift , Pallid Swift, Red-rumped Swallow , and Sardinian Warbler ; I also heard but did not see Bee-eaters . The area we stayed in was pretty built up and dry, so a couple of local walks did not produce much more than this. We spent the time reading, swimming and eating and drinking. During the second week, we hired a car for three days to visit some beaches on the south of the island. To get south, you had to drive through one of two gorges: Kotsifou or Kourtaliotiko. On our first trip south, we took a small road through Kotsifou gorge and stopped by a small church. Here there were Crag...